Sunday, November 27, 2011

New Season

It's that time of the year again, another hockey season for the Mt. Pleasant Oilers. Along with a new season comes new faces and new challenges.

After leading the Oilers for the first three seasons of the schools program, Paul Visich has moved on to a new opportunity in his life, taking a position at the University of New England and will be remembered as a competitive coach who led both on and off the ice and exits with a career mark of 29-41-2.

An assistant coach last year with the program, Alex Weisenburger takes over as the programs new head coach. His resume includes coaching stops with Central Michigan University, Florida Gulf Coast University and Grand Valley State. He will be joined by secone year assistant Greg Millis and new assistant Coach Evan Crawford who played for Coach Weisenburger at FGCU and CMU.

The Oilers have been on the ice now for three weeks and have already battled the injury bug and the early season absence of some key players due to the Oiler Football program making another strong run through the playoffs and a Division 3 State Runner-up spot. Congrats to Coach McIntyre and the Oiler football players for an amazing 13-1 season.

The Oiler invite was held this weekend at the Mt. Pleasant Ice Arena, a annual four team tournament including the Oilers, L'anse Creuse North Crusaders, Bay City Central Wolves and Freeland Falcons.

In the opener Friday afternoon, Bay City skated past L'Anse Creuse to a 4-2 victory and advanced to the Tournament Final. In the evening nightcap, the Oilers played an exciting contest against Freeland. Freeland started the scoring and led 1-0 after the first period. The Flacons added to that lead early in the second and the Oilers responded shortly after with a goal from Junior Nick Coscarelly with assists going to Freshman RJ Cilibraise and Sophomore Robert Backus. Mt. Pleasant tied the game on a slap shot from Sophomore defenseman Tyler Jackson, with assists going Nick Coscarelly and Junior Dan Pulver. The game was back and forth with several scoring chances by each team and some solid goaltending by each squad. Both teams headed in to a eight minute sudden death overtime and when time expired without a goal being scored the tournament match was sent to a three player shootout. Each team took turns on the center ice one on one, Freeland going first and Sophomore Adam Salisbury making the save. Coscarelly gave Mt. Pleasant a lead with a goal on the Oilers first attempt. After another brilliant save on Freelands second attempt, Robert Backus had an opprtunity to send the Oilers to the finals and did not disappoint the home crowd, burying the puck in the back of the net and giving the Oilers their first win of the season 4-2.

Salisbury finished the game with 29 saves on 31 shots.

The finals on Saturday was a preview of two Saginaw Valley League conference foes and Bay City cruised to a 8-1 victory over a very shorthanded Oiler squad. The lone Oiler goal was scored by Junior Nick Coscarelly with an assist going to Senior Derek D'Artagnan. Salisbury made 43 saves in the loss.

In the third place game L'Anse Creuse skated to an 8-0 victory that was stopped after two periods due to the High School mercy rule.

Come out this Friday evening to catch the Oilers in action against Hudsonville at 6:00.

Friday, April 29, 2011

Year End Wrap-Up





The third season of the Mt. Pleasant Oiler Hockey program ended on the evening of March 3rd with a Regional Playoff Loss to the Big Rapids Cardinals in Cadillac by a score of 7-1.



The year was an up and down roller coaster ride trying to mix experienced players in with talented new comers, all totalled we had 7 Freshman see an abundance of ice time and are losing 5 talented Seniors to graduation.



The team endured some early season injury issues to key players that were carried over from the fine run the High School Football team made and then were also stung down the stretch with injuries to some of our top scorers and defenders. Our final record ended up at 9-15-1, not what we had hoped for when the season started, but with the amount of experience our younger players saw we definitely have something to build a future with.



The Seniors we lost will be sorely missed and they really showed the younger players how to lead a team. They are:



Cody Yazzie was one of our top ice-time players, he was used on our 2nd Line, on the power play and also on key shorthanded situations. He was tied for 2nd on the team in goals scored and although Cody is a quiet kid, he often let his play do the talking for him. A very tough player to defend and arguably the hardest shot on the team, he gave us his all every time on the ice. He was All-Academic with a GPA of 3.81. Cody has been accepted to Michigan Tech to study Chemical Engineering and is hoping to play some hockey for the club team in Houghton. He ranks 4th all-time in Goals, Assists and Points for MPHS Hockey.



