This past weekend, the Northwood prep team headed to Indiana for their biggest weekend of the year, the Prep Hockey Conference playoffs. This year, Culver Military Academies hosted the competitive weekend. Northwood was able to clinch the first seed in the East division, which led to a first-round bye. The Huskies arrived in Indiana for their first practice of the weekend on Thursday as they settled into their locker room.

The prep team could practice again on Friday during the quarter-final games. Northwood would play the winner of the Culver vs. Mount St. Charles game on Saturday. Culver won this game 4-3, which meant Northwood’s first playoff game was against the tournament’s home team.

On top of that, Culver had Northwood’s number this year. The Military Academy was 3-1 against the Huskies this year heading into this game. Northwood came out ready to play. They took an early 2-0 lead, and it was clear they were fresh from the first-round bye. Northwood continued to build and won 5-1 to advance to the championship.

The other semi-final game was between Saint Andrews College and Shattuck St. Mary’s, two prestigious programs from the west division of the league. Shattuck won the league the first 3 years it has been in existence, and they were going for year four, but Saint Andrews pulled out the win to advance to the finals with the Huskies.

This meant there would be a new champion for the first time in league history. Northwood and Saint Andrews have been an intense rivalry for the past few years, and this was a highly anticipated game. Saint Andrews scored the first goal, then Northwood responded, but the Saints scored right back to make it 2-1 after the first. The second period was a very tight checking, physical, and defensive period. Northwood still trailed 2-1 going into the third. SAC scored two goals towards the end of the third and an empty net to make the final 5-1. The game was much closer than the scoreboard showed.