It’s Hartland hockey coach Rick Gadwa’s job to talk up his opponent, at least a little bit.
But the facts bear him out when it comes to Grand Rapids Forest Hills Northern-Eastern, Hartland’s foe in today’s Division 2 semifinal at USA Hockey Arena.
The game will be broadcast starting at 4:50 p.m. on The Livingston Post.
“They’re a good team,” Gadwa said. “They’ve had one-goal games with Plymouth and Livonia Stevenson (both 4-3 losses), who are the top two ranked teams in Division 2. So they’re a team that, when they get to this stage, their game rises. They’re capable of winning the whole thing.”
Forest Hills also has beaten Northville and Culver Academy of Indiana, which beat Detroit Catholic Central three times during the regular season.
“They’re a west-side team with a west-side style,” Gadwa said. “They like to run and gun and play hard. They’ve got a couple of guys who can put a game in their hands and get the job done.
“For us, it’s similar to what it’s been the last couple of games,” he continued. “WE have to start the game on time. We want to start early, set a tone, try to get on the scoreboard first and work from there.”
The winner will play either Trenton or Birmingham Brother Rice in Saturday’s 10 a.m. state championship game. Hartland was last in the final in 2014, while Forest Hills was there last year.
“They’re a whole lot better than they were last year,” Gadwa said. “They took another step this year. They’ll be there, they’ll be ready and we’ll do the same and hopefully put on a good show.”
What Gadwa says his team won’t do is get caught looking ahead to Saturday.
“I think that anyone who does that, you’re cheating the game,” he said. “You’re cheating yourself. It’s not the proper way to operate. If you want to win, you can’t look ahead.”
The 5 p.m. game, Gadwa says, does give his team an extra couple of hours to get some sleep on Thursday night.
“The nerves are going,” he said. “It’s hard to sleep. A lot of times, you don’t get your best sleep going into the game. It’s a challenge for the kids.”
