Central rallies to take McCullough Cup

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TC Central's Garrett Frain celebrates a goal by teammate Nico Saco in the second period. Record-Eagle/Jan-Michael Stump
West's Tyler Thirlby and Centrals Lucas Little (10) collide along the boards. Record-Eagle/Jan-Michael Stump

January 26, 2012

Victory also puts Trojans on verge of BNC championship

BY JAMES COOK jcook@record-eagle.com The Record Eagle Thu Jan 26, 2012, 07:35 AM EST

TRAVERSE CITY — All the numbers were going Traverse City Central's way.

Except the most important ones — the scoreboard.

The Trojans trailed rival TC West 2-1 with six minutes left before scoring a pair of late goals to hold off the hard-charging Titans 3-2 in a game that puts Central in total control of the Big North Conference race.

Central had advantages in shots on goal and had committed just one penalty, and yet TC West was up 2-1 on goals by Tyler Thirlby and Collin Peters.

"To be in that position with six minutes left," Central coach Chris Givens said, "I was proud of the fact we kept playing hard and were able to put a couple away there."

"We didn't panic and we kept our composure," said Trojan forward Cooper Macdonell, who was in on both of Central's third-period goals in the final 5:13. "We knew they were on us, but we knew we could bring it right back in the third."

Macdonell sniped a hard wrister into the top corner, using Cam Givens as a decoy on a 2-on-1 rush with 5:13 remaining. That tied it up at 2-2, and came only 40 seconds after the Trojans burned off their only penalty of the game.

"Cam went by and screened the goalie," Macdonell said. "Then I shot it over him."

Bill Vermetten made a key save on a Max Jenner redirect of a Nate Madigan shot with 3:11 to go, and 29 seconds later, Keanen Armour found Cam Givens with a long, cross-ice pass to Givens deposited high in West's net on a hard wrister to Carter Edmondson's blocker side. Macdonell also drew an assist.

"It was a good breakout for us," Macdonell said. "We had Keanen Armour coming through, and he moved it wide to Cam, and Cam put it in with a good shot."

West pulled Edmondson for an extra attacker with 1:10 remaining and put on loads of pressure, but Central's defense responded with several blocked shots, including one by Lucas Little with 10 seconds left that helped seal the win.

"They blocked like four or five shots there (in that last minute) and that's how you win games," West coach Jeremy Rintala said. "They were laying down, blocking shots and we didn't do as good of a job in crunch time as they did."

The victory in front of a packed house allows TC Central to keep the Jeff McCullough Memorial Trophy, which goes to the winner of the second league meeting between the Trojans and Titans. Central's captains — Macdonell, Little and Ian McGraw — accepted the trophy on ice after the game.

"Beyond the game, it's for Jeff (McCullough)," Macdonell said. "We were 7-0 in the BNC and we needed this win to knock them out — and we did that. Now we control our own fate and we've got to win the next two."

The win means Central (13-3-1, 8-0 Big North) needs only to not lose its last two BNC contests to clinch the league crown.

"We go to Alpena Friday, which is not going to be easy, because they're playing really well right now," Givens said. "And Gaylord is a better team than that (7-2) score would indicate. Our work is far from done right now."

Nico Saco's wrap-around attempt was thwarted by Carter Edmondson, but Saco was able to lunge for the rebound and lift a shot over Edmondson's pad to knot the game at one each 2:09 into the second. Marcus Russell was credited with an assist.

Armour's pass into the slot hit Edmondson's skate on the way to its target and the West net mind had to make a quick reflex save that helped the Titans burn off Central's fourth power play of the game.

While dodging several Trojan poke check attempts, Collin Peters carried the puck into the zone and let go of a wrister in a crowd the found its way past Vermetten midway up the blocker side for a 2-1 West lead with 4:16 remaining in the second. Alec Carruth drew an assist.

Central was held scoreless on three first-period power plays, generating pressure on each, but failing to light the lamp.

Despite being outshot 13-4 — partly due to spending six minutes killing off penalties — West emerged from the first period with a 1-0 lead on Tyler Thirlby's low, hard slapshot off a long, exaggerated wind-up with 5:02 remaining.

"We knew we needed to keep our composure and we were in a bit of a rut, but we've come out of them before," Macdonell said. "We knew we needed to keep shooting and if we put a lot of shots on them, we'd get them in eventually. They had a good goalie, and we had to have that many shots to get (three) in."

Central ended with a 37-16 advantage in shots on goal, but were 0-for-4 on the power play.

"It wasn't like we were playing bad," Givens said. "I just didn't think we were playing hard enough. We were losing some battles and loose pucks in front of the net."

Edmondson finished with 34 saves, while Vermetten had 14.

"Carter was awesome," Rintala said. "Both our goalies have been great all year. Carter is a leader on the team and we know we can count on him. We're so lucky to have those two. Our guys are comfortable in front of them. With such a young team, we're going to make mistakes. And every mistake doesn't cost us because we know they're going to bail us out time and time again."

Givens agreed.

"Carter is a good goalie," Givens said. "We had to bear down in front of him. He made a few great saves. He made a couple of nice ones on Cam in the first period. And he stopped Nico on the delayed penalty. Marcus walked down middle of the slot and he had a glove save. He made three, four, five beautiful saves."