Miller time: Traverse City Central tops Salem, 6-1, for 1st finals berth at Scott Miller Memorial since 2018

Dec. 30—ACME — Brady Faille wasn't going to concede the ice.

Neither were his teammates.

The Traverse City Central senior goaltender won two standoffs with Salem senior netminder Eliot Duerr, as both wanted to be the last person off the ice between periods.

Once, the public address announcer had to shoo the two goalies off the ice, with Faille winning the first go-'round. During the second intermission, the referees made Duerr exit the rink as Faille leaned against the Centre Ice bench door, just a few feet from Central's locker room.

Faille made 19 saves — not counting the two between periods — as the Trojans beat Salem 6-1 Thursday to earn a spot in Friday's championship game of the three-day Scott Miller Memorial Holiday Invitational at Centre Ice Arena.

"It's kind of like a routine and tradition I have," Faille said. "I always have to be the last one off the ice. But if it was his home rink, I would have gotten off right away out of respect for them. But since we're up here, it's our hometown and I wasn't going to let it go."

Central hasn't won its own tournament since 2012, and had a tough act to follow Thursday, playing right after Toledo St. Francis came back from a 5-1 deficit to beat five-time reigning tourney champ Saginaw Heritage 7-6, surviving 57 seconds of late 5-on-3 and 41 seconds with the Hawks' goalie pulled to pull off the victory.

"I thought it was going to be a lot closer because they're a really good team," said Central defenseman Owen Dawson, who had two goals and three assists. "We just played really well. The bounces went our way. The whole team was playing together. It was good."

Dawson scored the game's first goal on a penalty shot, something he works on after each practice with Faille, but hadn't previously been able to attempt in a varsity game.

Salem was whistled for delay of game exactly a minute into the contest when a Rocks skater covered the puck in the crease with his glove. That gave the Trojans the option to go on the power play or take a penalty shot. Head coach Chris Givens chose the penalty shot and Dawson to take it.

Dawson buried the shot, dekeing Duerr with a fake to the right before coming back to the left for an easy score.

Koen Burkholder scored two goals to give him five heading into the finals. Drew Zrimec and Hunter Folgmann also scored, with assists going to Zrimec, Tyler Cooper and Luke Weaver as the Trojans are in the Miller finals for the first time since 2018.

The game became a little chippy as the score drifted apart, with Salem whistled for two five-minute majors late and Central one. Salem's Tyler Taraszkiewicz broke up Faille's shutout with a high shot with 13:33 left to trim the lead to 5-1, a score answered by Burkholder less than a minute later.

Central (6-3-2) plays Toledo St. Francis for the title Friday at 3:15 p.m., with Saginaw Heritage and Salem taking the ice at 1 p.m. with third place on the line.

"We play that way in honor of Scott (Miller), knowing that his parents are here and probably some of his other family," Givens said of Miller, who played for TCC in the late 1970s and early 1980s and died in a 2010 motorcycle accident. "We just want to give a really good effort, win or lose, because that's how Scott did it. ... Even when I played men's league against him when he had the old Trojans team in the C league, that's how he played — really hard, but clean. So we talked about that this week in practice, just honoring Scott by giving a good effort, being gritty and playing the game the way it's supposed to be."

Toledo St. Francis was the talk of the rink, coming back from a 5-1 first-period deficit to take a 6-5 lead with 32 seconds left in the second on Jacob Myers' short-handed goal seven seconds into a penalty kill and his second score of the game. Saginaw Heritage's Mason Cole tied the game up at six in the third period's first minute before Sawyer Zielinski scored the game-winner with 12:14 remaining.

Brody Bergman, Jamison Rose (two) and Zielinski scored St. Francis' other goals, with Andrew Tucker assisting on five of the seven Knights' scores.

Logan Boettcher scored twice for Heritage, and Owen Gohm, Brady Gotham, Ethan Westendorf also collected goals.

Givens said the Heritage-St. Francis game reminded him of a Trojans contest three years ago in the same tournament against Toledo St. John's in which Central led 5-1 and eventually lost 7-6 in triple overtime.

Three Bay Reps players scored two goals each in a 7-0 win over crosstown rival Traverse City West (2-9).

Grant Lucas scored twice in the first period, first on a power play off an Ethan Egelski assist only 1:23 into the game and then again at even strength with 1:08 left in the stanza from an Ethan Coleman setup.

Coleman and Larson Millar also scored two goals each, with Tyeson Griffore adding another. Aiden Reamer stopped all 15 shots he faced to get the win, with West's Mac Smith turning away 28 shots.

"My first one I didn't see anything so I just kind of surprised myself, honestly," Millar said. "The second one was a great shot by Zach Gerlando from the point and I was just there for the tip-in."

Reps senior team manager Noah Endres suited up for the second day in a row, getting in several shifts, including an assist on Millar's second goal.

"It was good for him," Millar said. "He's been working hard at practice and he deserves some time to play, so it was good for him."

Others Reps assists went to Gerlando (two), Coleman, Griffore, Millar, Drew Hardy and John Hawkins.

The Reps bounced back from Wednesday's 5-3 loss to Toledo St. Francis with a convincing performance against a familiar foe in TC West.

"Everybody knows everybody," Reps defenseman Nick Dashner said. "They're your brothers, but when you're out on the ice, you have to take it to them. I was joking with my friends after the game and got a picture with them, but I just feels really good. We needed it after yesterday's game."

West plays Rockford (2-9) at 12:45 p.m. Friday in the seventh-place game. The Reps (8-2-2) take on Toledo St. John's for fifth place at 3 p.m.

"Our first two periods were good," TC West head coach Zach Bargy said. "We ended up being four down after two, but I felt like we played very well. They had a couple power-play goals in there. Five on five, we're improving and the coaches can see it."

Toledo St. John's downed Rockford 4-0, with goals coming from Lucian Chan, Anthony Leech, William Lowery and Tyler Meader. Zachary Lojewski recorded the shutout in net.

Bargy played for the Reps from 2010-14, but has been a longtime West assistant before taking over for Jeremy Rintala as the Titans' head coach this season.

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