Bears Hockey Trounce Southgate 4-1 in Pre-Regional

The Bears hockey team came into Southgate Civic Center with one goal in mind: Take care of business. The Bears were set to face a Southgate Anderson Titan team that had two huge motivational factors—home-ice advantage and a huge overtime win over Woodhaven earlier in the week. With both sides carrying momentum, the game was figured to be a close one throughout. 

But Roosevelt had other ideas. had four points, Nick Kovalchik three points and the Bears got 18 saves from Chase Schmittou in a 4-1 dismantling of Southgate in a pre-regional final Wednesday night.

“Coming in, we knew that Southgate was going to come in fired up after beating Woodhaven,” Mayhew said. “We knew that we had to keep working.”

The first period got off to a fast start for Wyandotte as Mayhew scored his first goal less than three minutes in. His goal was unassisted and quieted the Southgate crowd. The Bears were controlling the pace throughout the first period, getting numerous shots on goal, but only able to put one in the net.

Not to be outdone by his counterpart, Schmittou made a diving glove save to preserve the one-goal lead with less than two minutes to go in the first period.

The lead did not last as Titan forward Josh Beleski put a shot past Schmittou and the score was 1-1 heading into the first intermission, even though Roosevelt held a 13-7 advantage in shots through one period of play.

But Mayhew put Roosevelt back in front for good with his second goal of the game. The assists went to Kyle King and John Calhoun, and the Bears never looked back.

The Bears' third goal came on the power play with Kovalchik scoring on assists from Mayhew and Tyler Groat. The second period ended with Wyandotte leading 3-1.

Groat made an even bigger impact in third period, first by scoring a goal and then by slamming his body into the glass down by the Southgate fan section. He hit the glass so hard that one of the brackets holding the glass together came apart, resulting in a minor delay to repair the damage.

The Bears played a sound defensive third period, and were able to walk away with the three-goal victory.

Calhoun has believed all season that their success is both a team effort and the leadership of Mayhew and Kovalchik.

“We have had good leadership from them all year and we have a bunch of contributors that help our success,” Calhoun said. “We play a huge team game.”

Most coaches will stay in the locker room with their teams during intermissions to talk to their team. Wyandotte’s coaches do not, instead opting to stand outside the locker room. It’s a practice that assistant coach Joe Mayhew believes helps.

“We let them collect their own thoughts and work through it as a team,” he said. “It’s a great way for Gerald and Nick to help the team to grow.”

The Bears are off until Saturday when they will play at the Kennedy Recreation Center in Trenton at 7:30 p.m. against .