Little Caesars pulls off OT win for Girls 14U state title

By Matt Bishop –

Taylor — Little Caesars co-captain Hannah Potrykus came so close to being the hero at the end of regulation of Sunday’s MAHA 14U Girls AAA Tier 1 state championship game.

Potrykus skated the puck out of her zone to center ice, took a look up at the clock, saw four seconds left and drove a slap shot that hit Honeybaked goaltender Shannon Ropp high and almost dropped behind her and into the net.

As the buzzer sounded, Potrykus skated back to the bench with her head in her hands, in disbelief of how close she came to winning the game.

Considering how close she came to winning it in regulation, it was only fitting she was the overtime hero.

Only 46 seconds into the extra session, Potrykus willed her team the title as her shot from the right side eluded Ropp, giving Little Caesars a hard-fought 2-1 win over Honeybaked at Taylor Sportsplex.

“The defenseman wasn’t moving her feet, so I forechecked her, moved her stick and the rest of my team was changing, so I brought it around and backhanded it over her shoulder,” Potrykus said.

Little Caesars coach Eric Couvreur couldn’t be more impressed with everything Potrykus has accomplished this season.

“Every team has nucleus players and Hannah is a core player,” Couvreur said. “She has just wanted this so bad all year. There could be no other player to get that goal. She’s my hardest worker, always has a positive attitude and she’s just a tenacious competitor. To see her go down, take the puck away and put it in was just beautiful.”

After the try by Potrykus almost went in at the end of regulation, there was a stark contrast in both teams as they sat on the bench, getting instruction and awaiting overtime. The Little Ceasars bench was jovial and laid back. Players were laughing and clearly loose. A few feet away on the Honeybaked bench, the players appeared to be in shock. Some had their heads down, but all looked very rigid. It was something Couvreur noticed and pointed out to his squad.

“I told the girls when they got on the bench to take a peek at their bench when they could, to look at their faces,” he said. “They were scared. I told them they had nothing to lose and to have fun. I could definitely sense they were a little worried.”

It was a tense battle throughout. Neither team recorded a shot for the first 4:35 when Honeybaked finally tested the goaltender. Little Caesars didn’t have a shot on goal for the first 11 minutes and that first one was from center ice.

After a scoreless first period, Honeybaked took a 1-0 lead on a beautiful team goal. On the power play, it was tic-tac-toe as Kaleigh Beauregard sent a pass to Rylie Murray, who relayed it to Lea Boreland, who sent a Brett Hull-esque one-timer into the goal.

But from there, Honeybaked would have chances but would repeatedly be denied or just miss the opportunity. In a tight, tense game short on offense and a lot of action in the neutral zone, those missed chances came back to haunt Honeybaked coach Lyle Phair.

“It’s not the style we like to play,” he said. “We’re more of a skating team. I don’t know if it was a defensive battle as much as us having five or six real good scoring chances we didn’t score on.”

Little Caesars tied the game about midway through the third period when Mia Apruzzese’s little flick wrist shot found its way into the goal.

Honeybaked would have chances late but could not covert before Potrykus’ heroics.

For Little Caesars, this win was even sweeter considering they had lost the state title to Honeybaked last season (a 1-0 double overtime win) and had dropped a 3-2 decision to them in pool play.

“I thought they were always more talented by player, but our girls played really well together,” Couvreur said.

“They’re a good team. They’ve been beating on us all year pretty much, so to see the girls believe in themselves, and that’s what happened, as the game went on and the score was real tight, we started to believe in ourselves more, and the more chances we took, the more chances we got, so it paid off.”

Bethany Leclair made 17 saves for Little Caesars while Ropp also stopped 17 for Honeybaked.