Carmel Gold came in unranked. Then it took Culver A to the wire..
The Icehounds turned a 6–0 October loss into a 2–2 tie with the defending 4A champions, then won twice to finish 2–1–1 at the Summit City Crossover.
Carmel Gold put two shots on net in the second period against Culver A. One of them was enough to make the defending 4A state champions start the third tied.
With 1:39 left in the second and Carmel on the power play, Landon Stankiewicz worked the puck down low to Gannon Vien. Senior forward Carter Scobie remembers Vien sending it right back. Stankiewicz buried the return pass to make it 1–1. In the third, Stankiewicz helped set up Tal Schlueter, and the Icehounds went ahead.
In October, Culver had beaten Carmel 6–0. The Icehounds arrived at the Summit City Crossover outside THE FINAL’s top 10. Sophomore forward Miles Whitlock traces the rematch back to the third period of that October loss, when the game had already gotten away from them.
“Even though we were all down about the loss, our goal was to beat Culver A,” Whitlock said.
A different plan for Culver
Early in the season, coach Tyler Decosse had asked Carmel to play conservatively to limit odd-man rushes. For Friday’s rematch, he wanted his players getting in on Culver’s defensemen and making them work to get out of their own end.
“The biggest adjustment we made was our forecheck,” Decosse said. “We changed our focus to trying to pin teams into the zone.”
Scobie noticed a change at the other end. The Icehounds were getting pucks out of their own zone more cleanly, something he said they’d struggled with. And when Culver got through, freshman goalie Nolan Deady gave Carmel time to find a goal. He stopped all 14 shots he faced in the first period.
“From the crease I felt our team played with confidence for one of the first times this year,” Deady said.
Culver’s Nicholas Rupert had opened the scoring on the power play in the second. His second power-play goal tied it with 7:25 remaining in the third. Deady finished with 33 saves on 35 shots, and the rematch ended 2–2.
The same pressure on Saturday morning
Decosse called Lakeshore St. Joe the “real test” for Carmel. The Icehounds had taken a third-period lead against the defending champs the night before. Now they had to come back the next morning and bring the same intensity.
Whitlock gave Carmel a first-period lead on the power play. Lakeshore tied it in the second through Jackson Keim and put 24 shots on William Rowe. Watching from the bench, Deady remembered Rowe stopping a couple of two-on-none chances. Rowe finished with 23 saves.
Late in the third, with the game still tied, Scobie saw a linemate get in on a Lakeshore defenseman and force a turnover. The puck came to Henry Kleinke, who shot it off a defender’s stick and in with 1:18 left. Carmel won 2–1.
“After a tie against Culver A we knew we could hang with some of the higher up teams and another tie on the weekend was not what we were looking for,” Scobie said. “We wanted a win.”
Where Penn made it harder
Penn Gold gave Carmel a different problem Saturday night. Scobie said the Icehounds had to adjust how they pressured Penn’s breakout. At the other end, Deady had to find the puck through traffic, especially on the power play, when he said Penn would station one or two players in front of him.
Aiden Riem put Penn ahead late in the second. Schlueter tied it on a power play with 54 seconds left in the period. Deady remembered making a windmill glove save on Jaxon Daigle with the game still 1–1.
“He had the game on his stick,” Deady said.
Carmel managed just two shots in the third. Noah Abercrombie put Penn ahead with 9:48 left, and Daigle scored on the power play with 1:03 to go to make it 3–1. Scobie pointed out that Penn had beaten Carmel 9–4 in their previous meeting. This time, the Icehounds went into the third tied, but they struggled to generate enough offense once Penn took the lead.
“Penn was able to capitalize on break downs in our zone,” Decosse said. “We got lucky with Culver and LSJ failing to capitalize on turnovers.”
The last 40 seconds
After Penn, Whitlock said the message from Decosse was to leave the loss behind. For Sunday’s game against Marian-Riley, the coach asked Carmel to get in on the forecheck early and protect the slot in its own zone.
“We played three very complete games and my challenge to the players was to see if we could play a complete weekend,” Decosse said.
Scobie recalled an early Carmel goal getting waved off. The Icehounds kept pressing. Kleinke and Stankiewicz scored in the second, and Jackson Briones cut the lead to 2–1 before intermission. Deady stopped all 13 shots he faced in the third and finished with 37 saves.
“We played like it was the first game of the weekend,” Deady said.
Carmel finished 2–1–1 despite being outshot 123–78. Deady and Rowe combined for 116 saves, and the Icehounds held three of their four opponents to two goals or fewer. Scobie came away wanting Carmel to get more shots on net. Decosse said that with Rowe and Deady in net, his defensemen felt comfortable stepping up and playing more aggressively. “We may not have the scoring but we are very content with playing in close games,” he said.
For Scobie, the game he’d point to was the tie against Culver. He said the team had bristled at being placed in 1A earlier in the season. After the weekend, the senior was talking about chasing a 4A title.
“We now believe we can hang with the big dogs and we believe we have shown it,” Scobie said.
Decosse would show them the last 40 seconds against Marian-Riley. The opposing net was empty, Carmel was protecting a one-goal lead, and at the end of their fourth game in three days, his players were still taking hits to finish plays.
“I watched our guys on the ice throw their bodies on the line in order to get the job done,” Decosse said.