PLYMOUTH – The Plymouth Cultural Center was rocking with both cheers and big hits as the Salem Rocks hosted the Northville Mustangs in a Kensington Lakes Activities Association contest Tuesday night.
The big story in a 4-0 win for the Rocks was the play of goalie Brandon Price. He all stopped all 25 Northville shots.
“He was the best player on the ice for us,” Salem coach Ryan Ossenmacher. “Anytime a goalie can get a shutout against a quality opponent like Northville, you know he’s playing well. He’s always a guy that’s pretty well prepared. He’s been, probably, our most consistent player. He’s as mentally prepared before a game as anyone we have.”
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Michael Manser, Ryan Quigley, Alex Zultowski and Kyle Downey all contributed goals for Salem.
Going into Tuesday night’s game, Ossenmacher and his team knew it wasn’t going to be easy.
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“This is a team that nobody in this locker room has beaten before, including myself," he said. "I’ve been here four years and we’ve never won a game against them. So coming into tonight, we knew what we had to do.
“I just had to keep myself focused. I was definitely in the zone tonight,” Price said.
Northville had a great opportunity to get back in the game when it went on a 5-on-3 power play for just under two minutes. Price stayed focused as the Mustangs did their best to score.
“I loved every second of it,” Price said. “I love seeing those 5-on-3’s. We’ve only got 3 guys out there and I know I’m going to get peppered with shots and that’s what I love about the game. I was pretty confident. I knew our boys could hold it off and we sure did.”
Despite the loss, Northville coach Jeff Hatley remained optimistic about his team’s gritty play in the shutout.
“Our guys played hard,” Hatley. "Their goalie played well. They’re a good team. We’re down five players right now, five regular guys, so we’re having a lot of young guys stepping in and they’re playing well and playing hard.”
Clayton Neal of Northville was disappointed with the outcome, but understands sometimes you get he bounces and sometimes you don’t.
“I think we came out a little slow in the first period. Second period, we put it on them, destroying them all over, they just got a couple lucky bounces in the first and we just couldn’t put it in the net.” Neal said. “I think it was one of our best games [as a team]. We were coming together more than how we first started in the season.”
Northville forward Xavier Gaudet acknowledged the stellar play of Salem’s goalie, but said he may have had luck on his side as well.
“He got a couple good saves. Some of it's luck, but he made a couple good saves though,” Gaudet said. “I thought we worked hard. I think we should’ve won that game, but we just couldn’t get the lucky bounces. [Despite the loss] it was fun.”
Northville will have to bounce back quickly as they play again Wednesday night, taking on Plymouth at the Novi Ice Arena at 6 p.m. Salem plays Thursday at home against South Lyon at 6:30 p.m.
