Daavettila’s late goal gives Brighton D1 state championship

By Matt Mackinder –

PLYMOUTH – Chet Daavettila said he doesn’t remember much about scoring with 1:32 left to put Brighton ahead 4-3 over Grosse Pointe North.

Who could blame him? His goal wound up being the game-winner as the Bulldogs won the MHSAA Division 1 state championship last Saturday night in front of a raucous crowd at Compuware Arena in Plymouth.

“The puck just squirted out and it was a great play by Joe Borst down in the corner,” said Daavettila. “I just kind of shot it and didn’t really think about it. It just squeaked in somehow and I didn’t really see it go in. I didn’t know what to do; I just kind of stood there. I didn’t know what I was doing and I almost blacked out, it seemed like.”

The Bulldogs only had 11 shots on Norsemen goalie Chip Wujek, but according to Brighton coach Paul Moggach, that was hardly a statistic to consider.

“It was tough finding a way, but at the end of the day, we found a way to get it done and I’m proud of the way we got it done,” said Moggach. “I don’t think it’s the number of shots, but the kind of shots you make. The better  question is ‘How do you keep them out of your net?’ and our goaltender (Christian Michalik) kept coming.”

Michalik finished with 20 saves, allowing only a hat trick to captain Joe Aluia.

“Joe was outstanding,” said Norsemen coach Scott Lock. “He’s been one of our heart and soul guys all season long and especially in the playoffs, he really came to play and put the team on his back. Tonight, he was fantastic.”

Lock went on to say that the game’s result could have gone either way.

“It was just one of those games where we didn’t get a lot of puck luck and Brighton got a lot of it,” Lock said. “I think we carried the play for most of the game, but we just couldn’t finish at times. Brighton got the bounces and they worked for their bounces. I think we made too many mistakes early in the game.”

Troy Marrett opened the scoring for Brighton (24-4-2) just 3:27 into the game and then Zach Morgan made it 2-0 on the game’s only power play at 9:48.

Aluia scored at the buzzer off a faceoff win to end the first period with North only down a goal.

Brighton captain Tommy Kivisto restored the two-goal cushion for the Bulldogs at 11:08 of the middle period only to have Aluia answer at 12:55.

Aluia tied the game at 8:22 of the third, setting the stage for Daavettila’s heroics.

“They definitely backed me up with the goals,” said Michalik. “It was more of just me making sure nothing else was going in. After we scored that fourth goal, I was like, ‘OK, nothing else is going in.’ I didn’t want anyone to even come close to scoring.”

“When North tied the game, we had the character to get through that,” said Moggach. “As disappointing as it is to get tied up, we knew what we had to do and stayed with it.”

Even though North came into the state tournament with a sub-.500 record and finished 15-15 overall, Lock said numbers can be deceiving.

“I get asked a lot about our record being under .500, but we play in the toughest league in Michigan (MIHL) by far,” said Lock. “You look at us and Port Huron Northern (Division 2) and we were both 7-6 in our league and we both get to the final four. I think playing (a tough schedule) better prepares us for the state playoffs. We knew our team was good and I knew our team was good in the summertime.

“We just didn’t get it done tonight.”