"In the big picture, this is just a hockey game."

Forest Hill Northern/Eastern Coach Kevin Zaschak was all hugs after his team won its Division 2 quarterfinal game tonight, beating Portage Central 4-1. After the game was over, he stood outside the locker room high-fiving and hugging his buddies. Then his daughter, who must be about five, ran up to him. He scooped her up and hugged her, then wandered over and hugged his wife, too.

The hugs weren't all about hockey, one has to believe. It's been a rough couple of days for teachers and students of Forest Hills Northern and Forest Hills Eastern, the two schools which make up the unified team Zaschak coaches. On Saturday, Forest Hills Eastern senior Rebecca Vogelsang was involved in a car crash that has left her lying in a coma at Spectrum hospital. Then on Monday, FHN senior Sara Smajic collapsed during theater rehearsals and passed away two hours later with a blood clot in her lung.

The Forest Hills players wore green ribbons on their helmets in tribute to Smajic tonight, and Zaschak, who teaches at Northern, talked about her in his pregame speech to his players. "I reminded them life is short and told them to go out and have fun tonight, and don't worry about making mistakes," he told me. "In the big picture, this is just a hockey game."

From what I saw on the ice, the FHNE players listened. From the moment they stepped out of the locker room they were whooping and hollering, and they played with passion and emotion from the drop of the puck. There were smiles around after they went up 1-0 on a bad angle shot by senior Andrew Rennaker that somehow got up over PC goalie Brogan Vandevelde's shoulder. The fun continued in the second period when senior Jeff Johnston drove right down the middle through traffic and picked a corner to put FHNE up 2-0. A couple minutes later, on a whistle, junior Luke Swardenski was laughing and kidding with a PC player, pretending that his stick was tangled up in the Mustang player's jersey. On the ensuing faceoff, Swardenski got the puck, went down the right wing and ripped a slapshot that found the twine. To celebrate, the FHNE players did what hockey players often do after goals -- a group hug along the boards.

Portage Central got one back late in the second, when Chris Sandmeyer beat FHNE goalie Sean Winks with a seeing-eye slapshot off a face-off with 3.2 seconds left in the period. Usually, those goals at the end of a period are killers for the team that gives them up. True to form, FHNE came out on its heels in the first minute of the third period, as PC took it to them. The momentum didn't last for long, as FHNE regained its legs and got aggressive on the forecheck. Rennaker put the game out of reach with a PP goal at the 6:12 mark, and from there FHNE just ragged the puck for the remainder of the game. Final shots were 22-16 in favor of Forest Hills. Winks got the win in net.

After the game, Zaschak, who shaved his head for the game, couldn't contain how proud he was of his team, which had been plagued earlier in the season by penalties. Tonight, they made only two trips to the box, and played disciplined hockey. "In the locker room before the game, we could hear the Portage Central coaches through the walls, and they were telling their players that we were an undisciplined team," he said. "We used that as a bit of motivation."

As if his team needed any extra motivation after a week like this. Boosting his daughter up on his shoulders, Zaschak looked around the Georgetown rink and took in the moment. He let out a big breath and then looked back at me and said, "This is so surreal."