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.

Amy O'Rourke and family prepare for the
ceremonial puck drop before Saturday's game.

Kind of hard to imagine, but the season seems to be about two-thirds over for most teams. I think the holiday break throws things a little out of whack, at least for my winter season timing.
This past week was an emotional one over at West Bloomfield. I wrote a feature story about Saturday's benefit game for the family of fallen West Bloomfield police officer Patrick O'Rourke. The entire Laker hockey family went the distance to make the event special, complete with a number of activities including a silent auction, raffle and baked good sale. The team also did a lot of pregame fundraising itself, as each player wore a business-sponsored jersey with the name "O'Rourke" on the back.
Event organizers said they raised more than $6,500, which will go to the “Officer Patrick O’Rourke Family Trust.” Oh, and by the way, West Bloomfield beat Troy Athens, 7-4.

Birmingham Unified getting in on the action, too
The Kings will be hosting a pair of charity games this upcoming weekend (JV and varsity). The doubleheader, which includes a 7 p.m. JV game against Clarkston, followed by a varsity matchup against Oxford, will help support Common Ground, a nonprofit agency dedicated to helping youths, adults and families in crisis.
The players sold t-shirts in advance - more will be available at the game. There will also be a 50/50 raffle. All proceeds from the game will be donated to Common Ground.

MAC/OAA Showcase matchups announced
The fourth-annual showcase is set for Saturday, Feb. 2, at the Onyx Ice Arena in Rochester. As has been the case, the one-day event will pair teams from each county against each other based on the most recent USHSHO rankings (from this weekend). The matchups are listed below, with their seeding in parenthesis.

OAA vs. MAC

Rochester United (1) vs. Macomb Dakota (1), 8 p.m. on Rink 2
Farmington Hills Unified (2) vs. Eisenhower (2), 6 p.m. on Rink 2
Clarkston (3) vs. Romeo (3), 4 p.m. on Rink 2
Farmington (4) vs. Utica (4), 2 p.m. on Rink 2
Birmingham Unified (5) vs. Marysville, noon on Rink 2
Berkley-Ferndale (6) vs. Anchor Bay (6), 10 a.m. on Rink 2
Lake Orion (7) vs. St. Clair Shores Unified (7), 7:45 p.m. on Rink 1
Stoney Creek (8) vs. L'Anse Creuse (8), 7:15 p.m. on Rink 3
Oxford (9) vs. Fraser (9), 5:45 p.m. on Rink 1
West Bloomfield (10) vs. L'Anse Creuse North (10), 5:15 p.m. on Rink 3
Troy Athens (11) vs. St. Clair (11), 3:45 p.m. on Rink 1
AH Avondale (12) vs. Chippewa Valley (12), 3:15 p.m. on Rink 3
Bloomfield United (13) vs. Stevenson (13), 1:45 p.m. on Rink 1
Royal Oak (14) vs. Port Huron (14), 1:15 p.m. on Rink 3
Troy (15) vs. Warren-Mott (15), 11:45 a.m. on Rink 1

New year, new team
If there's a hotter team in the OAA since Jan. 1 than Rochester United, let me know. The team is 4-0-1 since returning from the holiday break and has outscored its opponents 30-7 in those five games. Rochester tied Walled Lake Northern 4-4, then beat Oxford 10-2, Lake Orion 2-1, Farmington 5-0 and St. Clair Shores Unified 9-0 in succession.
Mike Pelino (12 points), Max Harper (9) and Kevin Kurzeja (9) have scored five goals each in those games, while Alex Shell (8) and Tony Nassar (9) have three and two goals each. Brody Blair and Kyler Patenaude have topped 68 of their last 71 shots in goal.

Big games on tap
Each week there are big games on the schedule. And this week is no different. The above-mentioned Rochester United squad has a chance to clinch at least a share - and an outright OAA Red title - with a pair of big games this weekend. Rochester will play Birmingham Unified Friday (8 p.m.) at the Onyx, and then Stoney Creek Saturday, also at the Onyx, at 8:30 p.m. One win clinches a share (with Farmington Hills Unified). Two wins clinches an outright title. Rochester is 4-1 in league play. The Flyers are 4-1-2 - having lost to Rochester earlier this season.
On Saturday, Lake Orion and Clarkston will square off at the Detroit Skating Club in their traditional rivalry game, at 8 p.m. The teams are currently tied for fourth place in the OAA Red - though Clarkston has a game in hand. This game is big for seeding purposes for the league tournament in a few weeks. It will also be broadcasted (live audio, delayed video) by us here at MIPrepZone. Stay tuned for more details.
Some other big games this week include Walled Lake Western-Lakeland (last time they met, they tied 4-4) on Wednesday; Walled Lake Central-Walled Lake Northern (playing for the Medieval Cup, Central won 2-1 back in December) on Saturday; Catholic Central-Brother Rice (what else is there to say about this rivalry) Friday; West Bloomfield-Berkley-Ferndale (first place may be up for grabs for the two best teams in the OAA White) on Saturday.

Thanks for reading this update. I'll be back by Tuesday to highlight some great performances from this past week and provide links to all our hockey coverage, which you can see by clicking on our HOCKEY HOME PAGE HERE.