December 21, 2011
Hockey was in full swing tonight at Griff’s Icehouse in Grand Rapids as Rockford and Forest Hills Northern/Eastern faced off. The pace for the entire game was set right of the opening face off as the Huskies/Hawks immediately pushed Rockford onto their heels and out shot them 14 to 7 in the first period, scoring two unanswered goals in the process. Team leading goal scorer Sam Rennaker netted the first goal with 11:19 left to play in the first period. Less than a minute after his goal, fellow teammate and Captain Chris Hollemans was checked head first into the boards and lay motionless on the ice. Emergency personal arrived shortly after and took him off on a stretcher. According to his teammate Alex VanErp, Chris received a concussion but thankfully he sustained no further injuries from the violent collision with the boards.Despite their worry for Chris, FHNE finished the period fired up as Sam Rennaker netted his second goal of the night with only 3:00 left in the first period.
The second period was relatively uneventful as no one was able to find the back of the net for the full 17 minutes. Rockford started the period strong and was able to keep the puck out of their own zone at first. However, FHNE once again pushed them into their own end and made them play defense for most of the period.
The Rams finally found a way to beat goaltender Bryce Bignal with 9:42 left to play in the third, but were unable to beat him again as the Huskies/Hawks offense found the net one more time before Sam Rennaker ensured the victory by getting an empty net goal to not only seal the score at 4-1 but sealing himself a hat trick with 1:25 to go in the game.
FHNE Forward Alex VanErp had this to say after the game, “We were pretty fired up after our captain got taken out. Our forecheck was really doing a great job of slowing them down, they are a really fast team. Bryce Bignall was great in net for us and we got the W. Its a huge conference win for us to get us back on track, now we’ve got some momentum and are ready for a break before EGR.”
Forest Hills Northern/Eastern is now 7-4 in conference play. Their next game is January 7th against East Grand Rapids.
Rockford is now 2-3 in conference play and will face Jackson Lumen Christi on December 28th.
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