Kentwood Ice Arena

Courtesy of: JEN JUDSON | Advance Newspapers

 KENTWOOD – In the home ice grudge match between host South Christian and guest East Kentwood Friday, the night belonged to Falcon forward Brett White. White put away the opening score and succeeded to score four more in leading the Falcons to an 8-3 victory at the East Kentwood Ice Arena.

"It was a great night for me, but I couldn't have done it without my linemates, my teammates," said White. "They got a whole bunch of assists on my goals, so it was a whole team effort."

In the first period, Tyler Layle found White at the blueline giving White the breakaway to the net. White backhanded in the lone score of the period at 12:48.

South Christian saw a moment of excitement when the Sailors tied it up in the first minute of the second period on a goal by Blake DeVries assisted by Marlon Bykerk and John DeVries.

"It's always tough this time of year," said EK coach Todd Bell. "You see kids that played their last game like Blake DeVries who is probably one of the better players in the area. He had a great career for South Christian. Jake Holden is a great defenseman for them. It's bittersweet. I'm happy for my guys to win a league championship, but it's hard for those guys who are seniors and great kids."

The Sailor celebration was short-lived, however, when nine seconds later Layle passed to Chris Laux who got the puck on the stick of White for his second goal of the night.

Breaking up the hat trick if only momentarily, East Kentwood's Austin Adams slid the puck under the skate of South Christian goalie's Dennis Hoekzema. East Kentwood goalie Zack Casavant who ended the night with 21 saves and White recorded the assists. Adams also scored a second goal in the third period. Hoekzema faced 43 shots in the game with 35 recorded saves.

"The last time we played (South Christian) their goalie, he got the best of me," said White. "He played really well. Tonight I just took quicker shots and used the defensemen as a screen knowing that if he saw them straight on he'd stop them. It was a good night and our whole team played well."

White picked up two more goals in the second period. The first a power play score at 9:20 was assisted by Layle and Nick Christie. The second with 3:22 to play in the period was unassisted. Then in the third period, he put away a second unassisted at 10:09 for his fifth goal of the night.

"It was a good night for us," said Bell. "We won eight in a row, six league games and two non-league. The guys are feeling good right now. They're flying. The kids are playing well and we have to keep that momentum going."

Also finding the back of the net, East Kentwood got a goal from Ryan Warsen. South Christian ended up with two goals in the final period. Jeff Helmholdt was assisted by Alex DeVries and then Alex DeVries got the last one late in the third with assists by Bykerk and Blake DeVries.

"It's a great win," said Bell. "We've been on a roll here."

East Kentwood (11-1, 15-8) will face-off with No. 3-ranked Brighton Saturday in Brighton. South Christian will see West Ottawa on Friday at East Kentwood.

Courtesy of: Don VanderVeen | Advance Newspapers, 

EAST KENTWOOD 9, WEST CATHOLIC 1: The red-hot East Kentwood hockey team clinched the O-K Tier II championship by winning for the seventh straight time with a 9-1 victory over West Catholic Wednesday night.

Matt VanValkenburg's Texas-sized hat trick led the Kentwood Falcons over the West Catholic Falcons.

"Over the last two games, Matt has been our best player," East Kentwood coach Todd Bell said. "He's not flashy and doesn't create those skills to beat a guy one-on-one, but he is a very fast player and goes hard to the net and grinds it out.

"He scored more goals (Wednesday) than he did in the previous 14 games."

The score was tied 1-1 after the first period before the East Kentwood Falcons blitzed the West Catholic Falcons with eight goals over the final two periods.

"The West Catholic kids are competitors," Bell said. "They have a very young team with two seniors.

"They work hard, so the first period was a grind for us. It was a good period. We scored and then they tied it up. They didn't back down at all."

Then the Falcons went to work lighting the lamp.

VanValkenburg scored four times, while Brett White, Erik Stapleton, Trent Bravata, Ryan Warsen and Tyler Collins scored one apiece.  The defense and goaltending for EK was very solid the entire game.

Christian Teachout scored the lone goal for West Catholic (4-17).

With the win, the Falcons raised their record to 14-8 overall and 10-1 in Tier II. Coupled with Kenowa Hills' 2-1 lost to Forest Hills Central on Wednesday, the Falcons clinched the Tier II championship.

