NOVI — It took a year, but revenge was plenty sweet for the Hartland hockey team on Tuesday night.
After losing to Birmingham Brother Rice in four overtimes last year, 4-3, the Eagles returned the favor when Luke Cowan scored with 1:52 left in overtime to lift the Eagles to a 5-4 victory at the Novi Ice Arena.
Listen to the archived broadcast!
The Eagles (25-2-1) will get a rematch with Livonia Stevenson in the Division 2 semifinals at 5 p.m. Thursday at USA Hockey Arena, formerly Compuware Arena, in Plymouth.
“We have to focus on the next game,” Cowan said. “Stevenson is a great team, just like Rice. It will be a good game.”
The game can be heard on The Livingston Post.
It was a game of seemingly endless end-to-end rushes, with big hits, big shots and big saves in net.
“I loved that the refs let us play,” Hartland coach Rick Gadwa said. “You get better hockey games. You get into the playoffs, you’ve got two teams and you let them go.”
Josh Albring was in on all five goals, getting a natural hat trick in the second period and assisting on both goals by Cowan.
The winning play started when Kyle Mazur cleared the puck out of the Hartland end and found Albring near the center line.
Albring skated in on Warriors goalie Daniel Sendek.
“We know where each other is on the ice. I knew he would be flying in, crashing the net behind me,” Albring said.
Albring stopped a few feet away to spin past a driving Rice defenseman Jack Clement, then dropped a pass to Cowan.
“He made a great play, and I put the puck in the back of the net,” Cowan said.
But before you think of Cowan as some kind of automaton, he admitted to a little bewilderment himself even as he was skating toward a delirious Hartland student section.
“It wasn’t even believable,” Cowan said. “I was like, ‘Did it go in?’ It was a great feeling.”
Brother Rice scored first, midway through the first period, then made it 2-0 early in the second.
Then Albring took over, lifting Hartland to a 3-2 lead. Cowan, with an assist from Albring, made it 4-2.
But the Warriors weren’t done yet. Nick Bowman’s second goal of the game late in the second got Brother Rice back in range, and he tied it midway through the third.
Both goalies were busy, with Rice outshooting Hartland 42-36, but it was fitting that the Eagles’ two leading scorers lifted them to another berth in the semifinals.
“Those two guys (Albring and Cowan, both with 80 points on the season), have led this team all year,” Gadwa said. “I’m not saying it was just those two. Our defense had to buckle down, all six of them, and our goaltender (Christian Spengler) was huge.
“What you love on a team that has a couple of great player is that the goal is to keep the team involved,” he continued. “While they work and score the goals, the other ones are going to shut the other team down and create the momentum for them. We wouldn’t be here without those guys.”
The end result is the Eagles are back in the semifinals for the third time in four seasons.
While Cowan, Albring and the rest of the Eagles have done their part in the postseason, Gadwa isn’t above a little superstition.
Asked if the beard he currently sports is a playoff beard, he smiled.
“I’ve always shaved (in the past) and touched the regional trophy,” he said. “I didn’t touch the trophy (this year) and I’m not shaving.”
He laughed again.
“We’ll see how it goes,” he said.
