Last Second Goal Gives Oxford 2-1 Edge Over Berkley-Ferndale Unified

TROY – Berkley-Ferndale Unified hockey team let one slip through its fingers on Tuesday night against Oxford, the Oakland Athletic Association White’s top team.

“It’s a tough loss anyway you look at it,” Berkley-Ferndale coach Jeff Fleming said.

The Bears held the lead for most of the night, but allowed two goals to Oxford in the final seven minutes. Stephan Fritz scored the game winner for the Wildcats with only 18.04 seconds left on the clock. The sophomore forward scored both of Oxford’s goals in the period.

On the game-winner, Berkley-Ferndale goalie Stephan Wroe didn’t have much of a chance. Fritz, along with teammates Dean Couwlier and Nolan Chapman, were all right in front of the net. Fritz was in perfect position to put in a pass from Couwlier.

“We had the first guy covered, he got the puck through and the second guy got it,” Fleming said. “He didn’t have much chance, he had three guys coming down on him.” 

Berkley-Ferndale won the ensuing faceoff, but didn’t get a shot off before time expired.

“It was a good physical game, fast paced, good skill players on both teams,” Fleming said.

The Bears (11-7-4) scored early in the game (11:28) on a power play goal from Hayden Alpert. He put in a rebound off of a shot from Kyle Goldberg in a 5 on 3 power play.

Oxford defenseman Chad Wicker was called for a roughing penalty after shoving a Berkley-Ferndale player and then less than 40 seconds later the Wildcats were called for tripping. 

Alpert quickly made the game 1-0 and that’s where the first period score stayed. The Bears had a half dozen solid scoring chances in the period and just couldn’t put the puck in the net.

“You have to take advantage of those opportunities and we didn’t,” Fleming said. “I think we had the opportunity to come out of the first period probably up 3-0 nothing.”

It’s been one of the weaknesses for the Bears all season. They aggressively attack the net and get in their offense for long stretches, but can’t convert solid, high percentage scoring opportunities. It happened again in the third period.

“You got to hit the net and that’s been our nemesis really all year,” Fleming said. “We’ve had opportunities and we’re not taking advantage of them. You just can’t do that when you play good teams. Against the lower end teams you can get away with that a little bit, but against these good teams you got to learn how to put them away. It’s a hard lesson to learn.”

Berkley-Ferndale has only two regular season games left. They play at home against Bloomfield United next week on Tuesday (Feb. 22) and on Friday at home against Marysville (Feb. 25). The team’s pre-regional game is against Birmingham at the Birmingham Ice Sports Arena on Feb. 28.