A sold-out crowd between the Saginaw Heritage Hawks and Flint Powers Chargers at the Saginaw Bay Ice arena this past Saturday evening meant more than just an SVL Showdown. One thing you can count on in the hockey community, is the tremendous amount of support no matter what team you are rooting for. This particular game benefited the “Coop Strong” foundation. A foundation in memory of Cooper Wobio, the older brother of Hawks Brett Wobio.

Another intangible you can bet on, is that no matter if it is a high school game, and OHL game or reflection of decades of minor league hockey, when Flint and Saginaw face-off, emotions fly high! The energy was 100% in full effect at both the spectator and player level. The Hawks generated the first scoring opportunity to only be turned away by netminder Nicholas Kurtiak. With just 1:51 remaining in the first period, on the powerplay, Chargers Doll sent the puck to the slot area where Andrew Burny deflected it over goaltender Nolan Gotham to take the lead.

After back-to-back penalties, the Chargers found themselves on the powerplay once again midway through the 2nd period. Mason Czarnecki buried a pass from Jack Dawley top of the circle to go up by two. A minute later, the Hawks decided they wanted to light the board as well, pulling within one. Then in penalty kill mode, Matt Lavoie forced the Hawks to it turnover in the Charger defensive zone, which landed the puck on Czarnecki’s stick as he took it to the length of the ice netting his 22nd on the season. Moments later junior Caleb Doll used his wheels to blow by the Hawks defender to put the Chargers up 4-1.

The Hawks Brady Gotham slashed the lead in half at the 7:01 mark of the 3rd period. One of your more unselfish plays of the season came on a (2v1) Dawley to Gerhardt then back to Dawley to notch the Chargers 5th of the contest. With 2:03 on the clock, the Hawks pulled their netminder and capitalized (5-3) but too little too late. Goaltender Kurtiak secured his 12th win and the Chargers improved to 16-5.

Final: Powers 5 Heritage 3

Next Games:

Wednesday, Feb 15th, 6p v Midland (SVL) at Flint Iceland arena (senior night)

Friday, Feb 17th, 6p v Livonia Stevenson at Eddie Edgar Ice arena