Portage Northern 3 Big Rapids 2

Two West Michigan teams -- Big Rapids and Portage Northern -- hit the road this weekend to attend the SMCC Hockey Tournament in Monroe and ended up facing off against each other in the consolation tourney game. Big Rapids fell to #9 Riverview and Portage Northern was defeated to #2 SMCC the night before. It wasn't hockey night in West Michigan, but it sure felt like it, as two of the WMHSH Blog's most faithful correspondents met, exchanged a couple of hockey stories and praised the writings in the West Michigan High School Hockey Blog and the "Blog Master" himself. Oh yeah, back to the game: Big Rapids Vs Portage Northern.

It was a battle to the end with the Huskies coming out on top 3-2. Portage Northern got the first goal, a 5-on-5 lamp lighter at the 5:14 mark from Nicco Braganini, who was on the receiving end of a pretty pass from Josh Ruggles. Both teams took one penalty during the period and at the intermission it was PN 1 – BR 0.

In the second period, the Cardinals came out hard and were looking for a much needed break or a puck that might bounce the right way, but it was Portage that got the break as Kevin Campbell scored a power play goal at the 11:36 mark with the assist going to Husky Matt Duris. While momentum was clearly in favor of Portage Northern, Big Rapids answered at the 10:24 mark on a Billy McMullen goal from the blue line, assists going to Cardinal's Jordan Defever and Michael Hickson. Both teams had 2 or 3 excellent scoring opportunities during the period, one of which was a husky one on none, but Big Rapid goal tender Eric Saum denied the effort to delight the Cardinals fans and after 2 periods of play it was PN 2 – BR 1.

The third period was all about effort and at the 7:35 mark, sophomore Michael Hickson got a power play goal with assists going to Matt Farnsworth and Bill Clark. It was now 2 to 2 and in the pre-game, the blogger guys had predicted an OT game. During the next several minutes both teams tried to manage puck flow , but it was Portage Northern's Braganini whom broke the tie at the 1:44 mark, assist going to Kevin Campbell and Nick Kruse. The game, now 3 to 2 still looked as though it may go into OT (at least one blogger guy was hopeful) and Big Rapids knew they were still in the game as they fought hard for the entire last minute, but it was Huskies goaltender Barry Toornman whom got the win. "Toornman had another great night in net," said a fan as this blogger left the rink, which I had to agree with.