Inline on a Roll...
Novi defeats Howell 9-5; Plymouth 4-1
6/5/2006 by Scott Olson, John Smith and Dave Zarem

On senior honors night Novi finished regular season play last Thursday with a 9-5 win over Howell. With 5 seniors out of the lineup to receive academic honors, Novi played well and paced themselves with stingy defense and pounced on offensive opportunities.

"The kids relished with the short bench, they are use to much less floor time since we have the biggest roster at 13," said coach Zarem.

Novi finished league play alone in 3rd place 7-2-1 with 15 points. " The coaching staff felt that a realistic goal would be 2nd place, we missed that by 1 point, so we are pleased" said coach Smith. The Novi Varsity In-line hockey players that received academic honors were Brett Walczak, Matt Renner, Steve Rousseau, Team Captain Greg Morrisette, Ryan Fox and Chad Tindall. "As coaches we are honored very proud of our young men for there dedication in the class room and at the rink" said Coach Smith.

The coaching staff is expecting everyone to be in the line up for their first league playoff game this Thursday 6:50 pm vs. Plymouth High at Total Roller Hockey in Wixom.

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The inaugural inline season has been successful to Head Coach John Smith and his staff. After playing well in the state tournament they had to get prepared for the league playoffs. Coach Smith's dedication to defense has come together. Novi now leads the league in goals against thanks the team's dedication to unselfish play along with stellar goaltending by Chad (the tender) Tindall.

Against Plymouth, after a great first period of playoff hockey, the Cats found themselves down 1-0. Sticking to their season-long game plan things came together in the end and Novi defeated Plymouth 4-1 to advance to the Semi-finals Thursday.

Steve Rousseau lead the team with a short handed goal to tie Plymouth and finished with 4 points including a picture perfect pass to Jeff Donohue on the power play. That was enough as the Cats played tight D and added goals from Shamus Finnerty and Nick (Xmas) Carol to get the victory 4-1.

Lets bring out some support for our new NHS sport Thursday at 5:10 p.m. for a rematch of the state semi's against powerhouse Walled Lake Central. Finals will follow at 8:30 p.m.