GRCC hosts top teams in East-West Invitational

Three of the state's top teams square off in GR this weekend as part of the inaugural East-West Invitational, hosted by Grand Rapids Catholic Central. The four-team tournament features the host Cougars, the Monroe St. Mary Catholic Central Falcons, the Wyandotte-Roosevelt Bears and the Mattawan Wildcats. All games are played at Griff's.

The first game features the two top-ranked teams in D3. GRCC, ranked #1 in the MHSCHA coaches poll, takes on SMCC (ranked #2) at 6 p.m. on Friday evening. Following that game, Mattawan takes on Wyandotte-Roosevelt (ranked #4 in D2) at 8 p.m. The consolation and championship games will take place on Saturday at 5 p.m. and 7 p.m.

GRCC Coach Alan Kranzo is "thrilled" to have such a high caliber of talent for the first year of this invitational, which he hopes will be an annual event played among the four schools. For now, though, he's focused on the present rather than the future: “To be playing against this level competition at this point in the year should help all the teams prepare for the state playoffs. Of course, these games should be very exciting for fans of high school hockey.”

The Cougars (13-1) are coming off a 6-4 win against highly rated Traverse City Central last weekend. GRCC features five players with 20 or more points, as well as two-time all-state goalie Adam Janecyk. Senior forward Paul Ziemke leads the team in scoring with 26 points, despite missing the first 4 games of the season with a broken wrist. Seniors Matt Kane, John Dery, Clayton Brackett and Kevin Boman also have at least 20 points through the first 14 games of the season. The Cougars defensive corps are lead by seniors Lucas McShosh (1 goal, 1 assist, +11) and Mark Koenigsknecht (1 goal, 6 assists, +26).

In the interest of full disclosure, I am helping GRCC host the invitational, which is why I won't be running around to see other games this weekend (though I will be out tonight and tomorrow). So please "help me, help you" by sending in your scores, pictures and highlights. I'll be posting both Friday and Saturday.