The University School boys’ hockey team defeated Madison Edgewood 3-1 Saturday evening at USM.

Speaking about the latest game in the long rivalry between two of Wisconsin’s premier hockey teams, USM’s head coach Cal Roadhouse said, “I was pleased with the way we played tonight. Except for a few breakdowns in the third period, we played a full game of hockey tonight. We purposely play a tough schedule. Having already played in seven close games against some very good teams paid off for us tonight. Edgewood is always good, but we have adjusted to the speed and determination of top opponents, so we were ready for them tonight. Special teams are a very important part of hockey. We have been working on our power play, and it helped us. We scored two power play goals tonight.”

The Wildcats took an early lead in the game and held on to it. They scored their first goal while playing even strength. Freshman Jake Kandel stripped the puck from the stick of an Edgewood defender along the left sideboards in the Crusaders’ zone. He sent it into the near corner to junior Vadim Sukhanov. Sukhanov skated out of the corner and jammed the puck between the goalpost and the leg of Edgewood’s goalie Connor Curliss at 9:36.

A little over two minutes later the Wildcats tallied their first power play goal of the night. They set up and began to move the puck around the Edgewood zone, playing keep away from the aggressive Edgewood penalty killers. The puck eventually went to sophomore Chris Keliher at the right point, and he quickly passed it along the blue line to senior defenseman Joey Judge. Judge adroitly diagonaled it through the slot to junior Duncan Brown in the right circle. Like a sharp shooter at target practice, Brown rifled a shot into the upper left corner of the Edgewood net at 11:52.

The Wildcats increased their lead with another power play goal at 1:39 of the second period. Once again the Wildcats set up in the Edgewood zone, and once again it went to Judge at the point. This time he fired a low shot at the net. Sukhanov was stationed in front, and he tipped it past Curliss to make it 3-0, USM.

Ironically, the lone Edgewood goal also came on a USM power play when Nick Kanoff picked off a pass in the USM slot and immediately lashed a shot past USM’s goaltender Bryan Botcher at 15:46 of the second period.

The win over Edgewood evened USM’s record at 4-4. The Wildcats take time off for exams then resume play at 7:00 p.m. on Friday, December 21st when they host Cedarburg at USM.