Chelsea, MI.: The Chelsea ice hockey team kicked off the 2017 season playing host to Forest Hills Northern Eastern. Before the puck dropped a moment of silence was held in honor of Chelsea hockey legend Drew Brown who recently passed away after a long battle with a rare bone cancer. Brown is the all-time leading scorer for the Bulldogs and holds most of the offensive records for Chelsea. He holds the top scoring spot with 100 career goals and is second with 78 career assists. He scored a team record 57 goals in 2008/09 and was named the Ann Arbor Player of the Year and was All-State. He was loved by all and was a big part of the hockey program.
When the puck was dropped Chelsea took control and it didn’t take them long to get on the board as senior Brennen Wright took a pass from senior Thomas Steele and flew the down the left wing side and zipped a shot behind the helpless FHNE netminder on the Bulldogs first short of the game.
With 6 and a half minutes gone in the first FHNE took advantage of a power play and scored over Chelsea netminder Aidan Boote’s glove on a deflected shot tying the game up at 1. The game would remain tie throughout the first and second periods as the game got chippy at times including a scrum that broke out in the middle of the second period.
Late in the second period, FHNE’s Kyle Kramer was called for a checking from behind penalty and received a 5-minute penalty including a 10-minute misconduct. But the Bulldogs got caught with too many men on the ice during that power play and it was negated for 2 minutes. When Chelsea did have the advantage they got several great opportunities but were unable to get the puck past FHNE netminder Brenden Bogema,
With almost half of the third period gone FHNE was able to break the tie with a goal from Tyler Kaminski, With a minute left the Bulldogs pulled Boote for the extra attacker but FHNE was able to find the empty net to preserve the victory.
Chelsea will be hosting Lansing Christian next Friday at 6:30 p.m.