Jose Vasquez was a great kid to coach, always one of the first ones on the ice, he engaged his teammates in friendly banter and a very hard worker in practice. he was an Assistant Captain voted on by the players and always showed his work ethic to the younger players. Jose didn't have the statistics that some of the other Seniors had, but was a great role player killing penalties, winning key face offs and keeping us coaches in line. He was voted by his teammates as winning the "Hockey Spirit" Award for being the most supportive individual. Jose plans on continuing his education at Mid-Michigan Community College and I would bet he will be there next year supporting his Oiler hockey team from the stands.



Josh Watters was another quiet kid that was moved from defense up to forward on the first line and first power play unit this year. The move paid off for the team as he ended up 3rd in overall points and showed a great knack to score and setup his line mates to score. Josh always showed great ice awareness and had the best set of hands on the team. Unfortunately Josh suffered some shoulder injuries down the stretch and missed a few games otherwise I believe he would have challenged for the team lead in Points and Assists. Josh is one of only five players to be with the team since inception and leaves in 2nd place all-time in assists and points. Josh plans on attending CMU and wants to major in Sports Medicine.



Alex Horton was the most intense player on the team which was probably a carryover from his football playing. He missed quite a few games at the beginning of the season due to a football injury and once he was available to play we asked him to drop back and man our young Defense and he did not hesitate. He still managed to lead the Defense in Goals, Assists, Points and Penalty Minutes (all though he will tell you they weren't all deserved) all while playing Defense for the first time. As an opponent you always wanted to keep your head up when #9 was on the ice, I believe Alex loved checking more than scoring. Alex has been accepted in to the Naval Academy and will be trying out for the Football team. Alex was All Saginaw Valley Conference 2nd team, All-Academic with a 3.95 GPA and was voted by his to win the "Ice Man" Award, given yearly to the toughest player on the team.



Ryan Heeke was our Team Captain, our leading scorer, voted by his teammates as our Team MVP, made 2nd team All Saginaw Valley League and had the highest GPA on the team of 3.97. Ryan has played all three years MPHS Hockey has existed and leaves ranked #1 in Assists, Goals and Points. Ryan showed great leadership and although a quiet kid as well, his grit and determination was seen by his teammates as well as his coaches. Ryan has not committed to a University as of yet, but is considering Michigan State and CMU and is planning on pursuing playing baseball and studying Engineering.



After being the only goalie in town for the first two years, Derek D'Artangnan got some help this year from Freshman Adam Salisbury. Each goalie ended the season with four wins and had Goals Against Averages under 4.00. They faced a ton of shots this year and kept the team in a majority of the games played. Of our 15 losses this year, 10 were by 2 or fewer goals, showing that they really did do there part in giving us a chance to win each night. Adam was All-Academic with a GPA of 3.80.



Junior Eric DeLorenzo was our 3rd Assistant Captain and also has been with the team since the beginning. A quiet leader, he played solid Defense throughout the year and will be a key figure in the 2011-2012 season.



Robert Backus led our Freshman in scoring with 4 goals and 9 assists, Nick Coscarelly was our leading Sophomore scorer with 16 goals (led the team) and 5 assists and was named Honorable mention all Saginaw Valley league. Chris Yoder led the way for the Juniors with 2 goals and 11 assists.



Freshman Bryce Bolles was voted as our "Most Improved" Player as well as being All-Academic with a 3.5 GPA.



Other's making All-Academic were:



Freshman Max Heeke with a GPA of 3.30


Sophomore Nick Coscarelly with a GPA of 3.60


Sophomore Jesse McDevitt-Irwin with a GPA of 3.90 also named as Honorable mention All Saginaw Valley Conference


Junior Chris Yoder with a GPA of 3.96 (2nd highest on team)


Junior Eric Delorenzo with a GPA of 3.40



Overall, over half the team made All-Academic, who says Hockey Players are dumb??

Saturday, February 5, 2011

Snow delays and conference victories

The game between Mt. Pleasant and Saginaw Heritage originally scheduled for the 2nd of February at 7pm was rescheduled due to the blizzard that hit Central Michigan with over a foot of snow and winds in excess of 50MPH. The game will be played as a Matinee on February 14th at 2:45Pm at the Saginaw Ice Arena.

