After being shut out in the first period in Friday’s rematch against the Eisenhower Eagles, the Romeo Bulldogs had officially gone four periods plus an overtime without getting the puck past Ike keeper Connor Holmes dating back to last week.

But even when they were down 3-0, the Bulldogs kept a level head — so when Noah Sarrach cracked the ice with 27 seconds left in the second period, Romeo finally had something to show for their internal fire.

“That was huge. That goal was massive,” said Romeo head coach Chris Burke after his Bulldogs rallied all the way back for a 4-3 victory over Eisenhower to win the Macomb Area Conference Red division outright on Friday, Feb. 7 at Suburban Ice Macomb.

“Just getting past that goalie, you know, that was four periods, and that would have been five periods, we hadn’t scored on them. And we saw one go in and make it a two goal game. That was a huge goal. That goal, I went in there, and I kind of celebrated after that one pretty hard.”

The rivals played to a 0-0 tie in regulation exactly one week prior, with Eisenhower’s Ben Miller burying the game winner in overtime. Because of that, Romeo needed to win Friday’s rematch in regulation in order to secure the Red. Anything else — even an overtime win — would’ve handed the hardware to Eisenhower.

The Eagles started strong — Weston Szudarek scored unassisted just 18 seconds into the game, quickly proving that Friday’s matchup would be nothing like the last.

Their lead doubled nine minutes later when Brendan Chateau, assisted by Layton Naeyaert and Sawyer Hotchkiss, scored on a power play.

The score stayed 2-0 midway through the second period until Ike’s Adam Morrison’s goal on a runout stretched the advantage to 3-0.

For most teams, needing three goals — or four to accomplish their necessary goal of a regulation win — against a goalie they hadn’t cracked in over a game-and-a-half might’ve been too much. But not for Romeo.

“We just persevered through it,” Burke said. “We were getting good looks. You know, it wasn’t like we weren’t getting chances. We were getting chances, and we just said, ‘Hey, listen, we got to bury it.’ So that goal, seeing that goal go in, was huge. But mentally, we stayed focused. Like, even after the first period, we were down 2-0, we were in a good mindset the whole game. We knew we were working hard, and we knew Ike wasn’t going to stop either.”

Sarrach’s goal, which came on a power play, finally seemed to open the hypothetical floodgates.

“Definitely knew that that was our chance,” Sarrach said. “That was a little bit of hope. … That goal definitely gave us a chance. Like, obviously, hey, you’re in it. Like, just keep going. Everything will go your way.

“(We) came out the next period firing.”

The Bulldogs opened the third period enjoying a 5-on-4 advantage for 4.5 minutes thanks to a five minute major boarding penalty against Eisenhower’s Dylan Rodgers. With 2:49 left in the power play, Lincoln Lipasek got Romeo back down one and, 1:28 later, Drew Basha tied the game.

But for all the celebration happening on one side of a packed ice rink, Romeo still had work to do if they were going to clinch the title.

So with 1:55 left in a 3-3 game, Burke made the bold but correct decision to pull his goalie and give his team a man advantage — something all three of their goals had come via — and go for the win.

“This game was never going to go to overtime,” Burke said.

“If they score there, then you know, they win. We had the chance. And I was going to pull him with about 2:20 left, and I was like, wait, just in case they win the draw. And they did. They went down and then right on the way back down, that’s when I got him off. The guys were pumped up there. We were playing a great game.”Sarrach said that they knew they were taking a gigantic risk leaving their net unminded in a tie game — they just didn’t sweat it.

“There definitely (are nerves), obviously your whole season is on the line. So it’s pretty much all or nothing,” he said.

“But if you’re thinking about all the negative things that are going to happen during it, I mean, it’s not bound to go very well. So just focusing on what we want to happen. I mean, obviously that ended up happening for us.”

Basha buried the go-ahead, game-winning goal just 10 seconds after Landon D’Angelo came off the ice, completing the improbable comeback that featured four unanswered goals in 16 minutes.

While Romeo was playing good hockey despite the deficit, Ike head coach Dave Erwin felt that the inverse was true of his team.

“I felt like we weren’t playing well,” Erwin said. “We were doing some things that aren’t typical — turning over pucks in the neutral zone, not getting pucks in deep when we should. I almost feel like, you know, having the lead got us off our game.

“I wasn’t surprised (at the comeback) at all. Like I said, that’s a good team that had their backs against the wall and knew what they had to do. And they played well, they played their hearts out. I wasn’t surprised at alt that they did (come back). That’s a good program.”

The game was chippy all throughout — as is to be expected of rivals who were fresh off an emotional game and thrown straight into another. With three seconds left, three players were ejected for fighting — Eisenhower’s Newhart and Romeo’s Sarrach and Lipasek were escorted off the ice by officials.

“It’s not like pure hatred,” Sarrach said. “I mean, like, a lot of good guys. I don’t, like, personally want to hurt anyone on the team. It’s just like rival schools. Everyone gets it. It’s just part of the game. But in the end, just try to play hard, you know, get the win.

“Great game by Ike, just wasn’t their day.”

With the MAC Red title in tow, Romeo will play for the outright MAC championship on Saturday against St. Clair Shores back at Suburban Ice Macomb at 6:30. The Bulldogs took their only prior meeting 9-2 in November.

Eisenhower will face L’Anse Creuse Unified in the third place game, who they lost to, 3-2, in December.

They’ve also got one more regular season game against Lake Orion (Feb. 15) before do-or-die time arrives.

And if Ike is going to make a run, they’ll need to harness the hurt from Friday.

“Feel it so that you know you don’t want to ever feel it again, right? So, I mean, hey, that does us in for the MAC, but that doesn’t do our season, and we’re still in a good season,” Erwin said.

“But we got to start doing the right things. Be more consistent about it for all three periods. If they can do that, we still have a chance to make something in the season. So I think we got good kids in there who are going to do that.”