The Forest Hills Central hockey team took on the Capital City Capitals this past Saturday, March 4, at Suburban Ice Center in East Lansing. This game was used to determine who advanced to the MHSAA state semifinals. The Rangers went into this game with high spirits and a great drive. The boys’ morale ultimately lead them to a huge win against the Capitals. With the 2022-2023 Ranger hockey team advancing the farthest into playoffs in the history of FHC hockey, the Rangers are hungry to advance to states and would become the first FHC hockey team to do so. Throughout the season, the Rangers have won 17 out of 29 games. This year, the team’s passion and motivation have helped them to keep practicing hard and playing as we’ve never seen before. With the season coming to an end, tensions are getting higher and suspense is cutting deep.

The first period starts off with a great goal by freshman Benny Mielock to place the team in an early lead. This was followed by Benny’s second goal of the night scored on a power play with an assist from Sammy Mielock and Rocco Gonzalez in the second period to bring the score to 2-0. The Rangers continue to dominate in the second period, building off of the momentum and energy brought by the crowd and the great start of the night.  This energy continued throughout the game when senior Sammy Mielock scored his first goal of the night. The liveliness of this game is one for the books and The capitols never saw them coming. As the second period continued the Rangers scored yet again with senior Anthony Ott making a great play.

By the time the Rangers entered the third period, the score was 4-0 and they did not stop there. The team’s fire coupled with the crowd’s energy brought an insane level of fury to the rink while the Rangers showed no mercy to the Capitals. The third period started with a score from junior Owen Barber assisted by Sammy and Gibby Grandel and ended with Sammy’s second goal of the night bringing the game to an ultimate score of 6-0.

After the big win, the team was excited, to say the least, and when asked about the victory Michael Hazard said, “I felt super hype after knowing that we will be able to move on and play another game.”

FHC hockey is looking strong going into next week’s game against Detroit Catholic Central. The team is looking good going into the rest of the playoffs and nothing will get in their way as they reach for the all-time goal of the MHSAA state title. Before going to states the Rangers will face off against DCC next Friday, March 10, at USA Hockey Arena in Plymouth. This game will be held at 5:00 PM and will determine who advances to the MHSAA state finals.