The Falcons were 7-8 at one point and lost back-to-back games to Novi and Livonia Churchill by scores of 10-4 and 8-0 before the players called a "players only meeting."

Since that meeting, East Kentwood has won seven straight.

"The kids bought into what we're trying to do and we're just letting them play," Bell said. "We're trying to take care of the puck in our end and the kids are committed and working hard. They know what we want to do. We've built a good base and they're playing with pure desire and heart.

"They're so focused on playing good hockey, that they're having fun. They're humming right now."  EK plays South Christian in their final league game on Friday night at Kentwood Ice Arena.

Courtesy of Greg Chrapek | Advance Newspapers / mLive.com 

KENTWOOD – Sole possession of first place in Tier 2 was on the line Saturday when East Kentwood hosted Kenowa Hills and the show the two league-leaders put on was worthy of a championship showdown. In a game that went back and forth, the host Falcons held on to defeat Kenowa Hills 4-3 to take sole possession of the league lead with four games remaining.

“It was a great game between two good teams,” East Kentwood coach Todd Bell said. “Kenowa has a very good team and Zac Totten and Everett Thompson are two of the best players in West Michigan. They are unbelievable competitors and I feel bad for them but I'm glad for my guys. This was a big game and they played great.”

East Kentwood took the upper hand late in the first period on a goal by Chris Laux who deflected a shot from the point. The Falcons goal came despite being outshot by the Knights who carried the game to Kentwood for the bulk of the opening period. Kentwood goalkeeper Zack Casavant came up with a number of big saves to keep the Knights from getting the early lead.

“He made some huge saves,” Bell said, “some huge saves in the first period to keep the game close.”

Kenowa broke the ice in the second period when Matt Neal scored a power-play goal a minute into the period.

The two teams then traded goals in a 40-second span as Tyler Layle scored for the Falcons and Neal tied the game at 2-2 for the Knights at 11:24.

Kenowa surged ahead with 9:59 remaining in the period when Dan Hankins scored a power-play goal.

The goals continued to come at a furious pace as Trent Bravata tied the game for the Falcons with a goal at the 5:58 mark of the period. Kentwood then scored what proved to be the game-winning goal with 2:44 remaining in the second period when Bravata scored off an assist from Adam Goudelock.

Kenowa was unable to tie the game in the final period as fatigue may have stepped in as the Knights were coming off a 4-2 win against rival West Catholic the night before.

“You know, we thought it (fatigue) was going to be a factor but it wasn't,” Kenowa Hills coach Wayne Skislak said. “I thought we came out ready to play. I thought the guys came and played their hearts out. They played well. I thought that was probably the best game they played all year.”

With the win, East Kentwood improved to 7-1 in the league. The Knights have another key league game on the schedule next Wednesday against Forest Hills Central.

With the loss Kenowa fell to 6-2 in the league.

 East Kentwood outshot, outskated and outscored league foe Hudsonville 6-0 at Kentwood Ice Arena.  The opening period saw the Falcons out shoot the Eagles by a margin of 12-7 and had a 1-0 lead with a goal by Brett White and the assist going to Adam Goudelock.  The second period had the Falcons out shooting the Eagles 13-5 and added to their lead with goals from Cody Antonini assisted by Erik Stapleton and an unassisted goal by Trent Bravata.

The 3rd period included a shot advantage of 11-5 for  a total of 36-17 in favor of the Falcons.  2 goals by Erik Stapleton and the final goal was scored by Tyler Layle and assists going to Bravata and Matt Van Valkenburg and Alex Birkman.

Falcons Goalie Zach Casavant made 17 saves to preserve the shutout.

The Falcons return to league action vs. Kenowa Hills on Saturday, 7:30 p.m. at Kentwood Ice Arena in a key league game.  Kenowa Hills and EK are tied in the Tier II Standings with identical records of 7-1.  The winner of this game will be in the drivers seat for the League Championship.

