Chippewa Valley Unified coach Jim Andonoff has been tinkering with his forward lines and one combination certainly looks like a keeper.
The unit of Nate Hall between Christian Pieknik and Ethan Stabnick accounted for half of CVU’s goals Friday in a 6-2 victory against Stoney Creek in a non-league hockey game at the Mount Clemens Ice Arena.
“This is the first game we’ve been together and I think it worked out well,” said Hall, who had two goals and an assist. “We were all flowing together.”
“I think it’s our breakout and our speed through the zone. We got a lot of good chances from it.”
Andonoff liked what he saw from the line.
“That whole line — Nate, Christian and Ethan — was on fire tonight,” Andonoff said. “I liked their defensive game, too. They all came back and picked up guys. Everybody helped out.”
That’s the line that was on the ice for one of the most important goals of the game for Chippewa. An unassisted goal by Stoney Creek’s Matt Cherneta with 1:17 left in the second period cut the CVU lead to 3-1 and the momentum seemed to be shifting to the Cougars.
Chippewa took care of that in short order once the third period started. At the 32-second mark, Stabnick jammed a rebound into the net and the CVU lead was back to three goals. Pieknik and Hall assisted.
“I think we took the momentum away by getting that goal,” Andonoff said. “They were starting to build up a little bit and when we scored that goal it kind of brought them down a little. They played well but we just kept coming and coming.”
Hall said the possibility of a Stoney Creek comeback was discussed in the locker room between periods.
“We said to just keep the pressure on and we’ll win,” Hall said.
The Cougars answered with a goal by Christian Gojcaj at 3:52, assisted by Dylan Smith and Kellen Keighton. CVU restored its three-goal margin 33 seconds later on Hall’s second of the game from Stabnick and Andrew Johnston.
Johnston completed the scoring on a power play with 1:20 left in the game. He was assisted by Rocco Raiola and Cam Staskowski.
Raiola opened the scoring for Chippewa at 12:15 of the first period when he one-timed a shot into the back of the net from the left face-off circle assisted by Staskowski and Johnston. A minute and a half later, Luke Butina made it 2-0 on a power play, assisted by Austin Bartsch.
Butina set up Hall for a goal on a 2-on-1 break at 4:06 of the second period.
“We played really well tonight. That’s what we’ve been striving for,” said Andonoff. “We’ve been tinkering with the lines, making some changes with the defense and we’re kind of getting to where we want to be. Hopefully, by the end of the year we’ll be on all cylinders.”
Stoney Creek is going through a rough stretch after starting the season 4-2-2. The Cougars have dropped four of their last five games.
“We’re trying to work through a few things,” said coach Steve Emery. “We’re not playing consistent enough. Once we find that consistency things should turn around for us. We have enough skill and guys who’ve been here before and know what it takes to win.
“We have to stay engaged for 51 minutes. We can’t take shifts off. We’ve been taking shifts off and teams of Chip Valley’s caliber are going to take advantage of that. They were the better team tonight. We have to find a way to turn it around and I’m confident we will.”
CVU improved to 6-4-1.