Anchor Bay Hockey Team Can't Stop Port Huron Northern

The Port Huron Northern Huskies showed their defensive might Wednesday, beating the Tars 2-1 to move on to the boys hockey regional quarterfinals this weekend.

"We knew they were going to be tough," said Port Huron Northern coach Bill Warren. "We just wanted to stick to our game because they're a tough team and I give them a lot of credit. They hung in there."

Neither team managed to score in the first, but both squads had a handful of chances in a period that was largely played in the middle of the ice.

The Tars first quality chance came at the 11-minute mark, when Alex Fonstad slid a short range shot just off to the right.

The Tars saw another quality chance at 4:45, when Andy McEvoy let one loose from the crease that was almost put back in by Fonstad. Huskies goalie Wade Holcomb managed to cover at the last second, however.

For the Huskies, their best chance came with 3:34 left in the period, when a crosschecking call gave them a power-play chance. Robert King had the best shot of the shift when he let loose with a slapshot from the right wing that Tars goalie Jeff Wilssens managed to deflect wide left.

The Tars managed to fight off the power play, even earning one for themselves as the period was winding down. Their final chance to score came with 9.8 seconds left in the first when Andrew Lahr nearly managed to hack a shot into the goal but was ultimately stymied by Holcomb.

In the second, the Huskies came out with one goal in mind: to score.

They pounded in attempts at 13:30 and 12:00 before finally managing to get on the board at 11:11 when Lewis Nowaski knocked the puck past Wilssens off of assists from Tyler Hughes and Adam Rose.

Both squads then traded penalties—tripping for the Huskies and interference for the Tars—which created almost two full minutes of 4-on-4 hockey. Neither team was able to take advantage, though.

The Tars got another power play with less than three minutes left in the second when Trent Beebe was called for interference for the Huskies (along with a 10-minute misconduct call) but they again failed to get on the score board.

In the third period, the Huskies came out in control of the game play in the early seconds—and they never really let up.

At 12:57, Austin Ainsworth almost gave the Huskies a two-goal lead but Wilssens managed to deflect the shot off to the left at the last second.

"He's a solid goalie who can really keep them in games," Warren said.

The Tars found themselves hemmed in by a dominant Huskies defensive front that refused to ever really let them set up on offense. Fonstad found himself open on the left wing at 8:38, but couldn't quite bury the shot.

Instead, the Huskies managed to cement their lead a mere six seconds later when Kyle Truscott knocked one in off of assists from Hughes and Eric Pfeifer, putting them up 2-0.

The next few minutes featured a series of minor penalties by both squads—with both teams boasting three players in the penalty box at one time at a certain point.

In the waning minutes of the game, the Tars did manage to get one last chance when they were put on a power play thanks to a slashing call. Despite the man advantage though, it wasn't until the final minute of play—with Wilssens pulled out of net—that the Tars managed to get a goal.

It happened with 39.4 seconds left, when Dylan Hurttgam slid one over Holcomb's left shoulder thanks to a knifing pass from Omas Novak.

"We made the game interesting in the end," said Warren. "(Anchor Bay) has a lot of ability and we knew it was going to be a fight."

Up next for the Huskies is a regional quarterfinal on Saturday.