The Oilers traveled to the Saginaw Ice Arena Friday night for a rematch against the Swan Valley Titans. Swan Valley handed Mt. Pleasant a 7-4 loss last month in Mt. Pleasant and the Oilers were determined to repay the favor to the Titans.

A very entertaining game Friday evening as both teams played a physical, fast paced game with some great saves by the goalies at both ends that had the fans in attendance on there feet.

Mt. Pleasant opened the scoring when Sophomore Nick Coscarelly scored from an off angle, surprising the Titans goalie with a crisp, accurate snapshot. Senior Cody Yazzie and Junior Jesse McDervitt-Irwin picked up assists on the play. Unfortunately the lead wouldn't last long as the Titans capitalized on a wild scrum in front of Freshman goalie Adam Salisbury and tied the score just 1:40 after the Oilers opened the scoring.

The first period had both teams in the locker room with a 1-1 tie on the scoreboard. However, the second period would belong to the Oilers as they knotted three goals and goalie Salisbury made some key saves to preserve the three goal lead heading in to the third. The "yellow" line for the Oilers was all over the score sheet with goals going to Senior Ryan Heeke and Sophomore Danny Pulver (2) with assists going to Senior's Josh Watters (3), Ryan Heeke (2) and Sophomore Danny Pulver.

The Titans managed to get a goal past Salisbury in the third as talented Sophomore Hayden Ray found the back of the net on the power play cutting the Oilers lead to two with 7:46 left to play.

However that would be all the Titans would muster as the Oilers played solid "D" from that point on, closing the door on any comeback by the Titans and eventually picking up a much needed conference win.

Adam Salisbury finished the game with 29 saves.

The Oilers improved to 6-8-1 will face Lapeer East today at 5PM at the I.C.E. arena in Mt. Pleasant.

Matchup with Midland

The Oilers traveled to Midland Wednesday evening to face the highly touted Chemics from Midland High.

The game was very entertaining and the young Oilers took it right to Midland right out of the gate in an attempt to spoil Midland's "Senior Night".

The Chemics opened the scoring six minutes in to the game, but the Oilers fought back and with just under three minutes to go, Senior Ryan Heeke got on past the Chemics goalie to even the score and send the Oilers in to the locker room tied at 1 after 1, Junior Jesse McDervitt-Irwin was credited with an assist on the play.

The second period was full of back and forth play with each team adding two goals and sending both teams to the locker room tied at 3 and setting up the final fifteen minutes as possibly a huge upset in the making. Sophomore Nick Coscarelly had both goals in the second for the Oilers with the only assist going to Senior Cody Yazzie.

The stunned crown waited in anticipation and unfortunately the home team did not disappoint in the third. The Chemics came out buzzing and controlled the third period, scoring three goals and out shooting the Oilers 15-5 en route to a 6-3 victory.

The Oilers, who fell to 5-8-1 learned valuable lessons on the defeat and look forward to there match up with the Chemics on their home ice on the 23rd of February.

Junior goalie Derek D'Artangnan made 34 saves in the loss. The Oilers will travel to Saginaw on the 2nd to face Heritage at 7pm.
The Mt. Pleasant Oilers faced the Midland Dow Chargers for the second time this year on Saturday the 22nd at home. Unfortunately the outcome was the same as these two evenly matched teams played a very competitive, close game.

The Chargers opened the scoring on a breakaway late in the second period and were able to find the net and take a 1-0 lead in to the locker room after 30 minutes of play.

The third period was very entertaining and the pace of play was quick. The Chargers scored two goals in a matter of sixty seven seconds to take a 3-0 lead with eight minutes left to play in the game. The Oilers, however did not lay down and give up, the fought the entire remainder of the game and eventually were able to crack a very solid performance by Dow's goalie when Senior Cody Yazzie redirected a shot from the point from Sophomore Nathan Pittsley with only 1:19 to go in the game. Sophomore Nick Coscarelly also picked up an assist on the goal.

The Oilers were forced to pull there goalie and with just 10 seconds remaining scored again as this time Yazzie setup fellow Senior Ryan Heeke to pull the Oilers withing one. However, the clock was against the Oilers and they simply ran out of time and fell to Midland Dow for the second time season 3-2.

