Athens Hockey Falls to Country Day in Opening 7-2 Loss

The following story was written and submitted by Tom Kuhn/Detroit County Day Hockey.

In the opener for both teams, Detroit Country Day defeated Troy Athens 7-2 at the Troy Sports Arena Wednesday night.  

"Our special teams were real good tonight," said Frank Novock, Country Day coach. "Our penalty kill didn't give up anything.  On the power play, we scored three goals."   

DCDS fought through nine penalty kills, including two five on three Athens' advantages.

Country Day jumped off to a 2-0 lead in the first period as junior defenseman Shane Switzer scored both goals.  Switzer skated past the Athens defense and rifled a shot in from the right circle for an unassisted goal four minutes into the game.  He then added Country Day's second goal, when Sebastian Stankiewicz took the puck at center ice, raced down the left side and passed it out to Switzer at the right slot.    

Country Day scored four more goals in the second period, three of them on the power play.  Jake Hartje started the scoring with a low hard shot from the left point, after being set up by Switzer.  Switzer collected the hat trick, when he converted after a pass from Stankiewicz in front of the net. Pat Adams made it 5-0 Country Day. Adams got a pass from Toby Murray and Matt Dolan in front of the net, swirled and rifled a one-timer into the net.  Stankiewicz completed the second period scoring when he blasted in a rebound that came out to him in front.

Athens finally made it on the scoreboard, getting a goal past Country Day Junior goaltender Chris Cantrell when Ian Marchand scored from Cory Faw 27 seconds into the third period. Stankiewicz got that goal back five minutes later when he picked up the puck at center ice, raced in, passed it to Switzer who then sent it back to Stankiewicz in front. Sebastian made no mistake as he blistered the shot into the upper corner.

"We got a solid effort from Sebastian and Shane on the scoreboard," said Novock.  Novock also praised the steadiness provided by freshmen Will Kushena and Anthony Shui, along with seniors Paul Johnson and Robert Kuhn.

Nathan Gurzell finished the scoring for Athens when he put in an unassisted goal with a little over seven minutes left in the game.

Despite the win, Novock saw room for improvement from his team. "We've got a ton of things to work on as far as turnovers and finishing checks," he said.

Chris Cantrell (DCD) 11 saves/ 13 shots Jeff Merola (TA) 26 saves/ 33 shots