Oxford icers lead OAA-White in debut season in league
LEADERS IN WHITE: Oxford's Tim PErks and the Wildcats lead the OAA White Division in their first season in the OAA. Courtesy Photo, www.oxfordhockey.com
BY DAN STICKRADT
SENIOR EDITOR
dan.stickradt@northoaklandsports.com
Oxford’s hockey team enjoyed its best season to date last winter. Still, the Wildcats came up agonizingly short in their quest for a first league championship.
The Wildcats finished a fine 20-6-0 before a second-round loss to Davison in the Division 2 regionals ended that season. Inside the Flint Metro League, the Wildcats were 12-2 and finished in the runner-up slot.
Now, Oxford is testing its fate in a new conference, the Oakland Activities Association White Division. The Wildcats are a fine 7-4-1 overall this season, despite losing all-state goaltender Corey Hrischuk, now at Oakland University, and three of the team’s leading scorers, in particular Blaine Marney, who is playing juniors in the Cleveland area.
The Wildcats graduated only five players total and with a nice influx of younger players, this year’s unit has been a pleasant surprise.
“We have been playing some good hockey. I wasn’t sure what to expect moving to a new league, but I have been pleased,” said Oxford coach Dave Hague. “We are in first place in our league. That has been a surprise. To come into a new league and be in first place almost half way through, that’s a nice accomplishment.”
Entering the week, Oxford was alone in first place atop the OAA-White, posting a 5-0-0 record.
“We’ve had a lot of close games,” admitted Hague. “There’s been a lot of one-goal, two-goal games. But I think the returning guys learned to win last year and they have stepped up this season. We still returned a lot of guys (12), so I thought we’d still be competitive.
Junior forward Nick Hocker leads the team with 11 goals and five assists, followed by senior forward Tim Perks (7-6), junior forward Nolan Chapman (7-6) and junior defenseman Dean Couwlier (3-10). All four rank among the top-10 scoring leaders in the OAA White Division.
Two goalkeepers have split time in goal, with sophomore Oscar Alexanderson gaining most of the time. The heir-apparent to Hrischuk, who set multiple school records as a four-year starter, Alexanderson is 6-2-1 with 24 goals allowed, a 2.62 goals-against-average, 274 saves and a .919 save percentage.
Senior Patric Hanson is 1-2-1 with 13 goals allowed, a 3.13 goals-against-average, 84 saves and a .866 save percentage. Hanson and Alexanderson are part of a 10-player cast of newcomers.
Our goaltending has been pretty solid,” said Hague. “They have done an adequate job. Last year we had a really young defense, but we had Corey in goal. This year we have a lot of defensemen back and we’ve had some new kids step in and do a good job.”
Couwlier is one of the key players back on defense, while sophomores Kevin Dutzy, Montana Sampson and Breen Orr all return, along with senior Tim Dutzy, and junior Chad Wicker.
Senior forward Cody Rush, the team’s captain, has also been a steady hand on the ice.
Oxford had the pleasure of playing against Troy outdoors at the University of Michigan in December, two days before Michigan and Michigan State were set to play outdoors at the Big House (Michigan Stadium). The Wildcats also played Birmingham Detroit Country Day outdoors at Clark Park near Birmingham.
Oxford, which won both outdoor games, including a 4-1 win over Troy on Dec. 9, is 5-1-1 in their last seven games. In that stretch was a 4-3 victory over Bloomfield Hills United.
“That was a very big win. They are solid team and that was a very good game,” said Hague. “That’s what I expect in this league. There’s a bunch of good teams. We didn’t know a lot about some of them because we were in a different league last year, We did play a couple of these teams last year.”
This is Hague’s eighth season at Oxford, which is in its 11th season of high school hockey. Hague’s team won just one game in his debut season and three the season before he took over.
“I guess if you take the time to build something and do it the right way, then it’s worth it,” said Hague. “If you really believe in something, believe in doing it the right way, then it will take some time. I think we have finally built the program up to where we can be competitive every year. At least that’s the goal. The kids have bought in and we kept getting better and better.”
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Category: Oxford, Prep Wraps
