Winning KLAA title reestablishes Brighton as state hockey power after slump
BRIGHTON — Winning state championships isn’t easy, but winning the KLAA hockey championship has been even harder for Brighton.
Since the Bulldogs last emerged as association champions, they won two state Division 1 titles and were runners-up twice.
That just underscores how difficult it is to win the KLAA, one of the premier hockey conferences in Michigan.
Brighton won its first KLAA title since 2015 with a 4-2 victory over Livonia Stevenson Friday night at Kensington Valley Ice House.
The Bulldogs won all 11 of their games within a league that features No. 2 Hartland, No. 3 Stevenson, No. 5 Brighton and No. 10 Salem as Division 1 powers.
Brighton typically refuses to touch any trophy that isn’t intended for the state champion, but made an exception by grabbing the KLAA hardware and skating with it toward their large student section.
“There’s really good competition in the league,” Brighton coach Kurt Kivisto said. “You look at what Hartland’s done, what Livonia Stevenson’s done over that time since we last won the league; it’s pretty impressive.
“It’s pretty impressive for our seniors. We went undefeated in the league this year against really, really good competition. It’s not an easy league. Night in and night out, there’s a lot of depth in it, especially the top teams are really, really good.”
Winning the KLAA championship had added significance for a Brighton team that was trying to reestablish itself as a state championship contender after struggling in recent weeks. The Bulldogs lost three of their previous four games, getting shut out in both games last weekend at the MIHL Showcase in Trenton. They scored only one goal in their three losses.
“It means a lot,” junior forward Lane Petit said. We’ve been back and forth, been down and up. It just feels good. The team needs this. We wanted this so bad. We’ve never been more hungry. This game means so much to us with the level of competition and play in this league.”
Of course, it wouldn’t have been a Brighton victory unless the other team scored first.
This time, the Bulldogs trailed only 1-0 on a goal by Christian Lang at 8:20 of the second period. It took Brighton only 47 seconds to respond with a goal by Cameron Duffany.
“We’ve just got to do a better job when we do get the lead,” said Stevenson coach David Mitchell, whose team lost 4-2 to Brighton on Dec. 16 after leading 2-0 midway through the third period. “We’ve got to stay true to what we were doing to get there. We’ve just got to keep working on consistency and being consistent for 51 minutes, but a lot of that had to do with the way they played.”
Duffany’s goal ended Brighton’s scoreless streak at 128 minutes, 7 seconds since he scored to beat Salem in overtime on Jan. 31, completing a comeback from a 3-0 deficit.
“There’s maybe a little bit of a mental block there when it doesn’t go in, but part of it’s the process we talked about this week,” Kivisto said. “I thought we were really good in the first period tonight, even though we didn’t score. We got away from our structure a little bit in the second. I thought we were really good in the third. We got that one early and it kind of jump-started us a little bit.”
Petit broke the tie just 17 seconds into the third period and Evan Wohart made it 3-1 at the 2:41 mark.
Each team scored while skating four-on-four, with Stevenson’s Owen Hall cutting the lead to 3-2 with 5:04 left in the game, only to have Duffany score his second goal 26 seconds later.
“We’ve been known as a third-period team the whole year,” Duffany said. “Why not continue it in an important game like this and bury all those goals and win it for the fans? During the season, we always go down and find a way to come back. It’s great to come back.
“We’ve got to fix it before playoffs come, because we can’t keep doing this. It’ll bite us in the butt sometimes.”
Levi Pennala backstopped the victory by making 32 saves. Dominic Vincent had two primary assists.
Brighton (16-7) and Stevenson (16-6) could meet in the state quarterfinals at 1 p.m. March 4 at Kensington Valley. The Bulldogs will conclude their regular season at 6 p.m. Wednesday at home against Birmingham Brother Rice.
Stevenson closes the regular season with six straight games against state-ranked teams. After playing Brighton, the Spartans play No. 1 (Division 1) Detroit Catholic Central, No. 9 (Division 1) Saline and No. 4 (Division 3) Flint Powers Catholic. They faced No. 1 (Division 2) Byron Center and No. 2 (Division 2) Marquette last weekend in Trenton.
“This schedule has been treacherous,” Mitchell said. “Byron Center, Marquette, Brighton, C.C., then we’ve got Saline and Powers. This six games we’re going to see what we’re made of going into playoffs.”
KLAA hockey championship games
2009: Brighton 2, Northville 0
2010: Livonia Stevenson 3, Waterford Kettering 1
2011: Howell 4, Novi 3
2012: Brighton 7, Walled Lake Northern 1
2013: Brighton 6, Hartland 1
2014: Brighton 5, Hartland 3
2015: Brighton 1, Hartland 0
2016: Hartland 4, Livonia Stevenson 0
2017: Hartland 4, Brighton 3
2018: Livonia Stevenson 3, Hartland 0
2019: Livonia Stevenson 5, Hartland 2
2020: Livonia Stevenson 4, Brighton 0
2021: Hartland 2, Novi 1
2022: Hartland 3, Livonia Stevenson 0
2023: Brighton 4, Livonia Stevenson 2
Contact Bill Khan at wkhan@gannett.com. Follow him on Twitter @BillKhan.
This article originally appeared on Livingston Daily: Brighton wins first KLAA hockey title since 2015 vs. Livonia Stevenson
