Highlights and interviews from Hartland's 3-0 hockey victory over Northville. Brenden Tulpa had two goals and one assist. Bill Khan
NOVI — Brenden Tulpa is one of the reasons why Jake Behnke has been such a dangerous goal scorer for Hartland’s hockey team this season.
Tulpa has set up some of Behnke’s biggest goals, but hasn’t had much luck when he’s directed the puck toward the net.
“He’s been bit a couple times,” Hartland coach Rick Gadwa said. “He’s hit a lot of posts. He’s had some breakaways and a goaltender has made a good save.”
Tulpa is capable of providing a goal-scoring complement to Behnke, as he showed by scoring two goals and setting up another in Hartland’s 3-0 victory over Northville on Wednesday night at Novi Ice Arena.
It was the first multiple-goal performance for Tulpa in his last 37 games after he had two early last season.
With the two goals, Tulpa has seven goals and 11 assists in 15 games to rank third in scoring on the second-ranked team in Division 2.
“I’ve been struggling to put the puck in the net,” Tulpa said. “I haven’t been hitting the net lately. So, luckily, I got a few goals tonight.
“I like to think of myself more as a playmaker, especially playing with Jake Behnke. He has a ton of goals this year.”
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On Hartland’s first goal, Josh Albring carried the puck into the zone on a power play and slid it across to Tulpa, who put a shot past the blocker of Northville goalie Owen Moruzi 41 seconds into the second period.
On the second goal, Tulpa took a pass from Behnke in the right circle, paused for a moment, then fired the puck past Moruzi on the power play with 14:42 left in the game.
Tulpa passed the puck across the net to Joey Larson for a back-door goal to complete the scoring with 7:10 remaining, also on the power play.
“He’s just a guy we have to have score goals,” Gadwa said. “I think it’s coming for him. That started tonight with two.”
On the other end, Brett Tome got his first shutout of the season after having two spoiled in the final seconds of games against Hancock and Detroit U-D Jesuit.
“I felt it from warmups, like I did against Hancock,” Tome said. “I just felt it right before I stepped on the ice.”
Hartland was 3-for-6 on the power play against the No. 6 team in Division 1.
“They’ve got tons of skill,” Northville coach Clint Robert said. “Our goal was to stay out of the penalty box. We didn’t want to give their skill a lot of opportunities. Unfortunately, we went to the box a little bit and their skill showed.
“We’re playing well. We’re having a tough time scoring now. We’re getting opportunities and just not scoring.”
Hartland is in first place in the KLAA Gold with a 6-1-1 record, while Northville dropped to 10-7 overall and 6-4 in the division.
The Eagles (10-4-1 overall) will now brace themselves for two tough challenges in their quest to win the division with games against No. 1-ranked (Division 2) Livonia Stevenson at 6 p.m. Friday at Eddie Edgar Arena and at 7 p.m. Tuesday against defending Division 1 champion Brighton at the Kensington Valley Ice House.
Brighton 4, Livonia Franklin 0
LIVONIA — Adam Conquest scored two goals for Brighton (12-4-1), which outshot Franklin, 46-6.
Mathew Kahra and Jason Verhelle had the other goals. Will Jentz and Tim Erkkila had two assists each.