Sports

UPDATED, VIDEO: Brighton Claims Hockey Crown in 4-3 Thriller

Chet Daavettila scored the winning goal to lift Brighton to a 4-3 victory over Grosse Pointe North in the Division 1 hockey state championship game.

Grosse Pointe North didn't provide many scoring chances in Saturday's Division 1 high school hockey final. The Bulldogs, however, made those few chances count en route to winning their first state championship since 2006.

Shots on goal came at a premium for Brighton, who managed to score 4 goals on just 11 total shots against the Norsemen to win the game, 4-3.

Netminder Christian Michalik, who one day earlier led Brighton to a against Orchard Lake St. Mary's with 37 saves in a 2-1 double-overtime effort, was strong again with 20 saves on 23 Norsemen shots.

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Unlike Friday's game, where the Bulldogs started slowly and relied on late-game heroics to win, Brighton got off to a fast 2-0 start on just three shots with goals from Troy Marrett at 3:27 into the first period and Zach Morgan at 9:48 into the period.

The Norsemen carried the momentum into the locker room in the first intermission, however, when Joe Aluia found the back of the net off a face-off in the Bulldog zone as the first-period buzzer sounded.

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The Bulldogs regained their two-goal lead when Tommy Kivisto found the back of the net off an assist by Morgan.

Aluia responded at 12:55 into the second period to cut Brighton's lead to one, then scored the equalizer at 8:22 into the third period to complete the hat trick.

The game appeared headed to overtime, until Chet Daavettila found a hole on Norsemen goaltender Chip Wujek at 13:28 into the third period for the game-winner.

"The puck just squirted out," Daavettila said. "I just kind of shot it and didn't really think about it. It just squeaked in somehow."

The go-ahead goal with just over 90 seconds remaining was enough motivation for Michalik to clamp down and preserve the win for the Bulldogs.

"When we scored that fourth goal, I was like, all right, I had to buckle down and make sure nothing else was going in," Michalik said. "I had to basically make sure nobody even came close to scoring. I didn't want to blow it for anybody."

Brighton coach Paul Moggach commended his team for finding a way to win despite being outshot, 23-11.

"We knew what we had to do and stayed with it and believed in ourselves," he said. "You've got to believe and trust each other and we did that and persevered."

GPN coach Scott Lock praised his team's effort, but said the team simply couldn't finish the job.

"I don't think we had a lot of puck luck and Brighton got a lot of it," Lock said. "They got the bounces. They worked hard for their bounces, though."

This story was edited from its original version at 11:15 p.m. to include additional reporting and quotes, along with video highlights and postgame interview footage.


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