The Woodhaven Warriors varsity hockey team took on Grosse Pointe North for a tough back-and-forth battle with every point.

The boys seized the game early on by controlling the puck to get it into the zone to score. They ended the first period with a score of 2-0.

Senior captain Jimmy Olbrich passed the puck to defenseman Reid Philabaum at the blue line, where he hit a slapshot to score the first goal of the game, giving the boys a 1-0 lead within the first five minutes.

Philabaum says, “I thought the game went well in the first period, but after the first, we started to slow down. The thing that brought us down the most was the number of penalties we were receiving.”

Before the boys could do anything else, a penalty was given. The Warriors fought off Grosse Pointe North’s power play. Once the team was back at full strength, they took the game back.

The Warriors were not done with just one goal in the first period; Olbrich received the puck from Vincenzo Fillipi, and Olbrich took his shot to score the second goal in the game. The first period ends with a 2-0 lead.

Olbrich emphasized the importance of keeping the team motivated even with a strong lead: “I try to keep everyone focused, and keep everyone’s energy up no matter how the game is going, and lead the team.”

The second period challenged the Warriors when Grosse Pointe North came back to make the score 2-2.

Olbrich jumped into the play, where he scored his second goal of the game. This gave the Warriors the lead back with a score of 3-2

The second period was a battle between the two teams and ended with a tie of 3-3. Going into the third period, the Warriors knew it would be a tough battle for a victory.

Forward Ethan Pawlowski scored one last goal before the tie game was brought to overtime.

Despite their best efforts, the cards were not in the favor of the Warriors. Grosse Pointe North stole the win with 6 minutes left in overtime and a final score of 5-4. The Warriors put up a resilient fight till the end and never gave up on any point. 

Pawlowski says, “Coming into the game, we were so confident that we were not very focused on simply winning. The overconfidence got to our heads, and we didn’t stick to our game. Our offense was playing well, but we got away from the basics on the defensive side of the game.”

This is just one of many challenges the Woodhaven Warriors will face throughout the season on their road to victory.