FLINT, MI -- After back-to-back seasons of frustration and injuries, Flint Powers Catholic hockey coach Travis Perry gave goalie Casey Korhonen a simple message to take into his senior year.

“I told him it’s not how you start, it’s how you finish,” Perry said. “He was on JV his freshman year, had some injuries as a sophomore and was out pretty much his whole junior year with injuries. This year as a senior, he turned in arguably one of the best seasons by a goalie in Powers history.”

Korhonen’s efforts didn’t go unnoticed. After leading Powers to the state semifinals, finishing the year with nine shutouts and a 1.54 goals against average, Korhonen was selected to this year’s Dream Team by the Michigan High School Hockey Coaches Association.

He is second player from Genesee County ever to be selected to the state’s Dream Team, joining 2008 Powers grad Carson Curran.

“It was kind of shocking to find out,” said Korhonen, who returned to the ice this season after recovering from two hip surgeries a year ago. “Coming back from everything, I didn’t really know what to expect. I did put in a lot of hard work, but even with that, nothing is given. It’s an individual thing, but it really came from all the hard work everybody put in.”

Korhonen was also placed on the MHSHCA First Team Division 3 All-State squad and was joined by teammate Garrett Gormley. Gormley was the Chargers' leading scorer this season, tallying 21 goals and 16 assists on a very balanced Powers team.

“The kid’s a pure goal scorer,” Perry said. “Every time he’s on the ice, he’s got a chance to score. You look at his total numbers and they may not blow you away, but this was one of the deepest teams we’ve had here. He’s still got some improvement to make, but he’s a true talent. We’re expecting a lot of big things out him next year.”

Although Korhonen will be tough to replace in net, Gormley is one of 13 underclassmen returning next season. He was an assistant captain this year after being named honorable mention All-State as a junior and is expected to take on an even bigger leadership role for the Chargers as a senior.

“Becoming an assistant captain this year, I knew there was going to be more expected of me and it made me realize I needed to be more of a leader,” Gormley said. “I know my role will be even bigger next year and it’s just a different approach you have to take. This probably raises expectations a bit, but the nice thing is with all the different guys we have coming back that can score, it’s not just going to fall on one person.”

The Chargers finished the year 22-6-1 against what Perry said is the toughest schedule they’ve faced during his time as coach.

“If you look at their stats, they may not blow you away at first, but then you consider that we played just a crazy-tough schedule,” Perry said. “Five of our six losses came in overtime. We played eight teams that were in the quarterfinals, so you’re not going to score a ton of goals against teams that are that good. Same goes for Casey in net. He had a .934 save percentage, which is pretty remarkable when you consider who we were playing against.”

Matt Lundeen was Second Team All-State and Jake Stone and Jared Coulter received honorable mention for Powers. Grand Blanc’s Jack Clary was named honorable mention in Division 1.

Contact Ross at rmaghiel@mlive.com and follow him on Twitter @Maghielse.