One day after losing a 7-2 contest on their home ice, the Goodrich varsity hockey team bounced back to win another game by that same score.
Brian Van Kuren scored five goals as the host Martians easily defeated LakeVille Feb. 12 at Ice Mountain in Burton. The Martians recovered from a loss to Grand Blanc the previous evening.
With the win against LakeVille, the Martians improved to 12-8-1 on the season. Goodrich has three games left in the regular season, with the last game taking place Feb. 20 against Kearsley.
Besides the same score, both games had one thing in common ? plenty of penalties on both sides. The game against Grand Blanc had 21 penalties called (13 against Goodrich, eight against Grand Blanc), while 18 penalties were called in the game against LakeVille (10 against LakeVille, eight against Goodrich).
In the LakeVille contest, Van Kuren scored the Martians? first three goals of the contest, and Reece Geml followed that up with a goal with 1:36 left in the first period, staking the Martians to a 4-0 lead.
The Goodrich rout continued in the second period, when Max Hawkins scored on an assist from Geml with 12:21 left in the period. Van Kuren then scored his fourth and fifth goals of the game later in the second to put the Martians up 7-0.
A pair of goals by LakeVille in the third period proved to be too little, too late, as Goodrich goalie Brad Smith earned the win between the pipes for the Martians.
Against Grand Blanc a day earlier, the Martians fell behind quickly, as Grand Blanc’s Chris Slater scored two goals in the first period to stake the Bobcats to a 2-0 lead.
Goodrich’s Derek Powers narrowed the lead to 2-1 later in the first period, but Bart Jones answered for Grand Blanc later in the first to give the Bobcats a 3-1 lead at the end of the period.
The two teams traded goals in the second, with Slater completing a hat trick for Grand Blanc, and Van Kuren scoring for the Martians. The Bobcats held a 4-2 lead at the end of the second period, and put the game away with three goals in the third period.
Smith was peppered with Grand Blanc shots between the pipes for Goodrich, saving 43-of-50 shots (86 percent), while Grand Blanc goalie Shane Hamper stopped 22-of-24 Goodrich shots (91.7 percent).