BY WENDI REARDON PRICE
Clarkston News Sports Writer
The Clarkston Varsity Hockey team finished the season to Orchard Lake St. Mary’s in the MHSAA PreRegional on March 10.
The Wolves scored two goals on the hosts made by Austin McKay and Danny Milano with an assist from Trevor Gilman, but St. Mary’s shut them down by scoring 10 goals.
They scored their final goal with 40 seconds left in the game to end the night.
“We competed – that’s the main thing,” said Karl Daiek, head coach. “The score wasn’t  indicative of the play. We played certainly well enough to have a better outcome than what it was. Sometimes regardless of how the game goes overall sometimes the outcome is a little skewed I think. It wasn’t an 8-point game is the best way to put it. the kids worked hard, they had too many penalties which caused a little bit of it. It got us out of sorts a little bit.”
The Wolves finished the season with a 15-8 overall record and 8-2 in OAA White for a second place finish. It was a turn around from last year’s 4-16-2 overall record.
“It is a vast improvement,” Daiek said, adding they know what the difference was in the two seasons. “I think we could have done better. My standards or expectations were a bit higher. We lost some games we shouldn’t have lost. I thought we had the ability to do better. You go little steps, you make some improvements. Hopefully we can continue that for next year.”
Clarkston graduates eight seniors: Brent Bachusz, Brendan Borawski, Cameron Exline, Austin James, Yuri Karpushenkoff, Trey Roy, Gage Stamper and Daniel Tremblay.
Daiek shared he believes any team is a reflection of the senior class.
“This senior class is important because, I believe, they got the program back on track,” he added. “You have to give a lot of credit to the seniors because they are the ones who have been here the longest and may have gone through some of the down side of it. It was a very positive year primarily it is on the shoulders of the senior class. They had a good attitude, great approach to it. It proved in the results. They established the culture in the locker room and the approach on how to play in the game. We owe them a lot from that stand point.”

  Clarkston Varsity Hockey