HARTLAND >> In a battle of the best in Division 1, Detroit Catholic Central edged the host Hartland Eagles 2-1 in overtime to claim another regional title Wednesday night.

Ryan Dye got the game-winner for the Shamrocks with 1:50 remaining in the first overtime when he collected a puck in the neutral zone and flipped it from well outside the blue line on goal, a shot that handcuffed the netminder and found its way into the net.

“Just trying to get pucks on net,” Dye said. “Obviously, their goalie played great all game. We were just trying to beat him down, get pucks into the offensive zone, and then grind it down from there.”

Hartland and Catholic Central had been on a collision course since the beginning of the season when the regional assignments were released. The teams came in ranked first and second in D1, which is where they had been all season.And despite all the hype and anticipation, this game delivered on all of it. Players were up and down the ice, skating, colliding, and smothering each other’s attacks, often seeming to read each other’s offense nearly as well as their own.

The referees let the teams play, and the players on both teams used that respect to engage in a fierce, fast, hard-hitting contest.

“That was men. We watched men compete, some of the hardest and best I’ve ever seen. These are high school men just competing,” Eagles head coach Rick Gadwa said. “They were all men. All 40 or whatever we had out there.”

“It’s fun. It’s an awesome experience for the guys to play in a game of this intensity, high level, where the margins are so thin,” Shamrocks head coach Brandon Kaleniecki said. “It’s still a hockey game. You’ve gotta go play, and for us, there are certain things we want to focus on as a team, no matter who we are playing, right? So we hammered in on those details, made sure we stuck to them, and I thought our guys did a real good job of doing that. In the emotions of the game, both teams at times probably get a little bit chaotic and out of their own structure, and our job is just to calm them down and remind them to do the things we are asking them to do, and they responded well.”

The teams traded goals in the first period. Hartland opened the scoring with a power play goal 9:48 into the game when Mike Zielinski backhanded a puck from the right corner toward the front of the net that took two deflections and had just enough steam to inch across the goal line near the far post.

The Eagles held that lead for just over seven minutes before the Shamrocks tied the game with eight seconds remaining in the period. Nick Leiter jumped on a puck along the center ice boards, sped down the left side and fired a wraparound shot into the net before Eagles goalie Vinnie Sabala could get across to the other post.

Sabala was outstanding on the night, stopping 34 shots officially and turning in a half-dozen spectacular saves — stopping breakaways, scrambling to get pucks in his crease, and generally threatening to steal the game for the Eagles, which he very nearly did.

“That goalie played awesome all night, first and foremost,” Kaleniecki said. “My heart goes out to him because he was phenomenal. In my opinion, I think the game doesn’t get to overtime without him playing the way he did.”

Catholic Central goalie Joe Bedells wasn’t quite as busy, being credited with 24 saves. But he had to be in top form as well as Hartland’s shots often came in transition or from scrums in front of net. But outside of Zielinski’s double-deflection, Bedells handled everything the Eagles could throw at him and gave his teammates time to finally solve Sabala a second time.

Detroit Catholic Central (25-2) moves on to the quarterfinals on Saturday where the Shamrocks will face Utica Eisenhower.

Hartland ends the year with a mark of 22-4-1.

“It’s an absolute shame, and I’ve said it before. I’m not calling out anyone within the MHSAA, but saying as a collective group we have to be better. This isn’t the first time it’s happened,” Gadwa said. “It’s not sour grapes on my end whatsoever. They (CC) deserved to win the game. It’s not about that. In my eyes, we are one of the best two teams in the state. I would have loved to have been able to have this at USA Hockey Arena, if we earned it to get there.”