For the second time in three years, Chelsea hockey arrived at Compuware Arena to play in the state semifinals. This year’s opponent was fancy-pants private school Grosse Pointe Woods University Liggett, an institution whose yearly tuition for full-day kindergarten is more than I paid for my car. FOR ONE YEAR OF KINDERGARTEN. No, I’m not kidding.

The game was at noon on a Friday, but Chelsea students turned out to support the hockey team.

When the game started, it was easy to see the contrast between Chelsea’s first-ever trip to the semis two years ago and this year. Two years ago the big stage seemed initially intimidating, but this year the team seemed comfortable in the semis. So comfortable, in fact, that the Bulldogs took an early 1-0 lead. And the students rejoiced.

Unfortunately, the Bulldogs eventually started taking penalties, and those penalties started turning into Liggett goals. That 1-0 lead turned into a deficit before too long.

Since hockey is such a Canadian game, it seems appropriate that a Tim Horton’s ad would be prominent.

Another photographer on duty that day noted that it was difficult to get a good shot of the coach without having it look like a Tim Hortons’ ad.

As time wound down in the third period, Chelsea’s frustration began to boil over. This resulted in an avalanche of penalties.

This also resulted in several ejections.

When the game ended, the coach gathered the team together for a word before the handshake line.

The team saluted the fans before heading off the ice following the 5-1 loss to Liggett.

Take note of the player all alone at the top of that photo. That’s the starting goalie. As a senior, he was preparing to leave the ice for the last time in his high school career. Those can be hard moments to watch and even harder moments to photograph, but the resulting images can be deeply meaningful.

This is how it looked when Chris left the ice for the last time.