Hockey's Season Ends After Overtime Heartbreaker in WHAC Semifinals

(Dearborn, MI)-- The Cleary Cougar hockey team entered the WHAC Tournament with a bye and a two-seed, but were upended in overtime 4-3 by the Lawrence Tech Blue Devils.

Neither team would score in the first twenty minutes of action, but the Blue Devils would strike twice within the first 11:10 minutes of the second period to take a 2-0 lead.  Cleary would answer less than a minute later, when Landen Engles scored, with an assist from Braeden Bzovey, to make the score 2-1.  That score would hold though the rest of the period.

In the third period, Braden Bzovey would tie the game at 2-2 five minutes into the action.  Halfway through the period, with Cleary on the power play, the Cougars would turn the puck over, and the Blue Devils scored a short-handed goal to take a 3-2 lead.  Later in the period, and with Cleary desparate to tie the game, the Cougars pulled goalie Nick Meyering.  With 1:19 left, the extra skater on the ice paid off, as JC Garbacik scored, with an assist from Braeden Bzovey, tying the game at 3-3, and forcing overtime.  

In the extra period, the Blue Devils would find the back of the net with 9:49 on the clock, to win the game 4-3.

Nick Meyering would suffer the loss in goal, making 26 saves on 30 shots faced.

Cleary ends the season with an 18-9-4 overall record.