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Of course, he also had a little help from his goalie.

With their 2-0 shutout win over rival Lapeer East on Saturday, the Lapeer West hockey team accomplished something more than just picking up a win over their cross-town foe. Perhaps more important than the win itself, the Panthers kept themselves in the race with Swartz Creek and Fenton for the Flint Metro League title.

Cook scored two goals in the win on Saturday and sophomore goaltender Brandon Szczesny stopped all 27 shots he faced in Metro League win over the Eagles.

With the win, West moved their Metro League record to 7-2, and with 14 points earned in the league, are just two points behind first place Swartz Creek. Fenton has 12 points, so at this point, the race for the FML league title has become a three-team dogfight for the top spot.

The front-running Dragons earned a big 7-3 win over West at Iceland Arena back on December 19. Since that loss, though, the Panthers have been playing top notch hockey, going 4-1 over their last five games, including two wins over Lapeer East, a 3-1 defeat of Brandon and a 3-1 non-conference win over Jenison at the Polar Palace on January 4.

With West off until January 30, when they host Fenton at the Polar Palace, this next week may be the most important week of the year as far as determining where the Panthers title hopes may lie.

Swartz Creek plays Fenton, who is currently sitting in third place in the Metro with a 6-2 (12 points) record, tonight at the Polar Palace.

The Tigers only league losses this season are to West and Swartz Creek. The Dragons defeated Fenton 4-1 back on December 15, but since then, the Tigers have won three straight Metro League games, and an upset on Wednesday night would go a long way in helping West climb to the top of the standings.

As for fourth place Linden, the Eagles lost 9-5 to Swartz Creek on January 16 at Iceland Arena, but this week, play two games. First, the Eagles play Brandon tonight at 5 p.m. at the Polar Palace before taking to the ice on Saturday at Iceland with Lapeer East.

With these teams in action this upcoming week, this will be the week when the three-team race for the Flint Metro League hockey title should begin to become a little more clear.

Andrew Selich is sports editor at The County Press. He can be reached at (810) 664-0811 ext. 0811 or at andrew.selich@lapeergroup.com