Bulldogs slip past Stevenson in Central showdown, 1-0 — with archived broadcast

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BRIGHTON — You know the old baseball adage “they’re all line drives in the box score”? Turns out that applies to hockey, too.

On the scoresheet, the remnant of a Jake Crespi shot that slowly rolled over the goal line early in the third period Saturday sat as proud as every other shot, with one exception: It was the only goal of the game as the Brighton hockey team beat Livonia Stevenson 1-0 for the second time in three weeks on Saturday.

This one counted in the KLAA Central standings, unlike Brighton’s win by the same score in last month’s Cranbrook Invitational title game.

“A huge win,” Crespi said. “It takes out one less competitor for the league title.”

Click here for the archived broadcast: 

Brighton (7-1 overall, 3-0 KLAA Central), has three conference games in hand on the Spartans (5-4, 3-3) and has the tiebreaker in head-to-head competition.

They did it despite having just four defensemen due to injury, but got strong play from those could go. Logan Neaton got the shut out in goal and Brighton took the momentum in the second period and never gave it back.

“We liked our game the whole time,” Moggach said. “(Stevenson) had some jump and got some opportunities in the first and at the end of the second. But we liked our game and liked how we were playing it.”

Neaton, who was tested early, gave his defensemen plenty of credit.

“The way they came out and played was absolutely phenomenal,” he said. “They did a great job of taking care of screens, letting me follow pucks through traffic, clearing out bodies and letting me see the puck.”

“It was kind of tiring,” junior defenseman Brody White said. “Quick shifts and get the puck deep is all we had to do. Our objective was to shut them down early and not let them get into our zone. It’s an easier shift for us.”

The game-winner came early in the third period. Crespi took a pass from Jake Demski and hoped for the best.

“Threw it at the net and hoped it went in,” he said. “I had a bunch of opportunities on breakaways, but couldn’t capitalize. I got it at the dot (in the faceoff circle) and ripped it.”

While his teammates celebrated, Neaton had a different perspective.

“In my head, it was the same old thing,” he said. “Goals are going to be hard to come back, and it’s a one-goal game, so I have to keep them all out.”

The goal came with 15:12 remaining, and the Bulldogs held the Spartans at bay the rest of the way.

Afterward, Moggach took in a few minutes of the next game at the Ice House, which featured South Lyon and Livonia Churchill. The Bulldogs wrap up 2016 by playing Churchill in Livonia on Wednesday.

“One of our goals was to win this game and take (Stevenson) out,” Moggach said. “Now we’ve got to have a good game with Churchill. We have two days of practice and we’ve got to go back at ’em.”

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