GRAND HAVEN 4, EAST KENTWOOD 3: Tom Zelenka and Doug Zelenka both scored two goals for the Buccaneers, who shook off Friday's loss to claim the Konrad consolation game victory. Adam Goudelock opened the scoring for the Falcons in the first period on a nice wrist shot with the assists going to Bret White and Walker Aurand.  Grand Haven answered with their first goal from Tom Zelenka.  Erik Stapleton added a goal to take the lead again in the first period with assists going to White and Trent Bravata.  The Falcons lead 2-1 at the end of the first period.

GH came back with 2 unanswered goals in the second period both by Doug Zelenka to take a 3-2 lead into the 3rd period.  Then brother Tom Zelenka scored the game winner early in the 3rd period.

Austin Way and each of the Zelenkas added assists for GH, which had a 37-34 edge in shots. Zach Kooi stopped 31-of-34 shots for GH (10-2, 4-1).  EK goalie Zach Casavant stopped 33-of-37 shots for the Falcons.

EK battled back from a 2 goal disavantage in the 3rd period with a goal from Bret White assisted by Kevin Seo.  The Falcons had several chances to tie the game in the final minute of play but Kooi withstood the pressure from the Falcons

The Falcons (6-6, 4-1) face league foe Reeths Puffer next Friday night back in Muskegon.

 David Tomczak | Muskegon Chronicle, January 06, 2012 11:44 p.m.

Mona Shores hockey is used to success. And its winning ways usually get started with a good showing at the annual Stan Konrad Memorial Tournament.

This year appears to be no different.

The Sailors scored five straight goals to defeat East Kentwood 6-2 on Friday at the 23rd annual Konrad at Lakeshore Sports Centre.

Mona Shores (4-5) advances to today's 4 p.m. final against Portage Central. The Sailors were denied a third meeting with Grand Haven, after the Mustangs downed the Bucs 2-1 in the opening game. Grand Haven and East Kentwood will drop the puck in the consolation game today at 2 p.m.

Adam Ulfsax had two goals and three assists for the Sailors, who are looking to capture their third consecutive tournament title.

"We're doing the little things that'll make us a better team," Shores coach Charlie Link said. "We have young kids and they're still going to make mistakes, but they're doing the things they should."

Mona Shores jumped out to a 1-0 lead as Tyler Bryant picked up a loose puck in front of the Falcons' net and backhanded it in for a power-play goal 8 minutes into the first.

East Kentwood (6-5) took advantage of Sailor turnovers to pepper goalie Nate Rabbitt, but couldn't solve the Shores sophomore netminder until they had a 5-on-3 advantage, scoring with less than 1 minute left in the first period to tie the game, 1-1.

"The first 6 minutes of the game, they really came at us," Kentwood coach Todd Bell said. "It was good to get out of the period tied at 1."

With the Falcons on the power-play early in the second period, the Sailors' Ulfsax picked up a loose puck along the boards, moved in and fired a wrist-shot past goalie Zack Casavant for a short-handed goal and a 2-1 lead.

"(East Kentwood) was coming really hard at us," Ulfsax said. "The defense did a good job of chipping the puck ahead to us and setting us up."

Mona Shores took a 3-1 lead 3 minutes later when Reed Hrynewich carried the puck into the Kentwood zone, avoided a check along the boards and backhanded a perfect pass to Austin Swiatek who one-timed it into an open net.

Bryant, Ulfsax and Gage Veltman scored goals in the first 9 minutes of the third period to put the Sailors up 6-1.

"That was a huge win for us," said Rabbitt, who finished with 24 saves. "Our defense really stepped up tonight and we took care of our end first. That's a good way to win games."

Hrynewich and Colin Rabach finished with two assists each and Veltman, Ryan Barnhard and Jake Dobb added assists.

The Falcons finished with a 26-24 shot advantage.

