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North advances, South eliminated in first night of hockey regionalsFree Access


Both the Grosse Pointe North and Grosse Pointe South boys hockey teams were in action Tuesday night in the first round of MHSAA playoffs. In the Region 22 quarterfinals hosted at University Liggett School’s McCann Ice Arena, the Norsemen and Blue Devils saw different fates in their respective matchups.

The first game of the night featured North taking on Bishop Foley. The Norsemen found themselves up 3-1 with less than 10 minutes left in regulation, but Bishop Foley stormed back in the final moments to send the game to overtime.

After surrendering their late lead, the Norsemen came out firing in the overtime period. In the end, it was North sophomore Rocco Giammarco who netted the game-winner to keep the Norsemen’s season alive with a 4-3 victory.

“I thought we got a little tight there at the end we kind of just started to panic a little bit,” North coach Rob Blum said. “I said, ‘We’re outplaying them.’ We were up two goals. ‘We can win this game. Let’s just get chances and limit their chances and when we get a chance just bury it.’”

Giammarco’s game-winner was his fourth point of the night, with three assists to go with his crucial goal. North also was led by senior captain Ethan McCormick, who tallied two goals and two assists, including an assist on the game-winning goal.

“They’re a calming presence out there,” Blum said about his key players on Tuesday. “They’re not going to make a mistake. They make smart plays and make the right play when they need to.”

North now advances to Friday’s regional semifinals, where they face the region’s top seed in U of D Jesuit. U of D Jesuit could be widely considered as one of, if not, the best team in the state, but Blum knows his squad will come prepared.

“We see great teams every game, so we’re just going to work hard and work on some positioning and playing a bit smarter,” he said. “If we just keep it simple, we’ll be fine.”

Grosse Pointe South took the ice to close out the night against De La Salle. Tuesday’s quarterfinal was the Blue Devils’ first game since Feb. 26, as the team’s season was put on pause due to COVID-19 safety protocols. Facing a tough task going right into playoff hockey, South saw its season come to an end, falling to the Pilots 4-0.

“Almost every game has been where we’ve had opportunities and controlled play, but just haven’t been able to cash in around the net,” South coach Paul Moretz said after the shutout loss. “Everything’s been one stick length away or a blocked shot, it just seems to be the way the puck has bounced this year.”

De La Salle was led by senior Gavin Milne, who tallied three points on the night, including two goals and one assist. The Blue Devils had opportunities to break onto the scoreboard, but could not manage to get anything past the Pilots’ senior netminder, Martin Pawlenko. With the season coming to a heartbreaking end, Moretz could not be happier with the way his team competed this year.

“I’m extremely proud of them for hanging in there through all of it,” he said. “These kids have just continued to work and work and work. It’s tough to go three weeks without a game and jump right into playoff hockey, but I felt like we competed hard and there’s times during that game where we outplayed them and they outplayed us.”

De La Salle now advances to the semifinals to take on University Liggett School, the region’s No. 2 seed. That semifinal game is scheduled at 8 p.m. Friday night, following the first semifinal game between North and U of D Jesuit at 5:30 p.m. All games will be hosted at McCann Ice Arena.