Freshman goalie Adam Salisbury had 17 saves in the loss falling the Oilers to 5-7-1. They will next take on The Chemics from Midland High at Midland on the 26th of January at 7PM.

Swan Valley

The Oilers hosted conference play Wednesday night as the Swan Valley Titans came to town.

The game was a barn burner as the penalty column on the score sheet equaled the goal tally with a wide open, physical game played by both teams.

The Oilers could not bolster enough offense nor stymie the Titans on defense and were unable to pick up a much needed conference win with the Titans running out of town with a 7-4 victory.

Scoring gaols for the Oilers were Senior Josh Watters, Sophomore's Nick Coscarelly and Danny Pulver and Freshman Robert Backus. Adding assists were Senior's Cody Yazzie (2) and Alex Horton, Junior Chris Yoder and Sophomore Nick Coscarelly. Junior goalie Derek D'Artangnan had 22 saves in the loss.

The Oilers fall to 5-6-1 and will take on another conference foe, Midland Dow on Saturday the 22nd at 3:00 PM at the I.C.E. Arena in Mt. Pleasant.

January 14 against Alpena

The Alpena Wildcats traveled tot he I.C.E. Arena in Mt. Pleasant to take on the young Oilers in a Friday night showdown. Alpena has a strong tradition and quite a following back home, the game was even televised live on the local Alpena radio station.

The Oilers wasted little time thought showing the Wildcats that they meant business. The scoring opened up just five minutes in to the game when Josh Watters took a nifty pass from Freshman Robert Backus and buried it in to the net. Senior Ryan Heeke was also credited with an assist on the first goal.

Just sixty one seconds later Mt. Pleasant added to their lead when Junior Eric Delorenzo took a pass from Senior Coddy Yazzie and quickly moved it to Sophomore Nick Coscarelly who scored to make it 2-0 Mt. Pleasant.

The heavy hitting affair saw several penalties handed out to each team and the scorekeeper was kept busy writing names down in the penalty column.

In the second period Mt. Pleasant added another goal as Senior Josh Watters returned the favor to his buddy Ryan Heeke who found the net on a great bing bang passing play. The goal gave Mt. Pleasant a 3-0 lead heading in the the final period.

The third period was marred by a fight and again several penalties. but Mt. Pleasant added another goal from Sophomore Nick Coscarelly with assists going to Senior Cody Yazzie and Junior Chris Yoder.

Junior netminder Derek D'Artangnan lost his bid at a shutout with just 1:50 to go in the game as Alpena had an extra attacker and were able to get one past the Oiler goalie. D'Artangnan ended the game with 25 saves.

The Oilers held on to a 4-1 victory to improve to 5-5-1 and will next face Swan Valley at home on the 19th at 7:00 PM.

Monday, January 10, 2011

Saturday Matinee

The Oxford Wildcats completed a weekend road trip that had them open on Friday in Gaylord and stop in Mt. Pleasant for a Saturday afternoon puck drop at 3 PM.

Oxford, a division 2 team from downstate brought a very fast paced and defensive minded game to the Oilers on Saturday.

However it was the Oilers opening the score on Saturday when Freshman Bryce Bolles took a pass from Senior Center Jose Vasquez and buried it just three minutes in tot he game to give the Oilers a quick 1-0 lead.

Unfortunately by the end of the period Mt. Pleasant would head to the locker room down 2-1 as Oxford took advantage of a hooking call to tie it up and then scored an even strength goal with two minutes to go to give them the one goal lead.

The Oilers fought back in the second when Senior Josh Watters found the back of the net during a wild scrum in front of the Oxford goalie and Freshman Robert Backus was given an assist on the play.

The rest of the game was played very physically, with scrums after several whistles, four minor penalties handed out for roughing and several shots taken by each team.

The end of regulation still found the score deadlocked at 2 and a seven minute sudden death overtime was played only to have goalies from each side make several key stops to preserve the 2-2 tie.

The Oilers goalie, Junior Derek D'Artangnan made 15 saves in the third period and overtime alone for a game total of 28.

Mt. Pleasant will next face Alpena at home Friday evening the 14th at 7pm.

The Oilers now sit at 4-5-1, with another 14 games left on the schedule.

