Cranbrook hockey solidifies unforgettable season with D3 State Championship

BLOOMFIELD HILLS — Whatever it takes to keep your mind right in the face of adversity, you think about it.

As East Grand Rapids scored the fastest goal ever recorded in the Michigan High School Athletic Association Ice Hockey State Finals against Bloomfield Hills Cranbrook Kingswood in just 12 seconds, Cranbrook junior goaltender Garrett Dudlar reflected on a conversation he had with his mother just before the game.

“It’s actually funny, because right before the game, my mom called me as I was on my way to the rink, and she said that earlier in the week, MSU (Michigan State University) was playing Wisconsin, and MSU let up a goal in the first minute, and they came back and won it,” Dudlar said. “After she told me that, I knew it didn’t mean much and that we could easily come back and win this game.”

Wisconsin’s goal 47 seconds into the first period against MSU March 1 wasn’t quite as quick as East Grand Rapids, but it kept Dudlar focused on the entirety of the game instead of dwelling on the past.

“I was sitting there in the net thinking, ‘Huh, this is funny,’” Dudlar said, reflecting on his conversation with his mother.

Dudlar had been the backbone of Cranbrook all season since joining the team in January, and he continued to be stellar as he stopped 53 shots in the championship game, which was the second-most in MHSAA state finals history.

As Dudlar kept them in the game through two overtime periods and Cranbrook and East Grand Rapids were deadlocked at 2-2 March 8 at the USA Hockey Arena in Plymouth, an unlikely hero emerged as junior defenseman David Schmitt fired home the game-winning goal 3:34 into the third overtime, giving the Cranes the 3-2 Division 3 state championship win.

“He (Schmitt) had one goal the whole season and in the last two games of the season he gets three goals, and all of them were on the power play,” Cranbrook head coach John LaFontaine said. “He had three power play goals in two games. Good for him. He worked on getting that shot through all year, and it paid off.”

Schmitt also scored the game-tying goal in the second period while sophomore Kyle Braunscheidel opened up the scoring for the Cranes in the first period.

A defenseman only scoring one goal all year and tallying two in the state finals complemented a fitting story for a team that was counted out and overlooked throughout the state tournament.

Cranbrook struggled to find its footing throughout the beginning of the season, but the MIHL Showcase in the first week of February would spark a different side of Cranbrook.

Earning back-to-back wins over Traverse City Central and Grand Rapids Catholic Central, the Cranes rode the momentum of a three-game win streak into a 3-0 win over Orchard Lake St. Mary’s, who was one of the top-ranked teams in the state at the time.

“Our guys, they saw that if we could just play as a team and defend well that it could be done against anybody,” LaFontaine said. “That (win streak) gave our guys some confidence. Of course we then go the next two weeks and play inconsistent and don’t really put anything together, but they just came together. They came together as a team, our captains came together, and you could just start to see things improving as a team with doing all the little things better.”

Cranbrook adds to a longstanding history of state championships, 19 to be exact, with the last one coming in 2021 and 10 to their credit since 2000.

If you walk inside Cranbrook Wallace Ice Arena and look above the ice, banner upon banner of state championship-winning seasons hang from both the boys and girls side.

That type of success can sometimes be stressed to players as a standard to abide by, but Cranbrook focuses more on their players writing their own history.

“It’s more of just knowing your legacy and knowing what Cranbrook has been and what the expectations are,” Dudlar said. “It’s not something we mention a lot, but times like this, it’s nice to say that we continued the legacy.”

In regards to leaving a legacy, Cranbrook’s four seniors — Thomas Kiemel, Roman Cicco, Michael Horton and Rento Saijo — will forever be remembered in Cranbrook history, not just for the impact they made during their tenure on the ice, but for the immeasurable impact they made as veteran leaders off the ice.

“The seniors were our leaders, and they were our true leaders,” LaFontaine said. “They led on the ice and off the ice. Those guys coming together as the captaincy and for Rento Saijo, because Rento was unbelievable. He didn’t wear a ‘C,’ but he certainly exemplified it with his demeanor and the way he goes about his business being so organized, focused and team-oriented. With those seniors, if you don’t have that, then, normally, the season doesn’t end well. They didn’t care about who got the credit. All that mattered is it got done at the end of the day.”