HOCKEY: Cranbrook skates into state semifinals with convincing win over Liggett

FARMINGTON HILLS – Throughout the playoffs, the Bloomfield Hills Cranbrook Kingswood hockey team has run like a well-oiled machine.

And on Wednesday night, aside from a relatively evenly played first period, defending Division 3 state champion Grosse Pointe Woods University of Liggett could slow down the Cranes.

After Liggett tied the game at 1-1 in the first period, Cranbrook scored each of the next four goals, as the Cranes skated to a convincing 7-2 quarterfinal win, behind a hat trick from senior forward Alex Alger.

Cranbrook head coach Andy Weidenbach said that Liggett came out strong to start the first period, and noted that his team was able to take advantage of what Liggett gave it throughout the final two periods.

“I liked the way we played, I thought that Liggett came out really strong in the first period, they had a great first period, which is what we expected,” he said. “I don’t think the score is really indicative of how good of a hockey game this was, I thought it was a really good game. We were very opportunistic when we had to be and I thought it was a pretty good game overall.”

Cranbrook now advances to the Division 3 state semifinals, where it will face Riverview, which defeated Chelsea on Wednesday night, 5-3.

After the majority of the first period was played with a 1-1 tie as each team tallied a goal in the first three minutes of the game, Alger took a pass shortly after the Cranes had killed off a penalty, and sent a shot into the back of the net to take a 2-1 advantage into the first intermission.

Alger noted that he felt that his goal in the final minute of the first period ended up being the turning point for the Cranes on Wednesday night.

“I think that was the turning point in the game,” he said. “That’s when we started stepping up and felt that we had this game, all we had to do was keep it up. We had the lead with enough time left, we just had to finish them off.”

Entering the second period with a 2-1 lead, Cranbrook wasted no time increasing its lead as Alger took a shot from along the boards on a tough angle and somehow found the back of the net to give the Cranes a 3-1 lead just 91 seconds into the period.

Cranbrook then pushed its lead to 4-1 when junior Christopher Brown controlled the puck right out in front of the Liggett net and snuck it past the goaltender with 4:52 left in the second period to give the Cranes a three goal advantage heading into the third period.

Weidenbach noted that the difference for his team in the second period was that he felt his team came out with much more energy to start the second period, while Liggett was forced to spend much of its energy killing off an early five minute penalty.

“I thought that we came out with a little more energy in the second period,” he said. “They (Liggett) had a five minute major penalty and they had to kill that off, so that depleted some of their energy, but I thought Liggett played a good game.”

Alger then notched the hat trick in the first two minutes of the third period as he picked up the puck and drove towards the net, and sent a shot into the top right corner of the net to give the Cranes a 5-1 lead.

“I just felt good tonight,” Alger said of his performance on Wednesday. “Austin, my brother, and I just fed off of each other and Billy was right there with us and we just added to it.”

About three minutes later Liggett trimmed the Cranbrook lead down to 5-2 on a goal from James Counsman, but Cranbrook then put the game away late with goals coming from Austin Alger and Michael Romund.

In the first period, after Cranbrook opened the scoring less than two minutes into the game on a goal from sophomore Jack Blumberg, Liggett answered right back 59 seconds later as Counsman scored his first goal of the night to tie it at 1-1.

Liggett head coach Robb McIntyre noted that he felt his team, which out-shot Cranbrook 14-10 in the opening period, did a good job of outplaying Cranbrook in the first 17 minutes of the game on Wednesday night.

“They were No. 1 in the state this year, and we know every year they (Cranbrook) are going to be strong,” said McIntyre. “I thought we outplayed them pretty well in the first and I thought that was indicative of how we could play.”