East Kentwood 2 Kenowa Hills 2

Ties usually suck. It's the whole "kissing your sister" thing. Tonight's game was the exception to prove the rule. This was a great high school hockey game. Lots of speed, tape-to-tape passing, great goaltending and even a penalty shot in OT. Both coaches have to be pleased with the effort they got from players tonight.

The game itself: East Kentwood got on the board in the first period on a Travis Miller blast, assisted by Jeff Sanders. Kenowa Hills tied it up in the second period on a Joe Hankins goal (assist to Travis Nichol). EK went back on top 1:09 into the third on a fluky goal, when Anthony Pino deposited the puck in the net after it had richoted off the glass behind Kenowa's goalie, Zac Smith. Sanders and Travis Fritsma earned assists. KH tied it 2:58 later on a hard drive to the net by Austin Weih (assists to Vinny Klein and Andy VanderKlok). All four goals were even strength. (So much for the Blog's prediction that this one would be won on special teams.)

The overtime was pretty wide open at times, with lots of end-to-end play. With 1:42 left in the extra session, Kenowa Hills forward Klein got pulled down from behind and was awarded a penalty shot. He deked and tried to go backhand, but a sprawling Ben Belton got the right pad on it to keep the game going. Final shots were 39-32 in favor of East Kentwood. Hats off to Smith and Belton, who both played great. Pictures are below and the GR Press coverage of the game is here.