ALLEN PARK >> Two years ago, the Bloomfield Hills Brother Rice ice hockey team captured their seventh MHSAA Division 2 state championship.

On Wednesday, they moved one step closer to adding one more title to their trophy case.

In a state quarterfinal game that got increasingly more physical as the night went on, Rice took an early lead and then had to hang on late for a 4-2 win over MIHL rival Trenton at the Allen Park Civic Arena to advance to the state semifinals.

“I’m excited for the boys and proud of the boys,” Rice coach Ken Chaput said. “We’ve had an up and down year and they’ve really started to come together at the right time.

“They’ve started to play the game the right way more often,” Chaput added. “They did it on Wednesday and turned around and did the same thing today.”

It was a two-goal lead for Rice after a strong first period to open the night.

The Warriors opened the scoring just under five minutes into the quarterfinal showdown when they won a faceoff. Brenden Bieth then blasted the shot into the net past Trenton goaltender Evan Sivi to put his team on the board. Isaiah House assisted on the score.

Seven minutes later, Logan Jardine picked up a pass and raced alone down the ice to fire one top-shelf for a 2-0 advantage after 17 minutes of play. Chaput credited the early lead to his team’s work on managing the puck.“Every team makes mistakes and we’re looking to minimize our mistakes,” he said. “We’ve really been stressing on puck management- what are we gonna do with pucks, if we’re getting right of them where are we putting them.

“It’s been a work in progress, but they’ve really started to get it.”

Trenton was finally able to get on board as the teams traded goals late in the middle period.

Moments after returning to full strength, Donovan Durbin got his way through traffic and, with help from Nathan Sparks, made it a 2-1 game. Two minutes later, Rice regained their early two-score cushion when Jardine scooped one through the jumble unassisted for his second of the evening.

Then came the third period — one that saw six penalties, one timeout, a goal scored, a game-changing goal called off, and an empty netter to cap it off. Play continued to get more physical as well with each team went to the box three times.

As time was winding down in regulation, it was Trenton who found the back of the net. Landon Stark got the puck around from behind the net. Jack Brownlie assisted on the score, making it a one-goal game again with just over five minutes remaining.

In one last attempt to force overtime, the Trojans pulled their goalie.

The man-advantage situation worked as Zach LaMay raced down and deposited the game-tying score with just 50 seconds left. The goal, however, was waived off after it was deemed that the net had been displaced from its moorings.

The Trojans mustered one last boost of energy to tie the game, but Davis Belt and Cameron George helped get the puck to their senior captain Roman Villaire, who sent in the empty-netter for the 4-2 final.

Devastated with the loss — but not his team’s effort — Trenton coach Chad Clements was proud of his team.

“We battled hard and we came back,” Clements said. “I’m just very proud. They beat us in the first two (periods). (Rice) just straight up beat us; they’re good.

“We made mistakes,” Clements added.

“(Rice) made mistakes and they capitalized first and it was just tough battling back,” he said.

“But we did. They did not give up the entire game. They just kept going and kept going.”

With the loss, Trenton (18-8-2) says goodbye to 10 seniors. Between practices, scrimmages, tryouts, and games, Saturday night was the team’s 100th time together on the ice this season.

“They’ll never forget this,” Clements said. “They’ll never forget the memories, the friendships, the lessons, the ups and downs and learning how to deal with the life lessons that come with this great game.

“I’m just grateful for their time.”

Clements continued, looking big-picture on the night and, specifically, the late-game situation of their potential overtime-forcing goal being negated.

“What happened tonight is a great lesson of how life goes,” Clements said. “Sometimes things don’t go your way and sometimes you can’t explain them. This is a tough one, but it’s a life lesson that the kids will get through and they’ll get through it because they have each other.”

UP NEXT

While Chaput and Rice (16-10-2) celebrated Saturday evening, they will quickly be ready to get back to it as they prepare for the upcoming state semifinals.

“We’ll be ready,” Chaput said.

“I’m sure we’re going to get a great effort from whoever we’re playing against and we have to match or exceed that effort.”

Rice’s semifinal game time and opponent will be determined sometime on Sunday, March 2.

The D2 semifinals are slated to be played on March 6 at USA Arena in Plymouth, with the state title game then taking place on March 8 at 11:00 am.