The Ypsilanti Courier
A Heritage Newspaper
Weekly Publication
Ice time
Flyers find themselves on a wild roller coaster ride
By Tom Perkins, Special Writer
PUBLISHED: January 31, 2008
Two days of hockey brought two opposite results, but Willow Run/ Belleville co-op hockey coach Scott Heister can find no reason to complain about either days' effort.
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The Flyers spent almost of the entirety of their Friday night in Ottawa Hills' zone en route to a 8-0 mercy, but found themselves losing by the same score the following day Dearborn Crestwood.
"I was happy with the weekend," he said. "I was very pleased, even with the game with Crestwood."
The Flyers outshot Ottawa Hills 48 to 6 Friday night in a contest that ended early in the third period on the mercy rule.
Heister said he was happy to see his team out perform a school he considers on par with his own.
"They're pretty much about the same quality of team as us," he said. "We definitely out played them and out hustled them and played better position hockey than they played."
The win and effort is part of a larger trend Heister has noticed since the holiday tournament when the team bottomed out with pair of losses in which the Flyers turned in poor performances.
A large part of the success can be attributed to the successful execution of the center ice trap, which has drastically cut down on opponents' quality scoring chances.
"We're playing better and better hockey and can play with anyone with the same skills as us," Heister said. "They aren't letting guys skate through center ice, and that's made a big difference."
Nate Ford quickly adjusted to his new spot at center and registered a hat trick and Zach White put in his first career goal on Friday.
"He's starting to get some more confidence and he took power skating classes over the break that helped a bit," Heister said of White.
While the Flyers were on the wrong end of a mercy Saturday, Heister was still happy with how the team skated.
Willow Run/Belleville hung with Crestwood through the firs half of the game, but with a roster only eleven deep the Flyers soon found themselves exhausted.
The situation was worsened by a 10 minute penalty given to captain David Tasker. Heister kept him out the remainder of the game to prevent any further problems.
"We couldn't skate with Crestwood long enough," Heister said. "We hit the cross bar, the post and had more quality scoring chances in the first half of the second period, but they were running tree solid lines and we were running one and a half."
Tom Perkins is a freelance writer for the View/Courier. He can be reached at trper kins@gmail.com.
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