Conference Play


The Oilers got back in to conference play Wednesday night at the Ice Arena in Mt. Pleasant when they squared off with the Bay City Wolves.

The game was lopsided from the start as the young Oilers found themselves a bit foggy from the long layoff and fell to Bay City 7-0.

The Wolves out shot the Oilers 53-13 and Junior goalie had the highest total of saves for the season with 46. His strong play was not enough and the Oilers were unable to to muster any kind of offense at all and saw there record drop to 4-5.

They will next face the Oxford Wildcats at home, Saturday afternoon at 3 PM.

Holiday Tournament


The Mt. Pleasant Oilers were invited to play in a Holiday Tournament in Lansing over the school break. This was not originally on the schedule, however the Oilers needed to find two additional games to fill out their 24 game schedule, so this addition worked out very well.


Unfortunately, Head Coach Paul Visich and Assistant Coach Greg Millis were both unavailable to coach as they each had conflicts Holiday travel plans.


A special thank you to Assistant coach Alex Weisenburger who took on the task of running a couple practices and then taking the team to Lansing and playing two games, ultimately winning the tournament and earning the Oilers a nice trophy to be displayed at the I.C.E. Arena in Mt. Pleasant. An additional special thank you to Pete Courtright and Nate Morang for assisting Coach Alex for the week.


In the first game Mt. Pleasant defeated Warren Mott in overtime by a score of 4-3. Seniors Ryan Heeke (two goals) and Josh Watters (goal and an assist) along with Freshman Robert Backus led the scoring attack along with assists from Sophomore Danny Pulver, Junior Eric DeLorenzo and Senior Cody Yazzie. Junior net minder Derek D'Artangnan had 18 saves in the game.


The Championship game featured the host team Lansing Patriots facing off against the Oilers. In a game that had 17 minor penalties assesed, the Oilers won the battle of attrition and the trophy by a score of 3-1. Seniors Cody Yazzie, Josh Watters (goal and an assist) and Ryan Heeke (goal and an assist) all had goals and assists were handed out to above for mentioned as well as Senior Alex Horton, Freshman Max Heeke and Sophomore Danny Pulver. Junior goaltender Derek D'Artangnan was strong in net stopping all but one of the 17 shots he faced.


The tournament championship approved the Oilers record to 4-4.

Trip to Gladwin

On Saturday December 18th Mt. Pleasant traveled north to take on the Mid Michigan Storm in Gladwin.

The game was a very physical game and Mt. Pleasant played a very disciplined game only being assessed two minor penalties while The Storm were tagged with seven penalties.

The scoring opened up in the second period with a an un-assisted breakaway for the Storm to put them out to a 1-0 lead. However the Oilers answered quickly as they took advantage of a cross checking penalty and scored just seven seconds in to the power play as Senior Josh Watters took a pass from Senior Ryan Heeke and buried it in the net to tie the game at 1.

The Storm opened the third period with two goals just 30 seconds apart and put the Oilers quickly back on their heals. Mt. Pleasant regrouped and Sophomore Danny Pulver stole the puck, skated up ice and hit Sophomore Nick Coscarelly with a nifty pass and Coscarelly scored to pull the Oilers within one.

The Oilers out shot the Storm in the remaining ten minutes of the third period but were unable to get one past Mid Michigan's goalie and fell to the Storm 3-2. Junior Goalie Derek D'Artangnan made 24 saves in the loss and the Oilers record fell to 2-4.

The Oilers look forward to the rematch with the Storm at their barn on Friday February 18th.

Midland Dow

On December 15th, the Oilers traveled to Midland to face the Chargers from Dow High School. This game was a match up of two teams from the Saginaw Valley Conference.

The game was a back and forth affair with Dow jumping out to an early lead on a power play goal and then adding another at even strength.

As the period expired, Mt. Pleasant went to the locker room down 2-0. The Oilers regrouped a bit in the second scoring an early goal and staying pace with the Chargers in the shot department, with each team tallying 8 shots on net.

The third period proved to be too much for the Oilers as they took a few minor penalties and the Chargers took advantage scoring two power play goals and eventually settling on a 4-2 victory.

Junior goalie Derek D'Artangnan finished the game with 25 saves.

The Oilers record fell to 2-3 in the defeat.