Heritage Hockey comeback bid falls short in 6-4 loss to No. 2 ranked Hartland H.S.

The Saginaw Heritage (5-1-1) boys ice hockey team (after a pre-game ceremony honoring former Hawks coach Gene Ayotte, who rececntly passed away following a short illness) battled back from a 4-goal deficit to tie the game at 4-goals apiece in the second period, after three first period penalties had the Hawks trailing 4-0 early in the second, however, the No. 2 ranked (Div-2) Hartland Eagles (7-2) scored early in the third period, before taking advantage of another Heritage penalty while skating 4 on 4 late in the third to take a 6-4 decision over Heritage at Saginaw Bay Ice Arena tonight. 

 

Hartland senior Jake Behnke scored a power play goal at the 5:55 mark of the first period to give his team a 1-0 lead, shortly before a Heritage defender dragged down Hartland senior Josh Albring, prompting a penalty shot, where Albring scored against Heritage junior goal tender Jack Jesko for a 2-0 lead at 11:53 of the first period. 

 

After a 5-minute boarding penalty to the Hawks late in the first period, Hartland junior Joey Larson scored a power play goal to give the Eagles a 3-0 lead heading into the first intermission, with a little over 2-minutes left on the power play to start the second. 

 

Heritage killed off the remainder of the 5-minute major early in the second, but Larson scored his second goal of the night to give the Eagles a 4-0 lead at 3:32 of the second period. 

 

The Hawks would get on the board when Heritage sophomore Brady Rappuhn scored with an assist coming from junior Matthew Moretuzzo to cut into the Hartland lead 4-1 at 4:26 of the second period. 

 

Just over 4-minutes later, Heritage junior Edison Symons made it a 4-2 game with a goal from Will Schmidt and Rappuhn at 8:32 of the second period.

 

After a Hartland penalty midway through the second period, Heritage junior David Helpap cut the Hartland lead to 4-3 with a power play goal with assists coming from Rappuhn and freshman John-Michael Watson at 11:46 of the second period. 

 

Two minutes later Helpap lit the lamp again to tie the game at 4-goals apiece with an assist from junior Jacob Best at 13:55 of the second, chasing Hartland starting goal tender Andrew Heuwagen for junior Brett Tome. 

 

Hartland pulled ahead late in the second when Behnke scored his second of the night to take a 5-4 lead at 15:23 of the second.

 

Heritage went on the power play late in the third period, but a penalty to the Hawks forced 4 on 4 action, where Hartland junior Brendan Tulpa rounded out the scoring for a 6-4 lead at 15:10 of the third period. 

 

Jesko turned away 32 of the 38 shots he would face in between pipes for the Hawks tonight.

 

The Hawks are off until Sat. Dec. 28, when they travel up to Traverse City to take on Salem H.S. in the Scott Miller Memorial Tournament.