BOYS HOCKEY: Barnett’s overtime winner lifts Bloomfield past Troy
BY JAKE LOURIM
STUDENT CORRESPONDENT
TROY — Playing at home, Troy’s hockey team had all the momentum going into overtime.
But Bloomfield Unified won the face-off, sent it ahead and fired it into the net — and the momentum was gone.
Bloomfield’s Kevin Barnett scored the game-winning goal nine seconds into overtime to send Troy back to .500 in front of a rowdy crowd at the Troy Sports Center Saturday night.
Bloomfield scored the go-ahead goal with four minutes left in the game, but Troy junior Nik Bester fought back with his third of the game at the 2:20 mark.
After Troy senior D.J. Myers had a shot poked away from him with four seconds left, the teams headed into overtime.
But it didn’t last too long as Bloomfield knocked in the game-winner in the first nine seconds.
Both teams cracked down defensively in a tight third period, trying to prevent a game-winner but also trying to push forward.
“It’s a fine line to play there,” Troy coach Tim Zimmerman said. “We were forechecking at the end of the game, keeping one guy high all the time, just to make sure they didn’t come down 2-on-1 or 3-on-2. At the same time, we wanted to put pressure on their ‘D.’”
The first two periods included 31 total shots. Troy sophomore goalie Michael Fisher made some point-blank saves on 1-on-0 breakaways that could have made the first period worse than 2-1.
“You’ve just got to play smart,” senior Troy assistant captain Edmund Qiao said. “You’ve got to realize when the risk is too big, when you can go to the net or when you have to hold back.”
When Bloomfield did score, it was on two power-play goals in the first period. The first was a wrap-around goal, the second a long slap shot with only 40 seconds left.
Although the penalties were difficult to avoid, Zimmerman wasn’t pleased with his team’s penalty kill.
“I think [the penalties] were part of the game,” Zimmerman said. “The sad part was, we just got done working on penalty kill — a lot. We’ll continue to work on that.”
Bloomfield scored again in the second to go up 3-1, but Troy senior Edmund Qiao cut the deficit down to one before the final period.
He picked up the puck in the corner and moved back out to get a shot. Qiao said his shot went off Myers’ skate.
A rowdy student section supported the hockey team the whole way, but it was eventually silenced with Barnett’s game-winner.
“The thing we need to improve on is puck clears,” Zimmerman said. “(We need to) make sure that when we get possession of the puck, we get it all the way down the ice, not just to the red line or not just to their blue line. It’s got to go all the way down the ice.”
Troy is now 3-3. The Colts host Utica on Wednesday before resuming league play Saturday against Auburn Hills Avondale.
(Jake Lourim is a senior at Troy High School and a member of the S.H.P. Media Group / www.northoaklandsports.com Student Correspondence Program. He is publisher of website www.troycoltsportsupdate.com and a member of the Troy school newspaper editorial staff. He can be reached by e-mail at j.lourim@comcast.net)
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