Your Eagles hockey team beat Grand Rapids Catholic Central in the second round of the regional playoffs 5 - 2 last night dancing them to the regional final against East Grand Rapids. The game did not start well for the Eagles as they first killed off a penalty early in the game, and then gave up the first goal of the game that seven minutes ago., And Catholic Central scored a second to go up 2 to 0 off of an unfortunate bounce, which found the back of the net. 

In the second, the Eagles responded, coming out with a lot more jump on their step. It was the Joshua Hooper show the rest of the night as he ended the night with three goals and two assists. This line got scoring going 2 1/2 minutes into the second period, beat his man out of the corner and went to the net meeting the Catholic goalie high over the blocker side. Brody Baysore and Cam Laufer assisted on the goal. The three of them had possession for over a minute in the zone, cycling the puck and moving well off each other.  It’s four minutes to go in second, Hooper walked the Catholic centerman on the faceoff and found Baysore back door who made no mistake.  Two minutes later, they got the puck to Hooper in space in the neutral zone, and he blew by the Catholic defenseman and beat the goalie this time over his glove hand. Sam DeYoung also assisted on the play.  With a minute ago in the period, Hooper found the puck off of a scrum, and beat the goalie again high with no angle. The period ended with the Eagles up 4-2. 

In the third, the Eagles kept their opponents at bay and Melinn was there to shut the door. With 2 minutes to go Catholic pulled their goalie. Hooper won the faceoff to Laufer who came out of the zone and buried it from 150 feet out in the empty net. Melinn played well in net stopping 28 of 30 shots. Your Eagles team will play for the regional championship next Wednesday at 7:00 pm in Big Rapids. Hope to see you there.