It was a good day for USM hockey.  Immediate after the USM girls’ team won, the University School boys’ hockey team took the ice and skated smoothly to a 5-2 victory over Fond du Lac in a non-conference game Saturday at USM.

USM and Fond du Lac traded power play goals in the first period.  The Wildcats took control of the game in the second period, scoring three-unanswered goals.  Fond du Lac’s captain Jack Nejedlo scored his second goal of the game in the third, but the Wildcats knew the victory was in grasp and they clutched it tight, adding a final goal to emphasize their win. Peter Barney led the Wildcats with two goals.  Billy Miller, Ben Hrabak, and Nick Epperson each scored one for USM.  After his sister had earned a victory in goal in the day’s earlier game, John Ostermeyer, USM’s goaltender, turned aside 12 of the 14 shots the Cardinals took on him to make it a good day for the Ostermeyer family as well.

USM coach Tim Quinn said, “I was very pleased with the way we finished the first segment of the season, and I thought we had, probably, our most complete effort of the year.  We got goals from four different scorers, our defensemen moved the puck exceptionally well, and although we still got more penalties than our opponent, we played with more discipline than we have of late, and that is a major step in the right direction.”

Fond du Lac scored the game’s first goal on a power play.  In the USM zone, Carlen Dini passed the puck to Nejedlo at the center point.  Nejedlo fired a rising shot that hit Ostermeyer’s glove and catapulted across the goal line at 12:44.

The Wildcats answered with their own power play at 16:02.  Jerzey Judge got the puck at the point and zipped a low shot toward the net.  Miller was in front of Fondy’s goalie, William Shober, and Miller tipped it high into the net to tie the game.

USM took the lead for good early in the second period.  Chris Keliher sent the puck ahead to Barney who skated into the Cardinals’ zone and fired.  The puck hit Shober’s glove and skipped over and down into the goal at 2:44.

The Wildcats scored two goals within a span 23 seconds to increase their lead.  The first of these came at 8:37 when Charlie Borges sent a stretch pass to Hrabak in center ice.  Hrabak raced in deep and shoved the puck past Shober.

USM went a head 4-1 at 9:07.  Hrabak collected the puck near the USM blue line and sent a clearing pass ahead to Logan Geisness.  Geisness heard Epperson calling for the puck on his left and saucered a pass to him.  Epperson skated in and, like a dentist, he drilled his shot into a cavity left open by Shober.

Nejedlo scored another power play goal in the early third period when he got a loose puck and skated through center ice. As he crossed the USM blue line, he unloaded a quick slapper that beat Ostermeyer at 2:29.

The Wildcats were short handed when they scored the game’s final goal at 10:14 of the final period. Barney knocked in a rebound of his own shot after Epperson had put a shot on Shober to give Barney his first rebound chance.

USM is now 4-2-1 and 0-1 in the Classic Eight Conference. The Wildcats take two weeks off for exams and the holidays before resuming play on Monday, December 28th at the Richfield Ice Arena in Richfield, Minnesota in a non-conference clash against the Academy of Holy Angels of Minnesota. The game is scheduled to begin at noon.