Team of the Month: Hartland Ice Hockey
By
Geoff Kimmerly
MHSAA.com senior editor
February 18, 2022
The Hartland hockey team finished the month of January with an 8-1 record since the turn of the calendar year, still ranked No. 1 statewide in Division 2 and having earned the Kensington Lakes Activities Association West and overall championships.
But those achievements didn’t come easily. Not even close.
The MHSAA/Applebee’s Team of the Month for January has had its share of success over the last decade, with Division 2 championships in 2018 and 2019 and runner-up finishes in 2013 and 2014. But the Eagles’ January run made an impressive statement as the team builds toward another possible title run.
Hartland earned five of those eight January wins over ranked teams, improved a 9-3 record after December to 17-4 by the start of February. The lone loss in January came 2-1 to Division 3 top-ranked Flint Powers Catholic.
“It’s nice when it all comes together, because you can say it was part of the plan. But we knew we were going to have to take a step after the new year, and we discussed that as a group,” Hartland coach Rick Gadwa said. “The big thing is our schedule was ramping up even more. December was hard enough, but then if you look at that track that we had in January, we knew it was going to be tough.
“The guys just took that with a little bit of a drive and wanted to try and run the slate. Obviously, it’s a really hard thing to do, and we did have that loss and we could’ve had a couple of others. But we had some great learning experiences in January … and gained some confidence.”
Hartland’s 2-1 win over Division 1 No. 2 Brighton on Jan. 15 paved the way for the KLAA West title, and the Eagles avenged a November loss to Division 2 No. 2 Livonia Stevenson with a 3-1 win Jan. 26 to earn the overall KLAA championship.
Hartland also won the Westside Invitational by defeating Division 2 No. 5 Byron Center 7-3 and No. 6 Muskegon Mona Shore 3-2 in overtime despite missing Gadwa, who was ill. The Byron Center win avenged last year’s Quarterfinal loss to the Bulldogs, and the Eagles didn’t lead against Mona Shores until scoring the deciding goal.
Earlier in the month, Hartland also came back to win 6-4 over Orchard Lake St. Mary’s, the No. 3-ranked team in Division 3.
“These guys just have this calmness about them, and I appreciate that group,” Gadwa said. “They’re a skilled group, and to see how this group stayed the course when things aren’t going well for them, it’s a trait that’s tough to get high school teams to buy into at times. I’m just appreciative for how they’ve been able to grasp that adversity and overcome it and adjust.”
Hartland is up to 19-5, and has received contributions from throughout the roster. Fourteen of 16 skaters have scored, all 16 have at least three points and 10 Eagles have at least 10 points.
Seniors Ashton Trombley (18 goals, 14 assists) and Jack Paweski (17 goals, 12 assists) lead five players with at least 11 goals, followed on the points list by juniors Lucas Henry (11 goals, 17 assists), Ben Pouliot (11/16) and Braden Pietila (11/15) and assists leader Brendan Pietila (7/19). Senior Kameron Ragon is 15-0 in goal with a 1.19 goals-against average and .946 save percentage.
The Eagles face Division 1 No. 6 Saginaw Heritage tonight before beginning Division 2 Regional play next week at Dort Federal Event Center in Flint.
“Every team has to define themselves,” Gadwa said, “and they’re doing a good job of that.”
Past Teams of the Month, 2021-22
December: Midland Dow girls basketball - Read
November: Reese girls volleyball - Read
October: Birmingham Groves boys tennis - Read
Clarkston Eying Postseason Possibilities with Challenging Regular-Season Schedule
By
Keith Dunlap
Special for MHSAA.com
December 20, 2023
It might not be January just yet, but the Clarkston hockey team has probably already felt like it has competed in the MHSAA Tournament for the 2023-24 season.
The Wolves have gone through a gauntlet of a nonleague schedule, with two games against last season’s Division 1 runner-up Brighton, a game against reigning Division 3 ion Flint Powers Catholic and a contest against Grand Rapids Forest Hills Central, a Division 1 semifinalist last winter.
However, there has been a method to the madness for a Clarkston team that’s normally not so ambitious with nonleague scheduling.
The Wolves saw a 20-win season end with a 6-1 Regional Final loss to Hartland in March, and the idea is that playing some of the state’s best so early will toughen Clarkston up further for when this season’s playoffs arrive.
“I think we’ve already kind of went through hard times and had moments of adversity,” Clarkston head coach Nathan Bryer said. “We’re already a team that has faced a lot more hardship than our team last year at this point. I think last year at this point, we were still undefeated and had an easier time with it.”
So far, Clarkston has done a good job navigating the tough early slate, with wins over Powers and Forest Hills Central and close defeats to Brighton (4-3 and 3-1).
It’s all in an effort to eventually do something no team in school history or any squad in the Oakland Activities Association has done – win a Division 1 Finals championship.
No OAA squad has reached the championship game in Division 1 since Clarkston did so in 2005, and only two have reached the Division 1 Semifinal round since 2011 (Lake Orion in 2011 and Rochester United in 2019).
Farmington is the only OAA school to ever win a Finals hockey title, doing so in Division 3 in 2014.
Based on who returns from last year’s team, Clarkston likely will be in the conversation and could represent the OAA’s best chance in recent years to have a team make it back to Plymouth and the season’s final weekend, and perhaps do some winning there also.
The Wolves return 15 players off a team that dominated the OAA last season, finishing 8-1-1 in league play.
Junior forward Ron Wade was a first-team all-state performer in Division 1, while defenseman Evan Adams was named second-team all-state.
Those two along with forward Owen Croston are the team’s captains this winter.
The Wolves are 7-2 going into a Thursday night contest against league rival Rochester Hills Stoney Creek.
With so much familiarity among players and coaches, not as much time needed to be spent during the offseason getting to know one another.
“The team is already pretty bonded this year,” Adams said. “We didn’t really have to worry that much about being a big group, or chemistry, this year.”
In January, the toughening-up process won’t end for Clarkston, given the Wolves will have a game against four-time reigning Division 1 champion Detroit Catholic Central.
“We haven’t had a hard (nonleague) schedule before until this year,” Croston said. “We just have to be ready for those games.”
When the MHSAA Tournament does roll around, Clarkston will have to jump over the same hurdles it usually must in its Regional – Hartland and Lake Orion.
Wade said the team still has lessons learned from the playoff loss to Hartland on its mind.
“We just learned that we really have to stick to our identity in those games,” he said. “This year, we have to rely on our forecheck and all of us pushing for the same thing.”
Indeed, it might not be 2024 yet, but Clarkston already has found out a lot about itself as it tries to replicate the postseason in November and December before the real one arrives.
“I think those teams who play a rigorous schedule all year, they are a little bit more battle-tested when Regionals come around,” Bryer said. “That was our goal this year, to have a team that’s played against top-10 opponents consistently all year. I think we’ll be better for it throughout the regular season, and better for it in Regionals.”
Keith Dunlap has served in Detroit-area sports media for more than two decades, including as a sportswriter at the Oakland Press from 2001-16 primarily covering high school sports but also college and professional teams. His bylines also have appeared in USA Today, the Washington Post, the Detroit Free Press, the Houston Chronicle and the Boston Globe. He served as the administrator for the Oakland Activities Association’s website from 2017-2020. Contact him at [email protected] with story ideas for Oakland, Macomb and Wayne counties
PHOTOS (Top) Clarkston warms up before a recent practice at Detroit Skate Club. (Middle) Clarkston warms up before a recent practice at Detroit Skate Club. (Photos by Keith Dunlap.)