The Mighty Mack
March 13, 2012
Mackenzie MacEachern sat between teammates Thomas Ebbing and Chris Wilberding after Saturday’s Division 2 hockey championship game, and said he was just happy to win it with his “buds.”
A decision he made nearly a year ago allowed for that opportunity.
The Bloomfield Hills Brother Rice senior is a rarity in high school hockey. As reported by the Oakland Press a few weeks ago, MacEachern was drafted into the North American Hockey League last spring – but instead of leaving for that next step up the hockey ladder as is usually done, he put it off to play one more year. Instead, he continued to play with his high school friends – and claimed the championship that eluded them the year before.
After falling in the 2011 Division 2 Final, MacEachern and Brother Rice beat Grosse Pointe South 4-1 on Saturday to claim their first MHSAA championship since 2005. He’s committed to join Michigan State’s hockey program sometime in the new two years, and will now play at the junior level for at least a season before making the college jump.
“It was unfinished business, basically. We didn’t win it last year,” MacEachern said. “I wanted to come back and try to win it with my team. And it happened.”
MacEachern gets one of this week’s Second Half High 5s after what was arguably the most impressive season of any player in Michigan this winter.
The 6-foot-3, 180-pound forward finished with 42 goals and 48 assists despite playing in the Michigan Interscholastic Hockey League, which features most of the best teams from the Detroit area including half of the eight semifinalists in Divisions 1 and 2 at Compuware Arena.
His final-week stat sheet was a snapshot of his season as a whole.
MacEachern followed a five-assist performance in the Quarterfinal with four goals and an assist in a 5-0 Semifinal win over Grand Rapids Forest Hills Northern/Eastern. He added one final goal in the 3-1 win over Grosse Pointe South.
“(He) gives us the opportunity to let other guys step up and be that guy,” Brother Rice coach Lou Schmidt, Jr., said. “Mack has scored a lot of points for us. Thomas Ebbing, he’s also one of the guys; he’s a junior. We’ve got Russell Cicerone, Ross Haffey; these guys are going to be seniors next year. They’ve got a lot of points to fill, but I’ve got complete confidence that they’ll fill it.”
MacEachern and the Warriors finished 25-4-1 this season.
“We’ve grown up together. Our chemistry is just unbeatable,” Ebbing said. “I just give him the puck, and I know he’s got the greatest shot. You can tell by his goals. He’s a great player to play with.”
Where Everyone Knows Your Name
July 12, 2019
By Rob Kaminski
MHSAA benchmarks editor
As the final horn sounded March 9 at the end of the MHSAA Division 1 Ice Hockey Final, another successful campaign was in the books.
The tournament attracted more than 40,000 spectators from the time the first pucks dropped Feb. 25, including a three-year high of more than 6,000 across 12 Quarterfinal sites. More than 200 schools and 3,000 participants combined to make up the 145 teams that battled for championships as high school hockey continued to enjoy great popularity in Michigan.
The Great Lakes State ranks third among the number of schools and fourth in participation among the 18 states nationally which sponsor the sport. Some of the sights and sounds from this year’s Finals at USA Hockey Arena in Plymouth indicate the sport is on solid ice.
“The travel team I played for disbanded last year, and I needed a place to play. I should have done this years ago. What a great experience. Did you see our student section? People even know who I am at school now, and that I play a sport.” — Domenico Munaco, Rochester United goalie after stopping 49 of 53 shots in 4-2 Division 1 Semifinal loss
“This is better. Going to school with everybody every day is just a great time.” — Hartland’s Adam Pietila, who won a national championship with his travel team in April 2018 and this past winter helped Hartland win the MHSAA Division 2 title
PHOTO: Rochester United goalie Domenico Munaco anticipates a shot during his team’s Division 1 Semifinal this past winter against Detroit Catholic Central.