By Wendi Reardon Price
Clarkston News Sports Writer
Clarkston Varsity Hockey opened the season with a pair of wins last week.
The winning began in the season opener against Bloomfield Hills on Thursday night with a 9-1 victory.
“We had a lot of success so that was a plus,” said Nathan Bryer, head coach. “Obviously it is still early in the year so there are always things we can work on and improve on, but it’s a good start for them to get their confidence levels up and the guys start believing in what we are doing a little bit.”
The Wolves jumped to the lead scoring three goals in the first period from Evan Adams, Ron Wade and Brendan Rhodes.
Wade finished the night with a hat trick and one assist. Adams had one goal and two assists. Rhodes had one goal and one assist.
“We did it by committee,” said Bryer. “We had a couple guys like Ron Wade had a big night and so did Evan Adams. After that we did it as a group. A lot of different guys scored goals and had points – again that is a testament to the depth of our team.”
Owen Croston, Logan Golub, Frank Stanek and Eric Wade had one goal each.
Blake Botterill, Theo Walker, Quinn Farrell, Tyler Wilford and Trey Damian had two assists each. Ryan Wilford, Merek Drennan and Devon Collis had one assist each.
“We have a good group,” Bryer said. “We have good depth at every position which is always a good thing. It’s early in the year so it’s hard to tell, but we like the pieces that we have and we think we have good depth everywhere – those are two very important things.”
The Wolves defeated Romeo the next night, 4-2.
“The coach has been there for a few years so they are good every year,” Bryer said. “When you have a lopsided score one night you have to beat a good team and kind of have short term memory and flip the page we have to be ready to work tonight. They always have a hard working team and they are very physical. We have our work cut out for us.”
Walker had a hat trick for the night and opened the night with the first goal with assists from Collis and Brady Earing.
Ron Wade scored on a power play with seven minutes remaining in the first period with assists from Botterill and Adams.
With 35 seconds in the period, Romeo scored their first goal from Cole Paquette.
Walker scored two more goals, both in the second period. Collis and Eric Wade assisted on Walker’s goal made with 9:23 left in the second period. Adams and Ron Wade assisted on the power play goal with 1:15 left in the period.
Both teams were scoreless in the third period.
Hartner had 19 saves in the net while the Wolves made 46 shots on Romeo’s goal.
Clarkston competes in Cranbrook Kingswood’s Thanksgiving Tournament this Friday and Saturday.
“Next week is a big week for us,” said Bryer. “We play Salem who is ranked no. 8. Then, play either Detroit Country Day and Cranbrook. We are playing top ten teams and that is a huge test.”
The Wolves play Salem at 2:30 p.m. on Friday. The Saturday game time will be determined. The tournament is at Cranbrook Ice Arena, 550 Lone Pine Road, Bloomfield Hills.

  Clarkston Varsity Hockey, Hockey