Chelsea, MI. – Saturday, the Eagles of Ann Arbor Skyline faced off against the Hornets of Saline at the Arctic Coliseum in Chelsea. Both teams came out fast as Skyline took the faceoff up ice right away, but Saline was fast and solid and was able to get the pressure in the Skyline zone.
With just over 4 minutes gone in the first period, it was forward Antonio Giacalone getting the puck past the Eagle goalie on his glove side for the first goal of the game and a 1-0 early lead.
A few minutes later, Saline would be penalized, giving Skyline a power play, but the Saline defense did a great job killing the penalty. Immediately after the kill, Giacalone would score again unassisted, giving Saline a big 2-0 lead. With a little less than 3 minutes to go in the first, Rocco Gottfried would take a Wyatt Church feed and bury the puck behind Skyline’s goalie for a big 3-0 lead. That was Gottfried’s first high school goal and second career point.
With a minute and 2 seconds left in the first period, Skyline had a 5 on 3 advantage for 47 seconds due to a few more Saline penalties. Saline killed off the 5 on 3, then committed another penalty, which gave Skyline another 5 on 3 advantage for 56 seconds at the start of the second period.
Skyline came out tough at the beginning of the second period, but Saline killed off the advantage, and then Skyline hit the penalty box for the first time in the game with a roughing penalty. Skyline was able to kill off the penalty, but Saline had the pressure turned up and scored right after, as Landon Phelps scored with an assist by Parker Sitarski, putting Saline up by 4.
With less than 40 seconds left in the second period, it was Giacalone scoring again for the hat trick and getting the 100th point of his illustrious high school hockey career. It would give Saline an overwhelming 5-0 lead going into the final stanza of the game.
With 6 minutes gone in the third, and a lot of hard-hitting back and forth, Jack Boyle would score Saline’s 6th goal on the evening with an assist by Jace Woodrel.
With Skyline deep in the hole, the game started to get a little choppy and dirty, and defenseman Braegan Grigg went down with a knee injury. Skyline tried to turn up the heat on offense, but Saline did a great job shutting them down, and Saline’s goalie, Owen Schayes, came up big in net, stopping everything that came his way, leading the way for his Hornets’ huge 6-0 shutout victory.
Saline was called for 10 penalties in the game, while Skyline was only called for 2. And although Skyline tried to take advantage of the power plays, it was Saline shutting them down the whole game, and at times, even though shorthanded, it looked like they were on the power play.
Skyline picks up its second loss of the year and will next take on Ann Arbor Father Gabriel Richard. Saline picks up their 7th win on the season with only 2 losses and will next travel to East Lansing where they will face off against Dewitt Friday, the 12th at 8:30 P.M.