  The East Kentwood Falcons handed the Catholic Central Cougars their first loss of the season in front of a packed house at Kentwood Ice Arena.  EK came out strong from the opening face-off and scored early at 1:12 from senior Nick Christie (Noah Baldwin).  Both teams played with a high level of intensity and the shots were even at 6 apiece.  EK scored 15 seconds into the second period on an unassisted goal from Trent Bravata to take a 2-0 lead, but CC would get two goals of their own in the period, the first from Donald Sund (Brendan Kane), and the second on the power play from Joe Kopfensteiner (Remy Woods, Jacob Altman).  The period ended with the game tied 2-2, despite EK outshooting CC in the period 16-6.  The third period was scoreless, but CC had several  power play opportunities, including a 5-on-3.  EK goalie Zac Casavant saw 15 shots during the period, and was very solid in stopping all of them.  The game went to overtime, and saw EK's  Austin Adams net the game winner 1:05 into the extra period with an assist from  Brett White.  Both teams played with a high level of intensity and kept the large crowd on the edge of their seats the entire game.  The win was EK's fifth in a row and brings their record to 6-4 (4-1 in Tier 2).  They will face Mona Shores on January 6 in the first game of the annual Stan Konrad Tournament in Muskegon.

Courtesy of Kelly Hill | The Grand Rapids Press and mLive.com, December 28, 2011 12:44 a.m.

KENTWOOD — Despite giving South Christian a couple of gifts Tuesday night — goals knocked in by Falcons defensemen — the East Kentwood hockey team held on for a 5-3 victory against the Sailors in OK Hockey Conference Tier II action at Kentwood Ice Arena.

South Christian (3-5-3, 0-5-1 in Tier II) took a 1-0 lead on the Falcons first gift, at 4:42 of the first period. Sailors senior Jeff Helmholdt was credited with an unassisted goal. East Kentwood (5-4, 4-1 in Tier II) rebounded with a pair of goals later in the first, off the sticks of senior captains Erik Stapleton and Brett White. South Christian senior Blake DeVries tied the game at 2-2 in the opening minute of the second period, before the Sailors again took the lead, 3-2 this time, on East Kentwood’s second own goal, this one attributed to Sailors senior Alex DeVries.

Falcons senior Matt VanValkenburg tied the game at 7:06 of the second period and gave East Kentwood a 4-3 advantage with 11:04 left in the middle frame. Falcons senior Chris Laux scored the only goal of the third period.

“Two points is two points is two points,” East Kentwood coach Todd Bell said. “Merry Christmas to them. We had a long layoff, 10 or 11 days, but South Christian has one of the better players in the area in (Blake) DeVries.”

East Kentwood outshot South Christian 48-18 in the game. “We had a lot of shots on them and, sometimes, all high-school hockey players want to do is score. They forget to do their jobs. This is a good win for us, though. It’s a league win, so we’ll take it.”

The Falcons’ two gaffes was a lesson learned for the South Christian hockey team. 

“You never know what can happen in a high-school hockey game,” Sailors coach Paul Knust said. “We hope to learn something in each game and tonight, the lesson we learned is that you need to throw the puck at the net because anything can happen.

“It was good to get a couple of gifts, but I’m proud of our guys,” Knust said. “They battled the whole way. You look in the rink and see all the banners and you see the tradition that Kentwood hockey has. I am proud of our effort tonight. They’re a good team and they showed it, but we kept battling the whole way.”

Former East Kentwood all-stater Mike Slobodnik, who now is the head coach at Catholic Central, the reigning Division 3 state champion, is scheduled to bring his Cougars to Kentwood Ice Arena to face the Falcons on Thursday night.

Courtesy of the Advance Newspapers and mLive.com - Jen Judson

 KENTWOOD – It didn’t have any conference significance and there was no title on the line, but the East Kentwood hockey team wanted to add another notch in the win column before Christmas break. In a hard-fought battle on both sides at the Kentwood Ice Arena Friday night, East Grand Rapids came up a goal short. The host school took home the 3-2 win by hitting the back of the net in all three periods.

“My guys did well. We needed this win,” said East Kentwood coach Todd Bell. “In the 17 years that I have been coaching, I wouldn’t hesitate to say this is one of the biggest games we’ve had. We needed this win. We got off to a slow start. We were 3-4 and this win -- against a team like East Grand Rapids -- puts us at 4-4. It’s a big win for us.”

The Falcon offense came out on the attack with a shot on goal from Noah Baldwin just seven seconds into the game. When challenged, though, the Pioneers responded in kind with offensive threats of their own. East scored first after a face off in the East Kentwood zone. Tommy Educato passed to Sam Alkema who found Sam Wollet in front of the net for the 1-0 score at 6:24.

