BY JAMES COOK
jcook@record-eagle.com
November 30, 2007 04:00 am TRAVERSE CITY -- Two coaches. One wins. One loses. Both are happy? It doesn't happen often, but in an early-season matchup, Traverse City Central earned a 2-1 Big North Conference win over Gaylord and the leaders of both teams seemed pleased. TC Central coach Chris Givens was happy the Trojans escaped with a victory in the league opener. Gaylord coach Bill Touroo was encouraged by a completely overhauled defense that was able to limit the 2006 Division II state champions to 29 shots on goal in his team's first action of the year against a squad with two contests under its belt. Central sophomore Alex Goodhue faked a slapshot on a break-away, then raced by the defenseman and went up high with a wrist shot to score the game-winning goal with 9:30 left in the third period. "I faked the shot and then went to the net," Goodhue said. "That's what I was hoping for." Gaylord had tied the game 1-1 on junior Hunter Stier's break-away after forcing a turnover at the TC blueline, skating in to lift a shot high into the net from in tight with 3:25 left in the second. The Trojans struck first as Steve Ball tipped the puck away from a Blue Devil player and -- two passes later -- deposited it around Blue Devil netminder Chris Boughner 3:31 into the second period. Gaylord put on some late pressure to try to get the score tied again, pulling Boughner with 40 seconds left, but defenseman Nick Aja's sliding shot block with 15 seconds left all but ended Gaylord's hopes. "There's some kids hanging their heads in there and they shouldn't be," Touroo said. "We lost five senior defensemen last year. Our young guys played well -- including (freshman blueliner) Jim Ryan -- and that's an area we were concerned about. "All in all, I'm pretty pleased with what I saw." Central (2-1) outshot Gaylord (0-1) by a slim 8-6 margin in the first period, but saw the Devils gain a 10-2 advantage in the second period. "We all stepped up," Goodhue said. "We all played well and played hard." The game was similar to the Trojans' loss to Warren De La Salle, in which Central controlled the first period but then trailed off. "Exactly like it," Givens said. "Except the difference is tonight we were able to come back from it. "We were lucky to come out of the second period tied. If we had another period like the second, I think we'd have lost by three or four." Goodhue noticed the same ebb and flow in the Trojans' play. "We kind of died off (in the second period)," Goodhue said. "The penalties hurt us in the first." But Central kicked it in for the third period, outshooting the Blue Devils 13-6. The Trojans were playing shorthanded all of the game, as junior forward Dane Macdonell is out with an upper body injury until next week and junior forward Riley Huffman is out until next February with a torn hip muscle sustained in the De La Salle game last Friday. Matters got worse when junior forward Derek Gardner was ejected for butt-ending 10:33 into the game, leaving Central with nine forwards. The butt-ending call and a cross-checking whistle 2:22 later resulted in a full two minutes of 5-on-3 for Gaylord that the Trojans burned off, with little more dangerous than a screened shot that hit Central netminder Hunter Kelly in the chest. Kelly made 21 saves in the contest, while Boughner stopped 27 shots. Central's third line of Ball and sophomores Max Schrank and Kyle Ulrich played well, with Schrank and Ulrich picking up assists on Ball's goal. Luke Stricker and Eric Swy assisted on Goodhue's game-winner. The Blue Devils, which lost virtually its entire defensive unit from a 17-8 team a year ago, could have benefitted from the luxury of an entire third forward unit. "We really needed a third line," Touroo said. "We were sagging at times. But I don't think we're far off. I think we're better than I thought we'd be."
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