TRAVERSE CITY -- Killing off one 5-on-3 could have turned the game around, but having another burned off another effectively ended it.
Livonia Stevenson snuffed out a brief two-man Traverse City Central advantage late in the third period that was the Trojans' last gasp and then scored a power-play goal soon after to ice a 3-0 victory.
Central killed off a long 5-on-3 in the first period, but failed to capitalize on the momentum in the first of two match-ups between state-ranked teams Friday at Howe Arena.
"If we would have popped one or two in there in the first period, that might have made a difference," Trojans coach Chris Givens said. "You could tell the way the game was going that when they got up two, we were going to have a tough time." Down 2-0 late in the third, the Division 2 No. 7-ranked Trojans (6-8) had a glimmer of hope when Division 1 No. 6-ranked Livonia (10-1-1) was whistled for hooking and slashing calls gave Central an 11-second 5-on-3 with a face-off deep in Stevenson's zone. The Trojans called a timeout to map out a play for hopefully scoring off the face-off and then snagging another score on the ensuing power play to knot it up.
But it didn't happen.
Instead, Stevenson goaltender Daniel Sager posted his third shutout in four games.
"Our goaltending was real solid tonight," said Spartans coach David Mitchell, who was a netminder collegiately at Western Michigan. "Daniel Sager has been very good in goal for us. To get a shutout against a team like this, he really earned it."
The two teams played fairly evenly in the first period, with Central gaining some momentum by killing off a 1:33-long 5-on-3 power play for the Spartans. Bill Vermetten had two big saves, Garrett Frain blocked a shot and Jared VanWormer gave up his body to block two slapshots.
"Jared, Garrett and Christian (Machelski) -- they each had big blocks," Givens said. "And you had Jared out there diving around, trying to clear the zone. That's the kind of stuff we talked about; being real gritty and playing with some toughness. I thought after we killed that off, it'd be a momentum swing we could build off of. Had we gotten a goal right after that, it would have been huge."
Earlier in the period, Vermetten made a nice poke check on a short-handed rush by Stevenson.
Then Stevenson took control in the second period, scoring two goals in the process.
After Vermetten twice stoned Trevor Baruzzini early in the period, Baruzzini struck on a wrap-around 5:51 into the period for the game's first score.
Two minutes after Central's Caleb Morgan rang a shot off the right post, the Spartans pushed their advantage to two goals as Tim Pruchnik fired a wrister over Vermetten's shoulder off a face-off win by Baruzzini.
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