Exactly two minutes later, East Kentwood tied it up with a Erik Stapleton dish to Austin Adams for the score. The Falcons flew into the net on the power play at 11:54 of the second period when confusion in front of the net saw Trent Bravata push in the dribbler from Stapleton and Brett White. In the second period, East Kentwood outshot East Grand Rapids 13-5, after EGR took the first period 7-6 on shot attempts.

“In the first period if we would have hit the net a couple times; the kids were all revved up and going a mile a minute,” said Bell. “We put the pressure on in the first period, but (East’s) got something special with the way they play. They’ve got some great players. Peter Stewart was a handful, and (Josh Keller) was a handful too.”

With the 2-1 lead on the line, the Falcons’ White put in an unassisted score at 13:19 in the third. Defensively, Tyler Layle and goaltender Zach Casavant pushed the Falcons into East Grand Rapids terrain and kept the Pioneers from evening up shots. Casavant made 20 saves on the night.

“One of the advantages East Kentwood has is they got to play the game on their own rink,” said EGR coach Brian McFalone. “It’s kind of a unique rink and they really tailor their game to their own rink, but we have to make those adjustments. We didn’t this evening.  “I thought our best player was our goalie,” said McFalone of goaltender Steven Longfellow who ended the night with 25 saves. “He blocked a lot of shots tonight and that kept us in the game. They clearly outplayed us and that’s a credit to East Kentwood. They earned their victory.”

For the Pioneers, a second score at 10:40 in the third helped inch them closer to tying it up. Jordan Sanford scored with assists for Josh Keller and Austin Bremer.

“East Grand Rapids is 6-1 and I wouldn’t hesitate to say that in four of those games have been last minute they get a goal,” said Bell. “I think they’ve played five overtime games. When they took the timeout, I told the team we’ve got to get these guys in regulation. You get them to overtime, they have something special there. It’s going to be trouble.”

East Kentwood (3-1, 4-4) will face-off at home against South Christian on Tuesday, December 27 at 7:10 pm. East Grand Rapids is 0-1 with an overtime loss in conference and 6-2 overall.

 East Kentwood hockey team answers West Catholic challenge in 7-4 win

After a tough League loss to Kenowa Hills on Wednesday night the Falcons faced a very tough Forest Hills Northern Eastern team at Patterson Ice Arena.  The first period was very evenly played and ended in a scoreless tie.  Zach Casavant made some very nice saves to keep the Falcons in the game.

The second period saw FHNE take the lead on a power play goal to make it 1-0. Erik Stapleton (Senior Captain) scored on a power play goal in the second period to tie the score at 1-1.  FHNE again took the lead to make it 2-1.  

In the third period Sophomore Alex Birkman scored from a  tough angle to tie the score 2-2.  Once again FHNE took the lead at 3-2 in the third period.  Senior Captain Brett White slipped one in past FHNE goalie to tie the score at 3-3.  The game ended regulation at that same tied score.

In overtime a EK penalty carried over for about 18 seconds which the Falcons killed off and then less than a minute later EK had their own power play.  After a few good attempts a puck was picked off by Junior Sam Rennaker and he scored to give FHNE the overtime victory.  It was a great high school game full of good action on both ends.

EK has a few days off before they face League foe, Muskegon Reeths Puffer on Thursday 12/8/11, 7:00 p.m. at Kentwood Ice Arena.

Courtesy of mLive.com

Reporter: Kelly Hill, Grand Rapids Press

KENTWOOD -- Grand Haven hockey coach Dan Gadbois regularly advises his players not to allow a goal in the final minute of a period. The Buccaneers heeded his warning Saturday evening.

Instead, they scored a goal in the final minute of all three periods on their way to a 6-4 victory against East Kentwood in the championship game of the Falcon Classic Thanksgiving Tournament.

Grand Haven junior James Dyksterhouse scored with 31 seconds remaining in the first period to break a 1-1 tie, then scored again with 19 seconds remaining in the second period to give the Bucs a 4-2 lead.

Junior forward Ian Hubbard ended the game’s scoring with an empty net goal with 20 seconds remaining in the third period.

