PLYMOUTH — Bloomfield Hills Cranbrook Kingswood senior Aaron Rivkin and junior Patrick Brown insist no special nickname has surfaced for the line they play on along with junior Alex Loewenstein.

Since Rivkin is graduating at the end of the school year, they probably won’t come up with one either.

For one day on Saturday though, that line might as well have been called “Championship No. 14 line.”

Thanks largely to three points apiece from Rivkin and Brown, the Cranes will have to make room for yet another state championship hockey trophy following a 4-3 win over Big Rapids in the Division 3 finals.

It was the 14th state championship in school history for Cranbrook, which is a state record. The Cranes stayed two ahead of Trenton, which won its 12th state title on Saturday with a 4-2 win over Muskegon Mona Shores in the Division 2 final.

“This is No. 7 for me personally, and they never get old,” Cranbrook head coach Andy Weidenbach said. “They’re all special. Every game has special meaning. We had to work especially hard today and in our last three games. They were all so close. The competition in Division 3 the last five years has improved tremendously.”

Big Rapids struck first with 12:43 left in the first period when a point shot by William McMullen went through traffic in front and into the net, but Cranbrook answered by scoring the next four goals of the game.

The first two of those four consecutive goals were provided by Brown and Rivkin.

Coming in on a two-on-one, Rivkin fed a pass to Brown, who beat Big Rapids goalie Eric Saum to tie the game at 1-1 with 5:18 left in the first period.

Less than four minutes later, Brown returned the favor to Rivkin on another two-on-one, as Rivkin took a pass and fired a perfect high shot past Saum to give Cranbrook a 2-1 lead with 1:54 left in the second.

“We work that in practice — one-timing and going upstairs all the time,” Rivkin said. “That was just a matter of practice for us.”

Rivkin made it 3-1 Cranbrook when he put home a neat backhanded rebound off of a shot by Brown with 12:10 remaining in the second, and then Cranbrook senior Shota Hotta scored to give the Cranes (21-7-2) what looked like an insurmountable 4-1 lead with 10:55 left in the second.

“At that point, it was looking pretty good,” Weidenbach said. “We were hoping we would gain some momentum. We could feel the surge on the bench. But then Big Rapids responded.”

Indeed the Cardinals (17-12-1) did.

Junior forward Thomas Hancock scored a pair of goals, both of which came on rebounds off of shots from the point, to bring Big Rapids back to within 4-3 with 6:53 to go in the second.

Fortunately for Cranbrook, there wouldn’t be another goal in the game.

In the third period, the Cranes did a brilliant job of killing time by cycling the puck and forechecking relentlessly in the Big Rapids zone, particularly in the final five minutes of the game.

Cranbrook did such a good job of pressuring Big Rapids that the Cardinals weren’t able to pull their goalie for an extra attacker until there was 25 seconds left in the game.

The Cranes did have to sweat out a face-off deep in their own zone with 6.2 seconds left after Cranbrook mistakenly iced the puck.

However, Brown took care of that problem, winning the draw and pulling the puck harmlessly back to the boards, where it stayed pinned among a horde of bodies until the final buzzer sounded.

When it was over, the predictable celebration ensued.

Cranbrook players threw their helmets, sticks and gloves in the air and charged towards goalie Matt Hansbury to begin yet another state championship party.

In addition to a record 14th title, it was the third state title in the last four years for the Cranes.

“There’s no better feeling,” Cranbrook senior Adam Wells said.

One that no other hockey program in the state has enjoyed as much as Cranbrook.



Contact Keith Dunlap at keith.dunlap@oakpress.com.