Last weekend saw a ton of great hockey action. I had a chance to see Lake Orion and Rochester United play to a 2-2 tie Friday night. The Dragons had a chance to claim a share of the OAA Red title, with a win. The next night, Clarkston played the spoiler, beating Lake Orion 4-0 and putting any sort of OAA Red title on hold for the Dragons.
Now, Lake Orion - which finished 4-1-1 in league play - must sit and watch things play out. Rochester United (2-0-2) travels to Berkley tonight to take on the Bears (3-1-1). If Berkley wins, it will win a share of the title - with the Dragons. But if Rochester wins, it'll set itself up for a chance to win the title outright - with a win over Farmington Hills Unified (Feb. 19) in its regular-season league finale.
I'll be at the game. Follow me @JasonESchmitt on Twitter for updates.

OAA White hotly contested, too
Our Tom Watts will be out at Troy tonight to cover the Colts game against Royal Oak. Five teams are separated by three points in the OAA White. Troy Athens (5-1-2) sits in first place with 12 points. Troy (5-1) and Avondale (5-3) each have 10, followed by Birmingham Unified (4-3-1) and Royal Oak (4-3-1) with nine each. With two games in hand, the Colts have the slight edge and a win tonight would be big. Same thing for Royal Oak. The Ravens would do the entire league a favor with a win over Troy.
Birmingham and Avondale are also playing tonight. Michael Wallwork will be covering it for us. Two big points up for grabs there.

Big MIHL matchup tonight
Brother Rice travels to Orchard Lake St. Mary's tonight. Might seem a little premature to call any game a must-win (in late January), but the Eaglets must win tonight if they want any chance at catching Cranbrook in the MIHL standings. The Cranes are a perfect 8-0 in league play. St. Mary's is 6-3-1-1. That's just two points back, but the Eaglets have played three more games. The Warriors are 4-1-1 in their last six games, but are coming off a 4-2 loss to U-D Jesuit last Friday.
We'll be out at this game, too.

Check back on MIPrepZone for all the game stories tonight.

Many of you have probably already read reports of Detroit Cass Tech junior quarterback Jayru Campbell being arrested for slamming a security guard in the school's halls yesterday. The story has taken on a life of its own. That's going to happen when it centers around a top-notch commit to a top-five university such as Michigan State.
Call this piling on if you want. But for the record, we here at MIPrepZone chose not to report anything after Campbell imploded during and after his team's 28-0 loss to Detroit Catholic Central in a Division 1 state semifinal back in November.
We all saw the meltdown that day at Troy Athens High School. I was standing 20 yards away while Campbell and the Shamrocks' Jack Van Acker got into a wrestling match on the field following Van Acker's sack and strip of the ball on Campbell. The two wrestled (not sure if any punches were thrown) until teammates and officials broke it up. Moments later, an angry Campbell walked off the field, reluctantly. He was obviously angry. He glanced over at me. I was videotaping the entire incident (as seen here). He told me to "Get that camera out my face."
I obliged - despite the fact that he was outside of the area designated for the football players. He came at me, in an area where photographers and videographers are supposed to be. After I turned the camera off, he still came at me, shouting out two more times to "Get that #%$*$#* camera out my face."
His frustration was evident throughout the afternoon, as Catholic Central gave him nothing. It was his first big loss in three years. After the game, he allegedly made contact with Van Acker in the handshake line (some reports say he punched Van Acker). What happened after that was caught on tape (as seen here). Our very own Scott Burnstein wrote something about the incident in a notebook for us, as well as in a story for State Champs.
After the game, as I was recording Catholic Central's victory "speech" by their coaches, a Cass Tech coach came over to apologize for Campbell's actions after the game. I still say it was a very classy gesture in regards to some nasty behavior.
Wednesday's incident came as no real surprise to myself. I saw that anger and frustration in Campbell back on that day in November. It's been building since then. It's obvious Michigan State will pull their scholarship offer. They reached out to Burnstein following his meltdown back in November, gathering information on the situation. I'm sure they've been monitoring his behavior. This will do nothing to help his chances of remaining a Spartan.
Hopefully he'll learn from this. But I can honestly say, I'm not betting on it.

The field and schedule for both the MIHL and MPHSH showcases are set and ready to go. And there are a number of great matchups at both.
The Public High School Showcase will open up play on Monday, Feb. 3 at the Chelsea Arctic Coliseum. Nearly 60 teams will compete in nearly 60 games over six days, with the showcase wrapping up play Sunday afternoon. Nineteen Oakland County schools are scheduled to compete.
Some of the more intriguing local matchups - in my opinion - include:
Matchup (time/day)
Rochester United vs. Howell (7:45 p.m., Monday)
Farmington vs. Bay City (7:45 p.m., Tuesday)
Berkley Unified vs. Plymouth Salem (4:45 p.m., Wednesday)
Stoney Creek vs. Howell (6:45 p.m., Wednesday)
Farmington vs. Escanaba (2 p.m., Thursday)
Clarkston vs. Muskegon Reeths-Puffer (3:45 p.m., Thursday)
Lake Orion vs. Bay City (6 p.m., Thursday)
Novi vs. Muskegon Reeths-Puffer (2 p.m., Friday)
Berkley Unified vs. Escanaba (12:30 p.m., Saturday)
Novi vs. Lake Orion (8:15 p.m., Saturday)

