BY WENDI REARDON PRICE
Clarkston News Sports Writer
Three was the magic number for two periods against Stoney Creek as the Wolves hosted the Cougars last Thursday night at Detroit Skating Club in a 6-0 win.
“We played pretty well against Stoney,” said Karl Daiek, head coach for Clarkston Varsity Hockey. “I am pretty happy with the game. We are still in the learning process, but they stuck to script.”
The Wolves took control from the beginning at the drop of the puck at face off and made their first shot on goal 28 seconds into the game from senior Logan McGivern.
Senior Charles Eppink scored the first goal of the night with 12:29 left in the first period, seconds into a power play. Seniors Cole Goble and Marcus Chiappelli assisted on the goal.
The Wolves added two more goals before the period closed, both from senior Cam Thomas, the first was at the 6:16 remaining mark with an assist from sophomore Gino Giannini. The second goal was made less than four minutes later as he skated down the middle of the ice from Clarkston’s territory and made a short-handed goal.
“He played really well,” Daiek said about Thomas’ performance.
Junior Ryan Galligan opened the second period with his goal two and a half minutes in on a power play with assists from Chiappelli and senior Ben Zielke.

Senior Brandt Botterill added onto the lead with his goal with 11:13 remaining in the period with help from Joey Ketzler and Thomas.
The last goal for the night came from junior Matthew Smith, making his shot a few feet away from the net and straight in with five minutes left in the second period. Chiappelli made his third assist on the goal.
“Everybody got to play – that was the big thing,” Daiek said. “The whole bench got into the game. It gave us the opportunity to get other guys in. We could take a look and see how they stacked up.”
Clarkston outshot the Cougars 36-16. Senior Jakob Harper was in the net for his second shutout of the season.
The Wolves followed the game with a 2-0 loss against Lake Orion on Saturday.
“They were pretty evenly matched,” Daiek said. “In a lot of instances we carried the play a little better. Occasionally we got out of the structure that’s important to the play and couldn’t finish. We had plenty of chances. Their goalie was good. Our guys sometimes got off script, so to speak, and tried to do more as an individual. It’s still early in the year. We’ve got to establish who we’re going to be. The coaches and I had a long talk after the game last night. We need to do things a little differently. We outshot them 30-22, but we didn’t get the quality of opportunities to finish off.”
The Wolves have three games in three days this week, starting with Birmingham.
“We’re going to have to use the whole bench again,” Daiek said. “We’ve got guys who haven’t played as much who will take some heat off the regulars. They could do it. They can handle what we give them. We’re going to have tough games.”
The Wolves (3-3) host Birmingham Unified (3-2-1) on Thursday at 6 p.m.; East Grand Rapids (3-3) on Friday, 6 p.m.; and M1 United (2-4) on Saturday, 8 p.m. All games are played at Detroit Skating Club, 888 Denison Court in Bloomfield Hills.

  Clarkston Varsity Hockey, Hockey