Howell reaches regional hockey final; Pinckney breaks district basketball drought
EAST LANSING — An advantage of being a No. 1 seed in hockey regionals is not having to play a first-round game.
But the flip side is that by the time a top-seeded team takes the ice for its first playoff game, quite a bit of time may have passed since the last time it played.
Fortunately for Howell, its rust-buster came against a Kalamazoo Eagles team that went 8-16 during the regular season while playing a schedule not nearly as tough as the Highlanders’.
Fifth-ranked Howell survived and advanced with a 4-1 victory Monday in a regional semifinal at Munn Ice Arena.
The Highlanders took a 3-0 lead in the first 9 minutes and 2 seconds, but managed only one empty-net goal in the final 42 minutes. Howell’s last game was nine days earlier.
“We were a little sluggish,” Howell coach Rocky Johnson said. “We haven’t played in a week and certainly didn’t play our best hockey. Andrew Klei stepped through. It’s what he’s been here to do. He kept us in it and he’s the one who won us the game.”
Klei made 25 saves, allowing no more than one goal for the sixth time in his last nine starts.
Goals by Ben Huotari, Joel Eskola and Rory Sturos gave Howell its early lead. A late goal in the second period by Kalamazoo, which is sponsored by Richland Gull Lake, cut the deficit to two before the Highlanders got an empty-netter from Bryce Eskola with nine seconds remaining.
“It just got out of hand in terms of us not playing maybe our best hockey, but the game was never a concern,” Johnson said.
Howell (17-8-1) will play for its second regional championship in the past 14 seasons at 6 p.m. Wednesday against the Eastside Stars, sponsored by Okemos, at Munn.
Boys basketball
Pinckney 55, Fowlerville 46
Pinckney (5-18) won its first district game in seven years behind Caden Carlson’s 24-point performance.
The Pirates’ last district victory was a 54-33 decision over Dexter in the first round in 2017 when current coach Kyle O’Donahue was a senior for Pinckney. He scored 16 points in that game.
Drakon Mayes had 11 points and Zander Barbee nine for Pinckney, which will play Chelsea at 5 p.m. Wednesday in the district semifinals at Ann Arbor Gabriel Richard. Pinckney lost 82-46 and 92-44 to Chelsea during SEC White play.
Wyatt Soli had 17 points, Griffin Gonzalez 12 and Brendan Ray 10 for Fowlerville (5-18).
Manchester 46, Charyl Stockwell 44
Drew Goodwin scored 14 points, Parker Olejniczak 12 and Nic Nicaj nine for Stockwell (11-12) in a first-round Division 3 district game.
Skiing
State Division 1 meet
Brighton junior John Popov made all-state in both events, placing sixth in giant slalom and eighth in slalom.
Hartland’s Wyatt Colliton was 44th and Howell’s Alex Cotton was 46th in slalom.
Brighton’s girls finished seventh out of nine teams.
Freshman Payton Wedekemper was the Bulldogs’ top skier, placing 30th in slalom and tying for 24th in giant slalom. Abby Storch was 33rd in giant slalom and 36th in slalom for the Bulldogs.
Hartland’s Sophia Juviler was 43rd in slalom and 49th in giant slalom. Brighton’s Cecilia Pruski was 45th in giant slalom.
Contact Bill Khan at wkhan@gannett.com. Follow him on X @BillKhan
This article originally appeared on Livingston Daily: 'Sluggish' Howell hockey team beats Kalamazoo Eagles in regionals