Down in Trenton, at the MIHL Showcase, 42 teams will be competing in 42 games over three days at the Kennedy Ice Arena. This showcase is a little smaller than the MPHS Showcase, but the talent level is tremendous. All of the MIHL teams will be there, as will a number of the state's other best teams. Out-of-state (and out-of-country) teams such as the Hill Academy's U17 and U18 teams, the Culver Academy (Indiana) and Upper Canada College will also be testing the competitive waters in Trenton.
Some local games I'll be keeping an eye on from the Feb. 6-8 event are:
Matchup (time/day)
Country Day vs. De La Salle (5:20 p.m., Thursday)
Rochester United vs. Liggett (6 p.m., Thursday)
Hill Academy U18 vs. Catholic Central (4 p.m., Friday)
Rochester United vs. U-D Jesuit (4:20 p.m., Friday)
Upper Canada College vs. Cranbrook (6 p.m., Friday)
Culver Academy vs. St. Mary's (8:20 p.m., Friday)
Hill Academy U18 vs. St. Mary's (10:40 a.m., Saturday)
Culver Academy vs. Cranbrook (2:40 p.m., Saturday)

Cranbrook-St. Mary's - Part 2
I was fortunate enough to catch the second meeting of the season between St. Mary's and Cranbrook this past Friday night at Wallace. And it was worth the drive and price of admission, for sure. The Eaglets took advantage of some early opportunities, jumping out to a 3-1 lead. But the Cranes showed why they're the best team in the state, rallying for late goals in each of the three periods, then closing the game out just over a minute into overtime on a goal by Mason Schultz.
It was their second win over St. Mary's this season - the first a 6-3 victory back in December. Cranbrook is now 15-0 this year, with wins over ranked opponents St. Mary's (#1 D1 - twice), Catholic Central (#2 D1 - twice), Brother Rice (#5 D1), Plymouth (#9 D1), Livonia Stevenson (#1 D2), Trenton (#2 D2) and Houghton (#2 D3).
The Cranes suffered what appeared to be a potential season-ending shoulder/collarbone injury to junior forward Austin Alger. He was taken to the hospital. My sources tell me there's a chance he'll be able to return this season. Don't hold me to it, but that's great news for the team and to high school hockey. This guy is fun to watch.

On the schedule
This weekend is shaping up to be a doozy. Thursday's Stoney Creek-Clarkston game is a warmup for what will be a terrific Friday and Saturday of high school hockey in Oakland County. On Friday, Catholic Central will travel to Orchard Lake to take on St. Mary's in a matchup of the top-two teams in Division 1. The Eaglets are (11-1-1-1 overall). CC enters 9-1-0-1. As stated above the two teams' four losses are to Cranbrook. They are 20-0-1 against the rest of the state. Something has to give, right?
I will be heading out to Rochester Hills to see Lake Orion face Rochester United in a matchup of two unbeaten OAA Red teams. Pretty safe to say if Lake Orion (4-0 OAA Red) wins this game, it wins the league title. Rochester United enters 2-0 in league play. A win pulls it to within two points of the Dragons with two games in hand. Rochester still has Berkley Unified left on its schedule, so the league title will be anything but set in stone even if it does knock off Lake Orion Friday night.
And then on Saturday, St. Mary's travels down to face Catholic Central at Compuware. Lake Orion takes on Clarkston at the DSC. Farmington plays Berkley on the road. And Rochester and Stoney Creek will face off at the Onyx. We'll be covering them all for MIPrepZone.

MAC/OAA Showcase on tap
The pairings for the fifth-annual showcase (Feb. 1 at the Onyx) will be announced Wednesday. The leagues will base their matchups based on rankings, with slight alterations to avoid repeat matchups as well as potential matchups of teams that may see each other in postseason play. The only thing certain right now is that Lake Orion will face Eisenhower at 6 p.m., while Rochester will play Macomb Dakota in the premiere matchup at 8 p.m. I'll followup with more details as they are provided.

Some top performances from this past week
Sam Miletic, Cranbrook - Miletic exploded for three goals and three assists to lead the Cranes to an 8-2 win over De La Salle.
Jon Carandang, Troy Athens - Carandang scored two goals and had two assists in the Red Hawks' 8-0 win over Fraser. Brad Merola and Brandon Goodes also scored two goals each.
Sam Miletic, Cranbrook - The junior had a pair of goals and assisted on another in the Cranes' OT win over St. Mary's.
Carter Rea, Clarkston - Rea had a hat trick in the Wolves road win Friday night.
John Artemenko, Bloomfield Hills - the junior had a hat trick to help the Black Hawks dismantle the Lakers.
Ian Melrose, Berkley Unified - Scored a pair of goals and assisted on two others to lead the Bears past Stoney Creek, 4-1, Friday night. Teammate Stephen Wroe made 31 saves in goal.
Brandon Pomerleau, Lakeland - Made 32 saves to lead the Eagles past Davison, 2-1.
Brad Hofelich, Novi - Had a pair of goals to lead Wildcats to 4-0 win over Canton. Goalie Austin Petty made 18 saves to pick up the shutout.
Drew Casey, Lake Orion - Scored four goals and picked up two assists in Dragons' 9-3 win over St. Clair Shores Unified. Teammate Alex Giwa notched a hat trick himself and Ryan Szydlowski had five assists.
Jeff Merola, Troy Athens - The goalie stopped 27 shots to lead the Red Hawks past Royal Oak, 3-1