Rockford vs. EGR

A great Saturday night matchup between two young OK Tier One teams that have just 11 seniors between them -- 6 for EGR and 5 for Rockford. Both teams also lost their first league games, making this one crucial in what may be a wide-open conference race.

East Grand Rapids' youth showed in the first period as it gave up a goal and then, on a powerplay, turned the puck over twice to give Rockford great scoring chances. EGR netminder Ian McDonald (a senior) turned back the chances to keep it 1-0 after a period. In the second frame, East got two PP goals -- one each from senior Ecko Morgan and junior Brandon Hughes. Rockford tied the game early in the third and then got the game-winner late on a power play. All three Rockford tallies came off the stick of senior Tyler Hall. All and all, a pretty good game. (Good enough that the GR Press covered it for MLIVE, but didn't see it in the paper. You can find a lengthy, detailed story on the game in the Advance.)

The OK-1 could truly be wide open this year. Having seen five of the six teams, no one stands out. Of course, I haven't seen Mona yet, and more than a few dads and coaches from OK teams have told me they'll be the team to beat this year. Guess they'll have to play the games to see.