Houghton goalie Bryant Lee maneuvers like Bruce Lee — just on the ice

Houghton was battling four-time defending Division 1 state champ Novi Detroit Catholic Central tooth and nail in the scoreless first period of the prestigious MIHL Showcase in Trenton a couple of weeks ago.

It was quite an accomplishment for the Gremlins, No. 1 in D-3, to hang in there so well against powerhouse CC, when all of a sudden the puck somehow wound up behind Houghton goalie Bryant Lee with only 0:00.2 showing on the clock.

“That was a tough one,” Lee said. “We could have just ate the puck in the corner, but ... lucky bounces.”

It was a depressing moment for Houghton, one which the Gremlins have experienced before.

A year ago Houghton led East Grand Rapids, 1-0, in the waning seconds of the state semifinals when East tied the game with 15 seconds left in the third period.

As they entered the locker room that day, the Houghton players looked like they had just lost the game, which they eventually did in overtime.

“We’ve learned from that,” Lee said. “We went into the locker room with our heads down. We were so close to winning, but then we deflated. But this year we’ve been through that — we have 15 returners — so we’ve dealt with that before.”

In other years, surrendering a goal to a team such as CC that late in the first period might have led to a total collapse; CC might have quickly scored two or three goals early in the next period.

Instead, Houghton fought its way through the next two periods before losing to the Shamrocks, 2-1, in a terrific game for both teams.

Houghton tied the game with 11:25 left in the second period, but CC retook the lead with 3:09 left in the period.

The Shamrocks dominated the third period, outshooting Houghton, 13-4, with three of Houghton’s shots coming in the final minute.

With all of the pressure CC applied, it easily could have turned into a three or four-goal period for CC had it not been for Lee.

“I thought the third period, we had opportunities to pull away,” CC coach Brandon Kaleniecki said. “It was 2-1 and I thought our third period was really good. I thought we had a few better chances than they did. We had a really good third period and we didn’t score.

“That was primarily due to him making some really good saves.”

It didn’t get to the point that Lee was “standing on his head” making saves, but it was close.

Although it was Houghton’s first loss of the season, it was certainly one of Lee’s most impressive performances.

“He was outstanding,” Houghton coach Micah Stipech declared. “He was our heart and soul. When we were on the ropes, he’s the guy who kept us in there and allowed us to have chances to push back."

Lee truly was outstanding, which would have come as quite a surprise to anyone who watched the youngster’s earliest attempts at playing hockey.

Born in Madison, Wisconsin, Lee was 5 when the family moved to Houghton after his father, Dr. Bruce Lee — yeah, he has heard the jokes so often Bryant’s nickname is "Bruce" — became a biomedical engineering professor at Michigan Tech. His mother, Catherine, teaches marketing there. Both parents were born in Taiwan.

A year or two after moving to Houghton, with the encouragement of his parents, Lee decided to give hockey a shot.

“A lot of his friends were doing it and we thought it would be something just for fun,” his father said. “We never thought he’d be on a travel team or it would be a big part of our life, but he’s interested in it and he works hard at it so it’s something that we do.

“We didn’t realize he would be this good.”

Neither did he ... nor anyone else. Lee tried hockey, and early on thought he might have to try a different sport to find any measure of success.

He was not a natural.

“Up here in the winter there’s not much to do, so my dad asked if I wanted to try hockey,” Lee said. “At first I could barely skate. I was the worst skater on the ice. And then I got better. Then everyone in mites all got a chance to try goalie and I just loved it.”

It took quite a while before Lee went from being a horrible skater to finding a home in the goal.

He conveniently left out some of the best details, like getting dressed before hockey practice.

“My first time skating, I didn’t have sock or a jersey,” he said. “I had my elbow pads on the wrong arms.”

That wasn’t all. Trying to put on all of the pads proved to be a disaster.

“We still have a picture of the first time we put the gear on him,” his father said. “We had the leg pads and they were put on incorrectly. None of us played hockey before we went to Houghton.”

That wasn’t all. There was one essential part of equipment missing.

“I didn’t have a nut cup,” Lee said. “It took me about a half-season to figure out about the nut cup. My socks kept falling down. They weren’t Velcroed to my jock strap.

“Luckily, I didn’t find out the hard way.”

Also luckily, a coach eventually spoke up and told the family what their son was missing.

Once that was covered, so to speak, Lee’s main challenge was to get good enough to play for a travel team, and then the high school team.

That was more difficult than in other areas of the state — goalie coaches aren't exactly flocking to the U.P.

Lee did what any red-blooded kid today would do — he went to the internet.

“I watched a lot of YouTube videos because there weren’t a lot of goalie coaches up there,” he said. “There were a few camps I went to. YouTube helped a ton. I watched NHL saves compilations of like Carey Price, that guy was awesome.”

Stipech is the middle school counselor and had known about Lee for several years, but not necessarily as a hockey phenom.

As a freshman, Lee started on the junior varsity team and then was the varsity starter these past two seasons.

“His work ethic stood out,” Stipech said. “Our two core values in this team are to compete and be a good teammate, and those are the two things that stand out about him most.”

Lee is a well-rounded student. He has a 3.8 grade-point average and scored 1,380 on the SAT. He plays tenor sax in the school band and enjoys playing poker (with a $10 buy-in) with his buddies when he isn’t playing hockey.

He also understands he is able to play hockey because he gets good grades — which is what you would expect a father with a doctorate insisting upon.

“We tried to tell him that school was something he had to do,” Bruce said. “Hockey was more of a luxury. School was more important. He had to have the grades before he could play hockey.”

The hockey state tournament begins Monday and the Gremlins, 21-2-1 heading into Friday’s game at Marquette, hope to return to Plymouth’s USA Hockey Arena.

To win a state title, a team needs outstanding goalie play, which Kaleniecki believes Lee can provide in clutch situations like he did against CC.

“It seems like he’s having a really good year,” the CC coach said. “From what I’ve seen with the year they’re having, he’s quite good, to say the least.”

Stipech believes Lee’s work ethic is truly paying dividends this season as the Gremlins play one of the toughest schedules in the state. Lee holds a .945 save percentage.

“He’s really taken steps,” Stipech said. “He’s a kid that showed up in the weight room at 7 o’clock in the morning all summer and he can squat over 400 pounds.

“He’s making a bid to be the best goaltender in the state. He’s a great student-athlete and is really determined this year.”

He is driven this year by how last season ended. It isn’t necessarily the overtime loss, but the entire experience of coming down from the U.P.

He remembers how much fun they had on the bus ride downstate and the tremendous support the players received from the proud people of Houghton.

And the most recent trip down state, to play in the MIHL Showcase, may wind up paying dividends.

“I learned we have the ability to keep up with the best team in the state,” Lee said. “Getting pulled for the first time all year is a another learning opportunity come playoffs. If it comes to that, we’ll know how to handle it.

“We know how good we are. And we’ve gotten better at dealing with adversity. One of the things our coach has been telling us is our reaction — our ‘R’ factor — when things happen. We’ve been working on that all season.”

Mick McCabe is a former longtime columnist for the Detroit Free Press. Contact him at mick.mccabe11@gmail.com. Follow him @mickmccabe1. Order his book, “Mick McCabe’s Golden Yearbook: 50 Great Years of Michigan’s Best High School Players, Teams & Memories,” right now at McCabe.PictorialBook.com.

This article originally appeared on Detroit Free Press: Houghton's Bryant Lee maneuvers like Bruce Lee — just on the ice