Birmingham Unified rides fast start to 5-3 win over Clarkston

BIRMINGHAM >> The Birmingham Unified Kings built a 3-0 lead then held off a third period comeback by the Clarkston Wolves to claim a 5-3 victory in OAA White hockey action Saturday night.

“Clarkston is a great team, and both times we played them they gave us a run for our money,” Kings head coach Steve Kruk said. “What Karl (Daiek) and his coaching staff has done with that team in a year’s time is incredible. They’re a good team, and these games are fun. These are the kind of games you want to play.”

“Sometimes they work out and sometimes they don’t,” Wolves head coach Karl Daiek said. “It was a good game. I thought it was pretty even. They buried a couple that we didn’t.”

PHOTO GALLERY FROM CLARKSTON VS. BIRMINGHAM UNIFIED

The Kings came out with a lot of energy, generating seven shots in the first four minutes of game play, but it wasn’t until 2:59 left in the first period that they finally broke through with a power play goal from William Sanders who snapped writer through traffic, hitting the top corner for a 1-0 Birmingham lead.

The Kings would add two more goals early in the second period – one each by Andrew Beggs and Charlie Michaud to stretch their lead to 3-0.

“Beggs was flying,” Kruk said. “He’s good in all three zones and in all situations. And for the last month and a half, he’s been terrific.”

Beggs was Birmingham’s best player on the night, finishing with a goal and two assists.

But Clarkston was not about to go quietly. The Wolves started the night in second place, only one game behind Birmingham in the standings, and Clarkston would stage a furious rally in the third period, twice cutting the deficit to a single goal.

After Daniel Milano had scored on the power play in the second period to get Clarkston on the board, Nik Highducheck pulled Clarkston to 3-2 when he stole the puck at the blue line, turned and cut across the top of the circles, picking the top corner with 15:20 to go in the game. The teams would trade goals in the next four minutes to make it 4-3 and set up a wild finish as Clarkston pulled the goalie with just over a minute to play and a power play.

Meanwhile, Clarkston goaltender Austin Burrum was hot. Burrum stopped 31 of 35 shots, including a breakaway in the third period, to keep the Wolves in the hunt.

But Birmingham Unified had had active sticks all night in the defensive zone, breaking up chances time and again, and that tactic came through for the Kings one more time in the closing moments as captain Jack Muir intercepted a pass near the top of the right circle and flipped the puck from just inside his own blue line all the way down the ice for a short-handed empty net goal with 24.1 seconds to play.

“We talk about stick on puck. We talk about layering in our own zone. We talk about outmanning all over the ice., and I think that definitely contributed to us ultimately having less time of possession in our own zone and more time of possession in the neutral zone and the offensive zone. It’s 100% just kind of our structure and outmanning and hunting pucks all over the ice, and that was definitely executed in the second and third periods,” Kruk said.

With the win, Birmingham Unified remains unbeaten at 13-0-1 overall and 6-0 in the OAA White. The Kings now have a four point lead in the division with four games remaining. The Kings will be back in action on Thursday when they travel to Bloomfield Hills for another OAA White game.

The Wolves slip to 9-6 overall and 4-2 in the OAA White. Clarkston will also be back in action against a divisional opponent on Thursday when they host Oxford/Avondale United.

“These guys are playing hard the whole way, which is all I can ask. And they’ve had patience this year,” Daiek said. “So we’ve got a lot of hockey left.”