"I tell the guys, 'Don’t get scored on in the last minute.' Those late goals were huge for us," Gadbois said. "When things go bad, you don’t quit. You keep trying, you keep playing hard, and that’s exactly what these guys did."

East Kentwood (1-2) rallied from a two-goal deficit after two periods to tie the game 4-4 with more than 5 minutes left to play. The game remained tied until Grand Haven senior forward Doug Zelenka scored what proved to be the game winner at 13:13 of the third.

"We knew that there were still about five minutes left to play and a lot can happen in that much time in a high-school hockey game," Gadbois said. "My hat is off to East Kentwood though. That’s a great team with nice kids. It’s great to compete against a team like that."

Grand Haven (2-0) won the championship in its first appearance in the Falcon Classic Thanksgiving Tournament.

The Falcons, who defeated Forest Hills Central on Friday night to advance to Saturday’s championship game, committed more than twice as many penalties as Grand Haven on Saturday.

"We took too many penalties, again," East Kentwood coach Todd Bell said. "We have to stop taking penalties. We took seven penalties to their three. We climbed back in it at 4-4 and I thought we had a chance, but if you make a mistake against their No. 1 line, it’s in the back of the net. One of those late goals was a turnover and, like I said, if you make a mistake against them, it’s in the back of your net.

"It’s November though, so you can fix those mistakes. This was a good game. If you play that game 10 times we win five and they win five. We made more mental errors than they did. Essentially we spent a period in the penalty box."

 East Kentwood skated into the championship game of its annual Falcon Classic Thanksgiving tournament by beating Forest Hills Central, 7-1 Friday night at the Kentwood Ice Arena. EK opened the scoring in the first period on a goal by senior captain Eric Stapleton with assists from junior Trent Bravata and senior Brett White. With a 1-0 lead after the first period, EK widened its lead with 4 goals in the second. Sophomore Alex Birkman scored his first goal of the season (assist fromBrett White) at 6:33, and assisting on a goal from White almost two minutes later at 8:25. Junior defenseman Tyler Layle finished the scoring in the period with two goals (assist by Stapleton on the first, unassisted on the second). Forest Hill Central's lone goal came on the power play by Peter Gibson at 8:45.

 The EK Falcons came out hot but could not stay out of the Penalty Box against the Plymouth Wildcats.  Brett White opened the scoring with an even strength goal to give the Falcons a short lived lead at 1-0.  After two Power Play goals the Wildcats led the Falcons 2-1 at the end of the 1st Period.  It was more of the same story, 2 Power Play goals put the Falcons down 4-1 at the end of 2 periods.

In the Third period the Falcons tried to make a comeback with a Power Play goal of their own by Adam Goudelock to pull to within 3 goals.  The final score was 6-2 Plymouth and Coach Bell while disapointed, was not distraught and said "I didn't see this coming after Traverse City"  He went on to add "I never like to lose, but if they play like this in November it is one thing, but they will not play like this later in the season".

The Falcons have had a solid week of practice leading up to the Falcon Classic Tournament which drops the puck on Friday after Thanksgiving at 6:00 p.m  

Come out early if you want to see some of the EK Alumni play their annual game prior to the opening of the Tournament.

The other teams participating in the Tournament are Forest Hills Central, Rockford and Grand Haven.  Come on out and see some great High School Hockey this weekend at Kentwood Ice Arena.

 The 2011-12 Season is starting out very strong.  EK visited Traverse City and played some very solid hockey against the 4 opponents for the weekend.  The scrimmage games were against Big Rapids (W 2-1), Traverse City West (W 2-0), Bay Area Reps (W 4-0) and Traverse City Central (W 4-1).  All of the kids played well and defensively were very effective.

In 4 scrimmage games only 2 goals were given up total.  The team did a good job in the defensive zone limiting the number of shots and generally stayed out of the penalty box.  The scrimmages gave the coaching staff an opportunity to work on power play and penalty kill special teams and experiment with different line combinations.

The boys had a great night of team building, goal setting and fun at the Grand Traverse Resort.  The season opener is Friday night at 6:30 p.m. at Kentwood Ice Arena vs. Plymouth.  Plan on coming out and showing your support as we kick off the 2011-12 Regular Season.  It will be exciting.