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HARTLAND, MICHIGAN
With five goals in the first five games including the game winner in tonight’s 4-3 victory over Byron Center, Hartland’s Max Bogotaitis has definitely made his presence felt after making the switch from AAA to high school hockey this season.
In talking about making that transition to high school hockey and its potential difficulties, Bogotaitis had this to say, “I have a lot of great teammates around me so it makes it a lot easier, we are connecting, we are still gelling a bit but it hasn’t been that hard with the great teammates I have around me.”
As for the crowds at the high school level? “It is a lot bigger and it is a lot more fun going to
The opening frame saw Hartland control the play for the majority of the period but not be able to put any goals on the board due to the defensive efforts of Byron Center.
“We know how big and burly this Hartland team is, how disciplined they are”, Byron Center coach Jordon Steger explained. “We knew we were going to have to be extremely oriented in our shot blocking and just suffocating any time we can and the boys stuck to that 100% as you can see.”
As the first period was winding down, Hartland took two penalties giving the Bulldogs a five on three advantage leading to the first goal of the night as Reid Glupker found the back of the net with seventeen seconds left in the period for the first of two power play goals on the night and sending Byron Center to the locker room up 1-0 after one.
“The puck movement on the power play was fantastic, the boys were finding the options that the Hartland team gave us and that is exactly why we found the back of the net twice on the power play.”
“When we take penalties that are selfish, we are not about that.” Hartland coach John Brown commented in reference to the two Byron Center power play goals. “Those players were just talked to about it, there was discipline during the game because of it. You can’t give good teams power plays and especially when they are penalties that you are putting yourself above the team that is never acceptable, and our team always comes first and out guys will be reminded of that on a daily basis.”
The second and third periods were a see saw affair with Hartland taking a lead on goals by Brayden Stephans with 13:49 left in the second and Drake Callanan with 11:44 left in the second. Byron Center answered back with 2:20 left in the second when Aiden Natividad picked up the second Bulldogs’ power play goal to tie the game 2-2 headed into the final frame.
The Eagles reclaimed the lead with 13:29 left in the contest on a goal by Bryce Fletemier only to have Byron Center knot it back up at 3-3 with 9:56 to go on the only Bulldog even strength goal of the night by Evan Goodell.
It was beginning to look as though overtime was in the cards before Bogotaitis put the Eagles up for good with 6:14 left in the game ensuring the 4-3 victory.
Picking up his second win for Hartland in net this season was Danny Mostek who turned away seven of the ten shots he faced while Quinn Sall took the loss for Byron Center stopping thirty-seven of forty-one shots on the night.
Afterwards, Brown talked about his team’s resiliency, “It’s part of the game. During the season there is going to be adversity, all throughout the season, they showed that fight today to keep coming back and fight through it”.
“Yeah, Wednesday (the victory over Detroit Catholic Central) was great but part of the adversity through a season is responding to games like this after you do win a big game. So, happy our guys did get a win out of it, but it is a great teaching and learning moment for us as coaches to remind our players.”
Hartland improves its record to 5-0 with quality wins over Flint Powers, Detroit Catholic Central, and now Byron Center while the Bulldogs drop to 1-2 on the young season.