SOUTHFIELD – The Riverview Gabriel Richard Pioneers claimed a hard fought 3-0 victory over the Detroit Country Day Yellowjackets on Saturday evening.
The Pioneers opened the scoring midway through the first period when Santino Venturini’s wrist shot from inside the right face off circle slipped through all the bodies and found the back of the net.
Riverview Richard doubled its lead with 3:31 remaining in the first period when Connor Forster took a pass from Michael Taucher (team-high 32 points this season), cut across the front of the net, and tucked a backhander into the far side before Yellowjackets goalie Bonnor Upshaw could slide across.
Upshaw turned in a strong performance overall, however, stopping 34 of 37 shots by the Pioneers.
“Bonnor made some good save to keep it close,” Yellowjackets head coach Frank Novock said. “He kept us hanging around. He gave us a chance to win. That’s all you ask of your goaltender.”
But the Yellowjackets had very little offense. They struggled to break out of their own zone, and when they did get out, they were unable to get a forecheck going and sustain any pressure on the Pioneer net. Country Day’s best chances came in transition, where they had a small handful of good opportunities. In the end, the Pioneers limited Country Day to just 16 shots on goal.
“We pride ourselves on having layers. We want to play playoff hockey in the regular season,” Pioneers head coach Richard DeSana said. “They (Country Day) are going to be in our regional, and going down the stretch here playing a potential regional opponent, and then the MIHL Showcase next week, I’m more concerned with the goals against than the goals for, because when you get in the playoffs that’s the style of game. It’s 2-1, 1-0. It’s all low (scoring).”
Riverview Richard got a second period goal from John Konecny to make it 3-0, then iced the game in the third period with what was, other than the scoreboard, its most dominant period as they outshot the Yellowjackets 18-2 in the final period, never giving Country Day even a sniff of a comeback opportunity.
The Pioneers simply rolled all their lines, kept the pressure and on, and closed out the game.
Photo gallery of Detroit Country Day vs. Riverview Gabriel Richard in hockey action
With the win, Riverview Richard improves to 10-10-1 overall this year. Next up for the Pioneers is the MIHL Showcase (sometimes called the Trenton Showcase) at Kennedy Ice Arena next weekend where they will face Marquette and Northville. The Pioneers are new members of the MIHL and are getting acclimated. Although they faced several of the league members in previous years, it’s a little different now that those are league games.
“We had a tough schedule before, but I feel that the intensity of those games going from non-conference to league games has certainly been stepped up, for sure,” DeSana said.
The loss snaps a four-game winning streak for Country Day (14-6). The Yellowjackets are back in action Wednesday with a trip to Jackson Lumen Christi and still have a chance to share the division title in the Metro Conference East if they can win their last two league games, including Wednesday’s game.
“We have to flush this one and move forward,” Novock said. “The league is still up for grabs. We need a little bit of luck, for Divine Child to beat Liggett and then for us to beat Divine Child and Lumen Christi, and then there would be a three-way tie.”
