In the battle of two ranked teams, the Flint Powers Catholic boys hockey team emerged with the win, defeating Saginaw Heritage 6-2 on Wednesday.

Powers Catholic’s Derek Simon and Connor Owens led the way with two goals and two assists each.

Earlier this week, Heritage (19-4, 4-3-1 Saginaw Valley League) was ranked fifth in Division 2, while Powers Catholic (18-6, 6-2 SVL) was ranked sixth in Division 3.

As such, the game was highly anticipated by both teams.

“We’ve looked forward to this all year,” Powers Catholic coach Travis Perry said. “We knew it would be a tough game, and it’ll get us ready for the playoffs next week.

“It’s a plus both ways. One, you beat a ranked team. Two, you beat a ranked team in your division.”

On the other side however, was a disappointed Heritage team.

“It’s a tough loss heading into the playoffs,” Heritage assistant coach Scott Turner said. “We ran into a tough Powers team that skates really well. But we think we’ll be ready to go come the playoffs next Wednesday.”

Simon and Owen were the catalysts in Powers Catholic’s high-scoring night, as one of the two players had a hand in five of the Chargers’ six goals.

“Connor Owens has been doing it all year for us,” Perry said. “But Simon is a defenseman, and he had two goals from the point today. Getting goals from a defenseman is always nice, but he also matched up with their top line all day defensively and did a great job.”

Powers Catholic got out to a lead in the first period with two goals, with Connor Owen assisting Spencer Owen on the first, and Simon scoring the second.

Connor Owen then scored  to start the second period, with Spencer Owen and Simon assisting on the play.

Heritage’s Jason Federico scored to close the gap in the second, and Tommy Munoz scored in the third, but each time, Powers Catholic had an answer, often via power-play goals.

“We got in trouble in the penalty kills, which was the difference in the game,” Turner said. “Every time we would get back in the game, we’d get back in the penalty and they’d score. We had a few key guys missing due to suspension, which hurt us.”

With the win, Powers Catholic finished third in the league behind Bay City Central and Midland Dow.

Powers Catholic, which has won 11 of its past 12 games, finishes the regular season at Maryville on Saturday.

“We just want to keep working on the things we’re working on in practice,” Perry said. “We want to get the win, but we also want to stay injury free.”

Having finished the regular season, Heritage starts postseason play next week. Heritage plays the winner of Midland Dow-Midland on Wednesday night at the Saginaw Bay Ice Arena.