Bears Skate to Victory and Become State Hockey Champs for First Time in School History

In the biggest hockey game in school history, the Bears defeated the Birmingham Brother Rice Warriors, 4-1, Saturday at Compuware Arena to win the first state hockey title in school history.

“This is the greatest feeling to win states,” Wyandotte forward Gerald Mayhew said. “I had to wait four years for this. This is great not just for us, but for the city of Wyandotte as well.”

Riding the momentum from and playing in front of a raucous student section, Wyandotte controlled the pace early Saturday.

Through the first three minutes of the game, the Bears outshot the Warriors 5-1, and their strong play drew an interference penalty from Brother Rice.

Less than 30 seconds after the penalty was called, Wyandotte forward Nicholas Kovalchik beat Warrior goaltender P.J. Bridges with a wrist shot, and the Bears had an early one-goal lead.

Wyandotte’s style of play, which involves them dumping the puck into the zone and chasing after it, gave the Warriors fits.

Wyandotte goaltender Chase Schmittou was solid in the first period, making numerous saves, and the Bears continued to fire shots from different angles to challenge Bridges.

He was up to the task until the 12:05 mark of the first period when Kovalchik put another shot past him. John Calhoun recorded the assist on the goal, and Wyandotte led 2-0 heading into the first intermission despite being outshot by Brother Rice 14-13.

Brother Rice started the second period strong, scoring nine seconds into the stanza and cutting the deficit to 2-1 on a goal by Wariors forward Mackenzie MacEachern. Over the next eight minutes, both teams exchanged numerous shots on goal and each had many quality scoring chances.

But Wyandotte took advantage of a high-sticking penalty on Jake Jaskolski at the 8:27 mark of the second period.

With Jaskolski in the box, Gerald Mayhew scored on assist from Kyle King. The Bears now led 3-1, and momentum had shifted back to favor Wyandotte.  

The Bears maintained their two-goal lead heading into the second intermission, even though the Warriors held a 13-10 advantage in shots in the second period and 27-23 edge in the game.

In the third period, Schmittou made sure Wyandotte would not wilt, turning aside 21 shots from the Warriors.

A fight on the ice between Joseph Green and Brother Rice's Matthew Stack led to the two exchanging punches while Brother Rice rans threw their towels onto the ice. The Warriors players on the ice signaled for their fans to stop, but they didn't. The arena issued a warning to their student section, but Brother Rice’s athletic director instead told the students to leave.

King closed the scoring with an unassisted goal with 1:39 left in the game that set off a Wyandotte celebration.

Numerous players were waving and pointing to the crowd, grateful for the support that their city had given them not just in the past two weeks, but all season long.

“For us to do this, this was an amazing season,” Schmittou said. “Everyone stepped up.”

Both Mayhew and Kovalchik said Schmittou was one of the main reasons why the guys now have medals around their necks and a state championship trophy for the school showcase.

 “Tonight was possibly Chase’s last hockey game and he played great,” Kovalchik said. “We deserve this.”

Brother Rice captain Jake Jaskolski echoed that praise of Schmittou.

“He’s the reason they won,” Jaskolski told

Brother Rice coach Lou Schmidt Jr. said his players gave it their all, but were unable to get past Schmittou.

“Their goalie played fantastic,” Schmidt said. “I’d like to say that maybe we didn’t do something, but we didn’t. We did everything we could to get pucks going to the net, get rebounds and get bodies. He just stood there and stopped everything. Congratulations to them.”

Wyandotte finished its dream season with a 27-3 overall record, and Wyandotte coach Mike Quint praised his players.

“Five months ago, we started on a journey and now we are here,” Quint said at a postgame press conference. “Talk to these kids sitting next to me. They are the reason we are here.”

(Birmingham Patch freelance writer contributed to this report.)

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