The Chippewa Valley United hockey players skates flew a little bit faster and their sticks slapped a little bit harder on Tuesday afternoon at Mt. Clemens Ice Arena.

The team, comprised of players from both Dakota and Chippewa Valley, took on the De La Salle Pilots — a rivalry that proved friendly and, at times, unfriendly — and beat their cross-county, non-league rivals, 5-2, to secure their 10th win of the season.

“We got a lot of friends on that team and (we are) just trying to outwork each other,” said CVU goalie Zack Wigginton. “That game literally means a lot to me, our team. So, yeah, it means a lot more.

“It’s the best man. It just shows you the competition between both teams, like trying to beat each other.”

De La Salle scored first when Dylan Blackwood buried a shot with assists from Colin Helgren and Anthony Winkler.

But that ended up being the only stat for Blackwell, the Pilots’ leading point-getter, coming into the game, not counting a pair of third period penalties.

That was by design.

“Just getting pucks deep while working them and just looking for high quality shots, mostly,” Wigginton said. “I mean, we had a game plan coming into this game: Shut down No. 13. That’s about it.”

Kevin Dolney evened the score for CVU three minutes later off assists by Zhane Austin and Rocco Raiola.

That brought the rivals into the second period tied — and that marred the beginning of the Pilots’ end.

With a chance to tie the game, De La Salle took a penalty shot that was turned away by Wigginton.

Two minutes later, with CVU down a man, Christian Pieknik scored his first of two goals (the other being an empty-netter in the third) to give CVU their first lead, which they never lost.

“That was a big break, when we scored that shorthanded goal. (It) was a big turnaround for us,” said CVU head coach Jim Andonoff.

“You could feel it on the bench. You could feel the energy. And then when we scored that shorthanded goal, it just gave us life. So it’s really big for us.”

The goal gave CVU more shorthanded goals than De La Salle had while a man-up despite Chippewa committing five penalties.

Ethan Stabnick’s goal, which he buried off a rebound from Cam Staskowski’s shot, put CVU up 3-1 in the second. But De La Salle had a chance to halve the score with a 5-on-3 late in the second — a chance that, like the penalty shot, was brick-walled by Wigginton and the defense.

“(Wigginton) played outstanding,” Andonoff said. “I think there was, I don’t know, 40-some shots, but what I will say is that the defense and the forwards kept them … to the outside. So it was really good.

“But yeah, he stood on his head. He played really well with all those because we were short handed a lot of the game.”

DLS got a goal back with 10 seconds left in the second period off a shot by Corey Furuya, but even that didn’t last long — less than three minutes into the third, CVU’s Nate Hall poked the puck ahead for a breakaway and scored, getting his team back up to a two-goal lead, 4-2.

Pieknik’s aforementioned empty-netter put the cherry on a game that boosted the momentum that is becoming palpable in the CVU locker room.

“Oh, man, we’re feeling great right now,” Wigginton said. “Got a win over Midland Dow on Saturday. Now, De La Salle today. We’re going to be rolling. Don’t CVU get hot.”

After the empty-netter, a gameful of pushing and shoving came to a head when De La Salle’s Connor Blackwood hit a CVU player after a whistle. After being pulled from the scuffle, he was ejected from the game.

The win bumps them to 10-6-1, which includes wins over MAC opponents St. Clair Shores and Anchor Bay.

Three of their losses are by one goal.

“They’re feeling really good about themselves, so we’ve been working hard,” Andonoff said. “All of our games have been fairly close. So even the ones that we’ve lost, the kids, we just tell them (to) keep working hard.

“Good things are going to happen. You’re every bit as good as every team out there.”

De La Salle drops to 8-6.