Difficult Season Ends for Royal Oak Hockey

OAK PARK – It was a David vs. Goliath hockey matchup Monday night, but David didn't fare so well in this one as fell hard against No. 3 ranked Birmingham Brother Rice, 10-0, in pre-regional high school playoff action at the Oak Park Ice Arena.

The game was called after the 10th goal by Brother Rice with :26 left in the second period, ending the Ravens' season.

Penalties and an early loss of composure put the Royal Oak Ravens down 5-0 in the first period. Royal Oak earned six penalties on six different calls, with freshman Evan Fall taking four of those penalties. Three of Brother Rice's goals were power play goals and one of those was a 5-3 advantage.

Royal Oak head coach Rejean Tremblay explained his team lost its composure early. "To me the game is played in a discipline fashion," he said. "And when the kids break out of the 'code of discipline' then everything breaks loose."

Tremblay said there was a chance early in the game for Royal Oak to get back in, but the team broke the "code" again allowing Brother Rice to pour more goals into their net. "Some kids took penalties, one (Fall) took a 10-minute misconduct for talking to the referees and one hit a kid in the back and that cost us a goal and we were down 5-0 right there," Tremblay said.

"I was proud of the flashes we had but defensively we were way too weak," he said.

Senior Zach Hull knew the early breakdowns hurt the Ravens. "We played hard but they just played a lot harder," Hull said. "A lot of penalties that definitely hurt us."

From the beginning, Tremblay knew his team was up against a powerhouse and gave the team its due. "That team is a good team, there's no doubt about it," he said of Brother Rice. "They have the players and for us we have a long road to hoe before we can compete with these teams. But we'll play these guys again one day."

The Ravens coach said he would like to see a break between private and public schools and separate divisions. "If you look at the list of championships the last 25 years, it's filled with private schools," he said. "To me that's a major issue. I put that on the floor when I was at Country Day 25 years ago and it's still on the floor."

Tremblay, the third Ravens hockey coach this season, said he'll return to coach the team next season. "I'll be back next year with a lot of enthusiasm," he said. "And whatever I have, I'm going to make them better. There will be a summer program where they work on fundamentals at least two hours a week and not play in any games because I believe it's worthless because all they do is brawl."

Playing for three sets of coaches this season didn't help the team, but Hull said the Ravens are now in capable hands. "We had to change up our game a couple of times," he said. "But towards the end we started playing a little bit better. But we're definitely on the right track for the future."