Otsego County Sportsplex, Gaylord, MI hosted the annual D3 Hockey Challenge comprised of teams from Flint, Detroit, Northern Michigan and Grand Rapids. Powers faced off against Gabriel Richard (5-2) on Friday losing 5-3 and Grand Rapids Catholic Central (4-1) on Saturday coming out victorious 3-1.

In Friday’s contest vs Gabriel Richard, Powers went down early on a neutral zone turnover that led to junior Robbie Chiles knocking home a perfectly executed 2 v 1. It wasn’t until the 5:37 mark that senior Brendan Tarpening picked up a loose puck near the left faceoff dot throwing it to the net making it 1-1, closing out a balanced first period. The first shift into the 2nd period Mason Czarnecki went end to end to bury the biscuit passed sophomore net-minder Ryan Rainey, stealing the lead 2-1. Then the Pioneers and Chargers traded off penalties back-to-back both going scoreless. Shortly after, Nick Kurtiak was bailed out by his defenseman Weston Reinig with a huge save when the Pioneer intercepted Kurtiak’s attempted pass between the hash marks. With only 57 seconds remaining as the play was in the Powers D zone, Kurtiak made 3 quick consecutive saves to keep it a 2-1 game. A few minutes early into the 3rd, Pioneers’ mammoth #86 Nic Disanto came out of the corner circling through the slot untouched to even it up. At the 11:30 mark, Michael Tucker’s costly cross-checking penalty led to the Pioneers regaining the lead on the senior assistant Wishart’s powerplay goal. Pioneers’ Aiden Gonzalez increased the lead 4-2 less than three minutes later. At 6:45, the pedal was pushed to the metal when Jimmy Monks dangled the Powers’ defenseman and went top shelf making it 5-2. Closing out the game senior Jacque Lavrack capitalized on the Pioneers’ cross-checking penalty to finish 5-3.

In Saturday’s morning contest vs Grand Rapids Catholic Central, the Chargers demonstrated a more favorable outing than the previous night. The first period was nothing but good clean intense hockey at both ends of the ice resulting in a scoreless start. Jacque Lavrack didn’t hesitate to break open the scoring on a turnover intercepting the cougars errant pass attempt to start the 2nd period. Many attempts by both the Cougars and Chargers fell to the wayside until Jack Dawley (Lavrack/Tarpening assisted) fired a snapshot from the right faceoff circle making it 2-0. With 6:45 remaining in the 2nd, Nate Murawski received an interference penalty and the Cougars’ senior Wait banged home the loose puck in front of Kurtiak cutting the lead in half. Throughout the 3rd Period the Chargers continued immense pressure on sophomore netminder Trent Goheen, who kept the game a lot closer than should have been. The final score came when Goheen handed out the perfect rebound to the slot area making its way to Powers’ leading scorer Mason Czarnecki. Mason did not disappoint notching his 6th of the season. Coach Travis period said, “today’s game the guys had better energy, effort and attention to the defensive end.”

Next game: Mt Pleasant (SVL game) Wednesday, December 15th, 6pm @ Flint Iceland arena.