skip navigation

USM shuts out Fond du Lac 4-0

By Tom Geilfuss, USM Asst. Coach, 11/25/15, 9:30PM CST

Share

Two stretch passes, a sharp snipe, a sweet stickhandle, and a shutout - plenty to be thankful for.

The University School boys’ hockey team began a happy Thanksgiving holiday a bit early Tuesday. The Wildcats opened the 2015-2016 season with a 4-0 victory over the Fond du Lac Cardinals in a non-conference game at the Blue Line Center in Fond du Lac.

In a contest that continued the rivalry between two of Wisconsin’s prominent hockey programs, the Wildcats scored their first goal of the new season late in the first period.  They added two more in the second period and a third in the game’s waning moments.  Juniors Logan Geisness and Nick Epperson and seniors Jerzey Judge and Jake Kandel scored for the Wildcats.  Meanwhile, the USM defense stifled the Cardinals’ offense, giving senior goaltender Mac Schmidt a shutout to start the year.

Jason Woods, who won his first game as the Wildcats new head coach, was thankful as well.  “It's a great feeling to start the season with a win against a very solid Fond du Lac program,” Woods said.  “We did a lot of work on our D zone coverage after our pre-season scrimmages last week. We took care of that area of the ice tonight.  We also talked about playing with passion and working hard to do the little things: Mission accomplished on that end. Everyone in this program gave tremendous effort.  We’ll feel good tonight then we’ll get back to work tomorrow, and get ready to play a tough Middleton team Friday.”

For most of the first period the two teams played a bit tentatively, moved back and forth on the ice, as they worked their way into the new season and probed for an advantage.  That opportunity presented itself to USM late in the period.  Epperson collected the puck below the goal line in the USM end.  As he began to skate past the goal, he looked up and spotted a welcoming sight, Geisness heading into center ice behind the Fond du Lac defensemen.  Epperson lined a perfect stretch pass between those defensemen straight to Geisness’s stick.  Like a jet, Geisness took off on a breakaway.  As he moved in on William Shober, Fond du lac’s senior goalie, Geisness gunned a rocket past the goalie’s stick to give the Wildcats the lead at 13:29.

USM scored on another stretch pass in the opening minute of the second period.  This time it was sophomore defenseman Will Kennedy who got the puck, looked and saw Epperson zooming behind the Fondy D.  Kennedy’s crisp pass was on target and so was Epperson’s shot as he moved in on the breakaway:  2-0, USM at 0:16.

The Wildcats scored again late in the period.  Forechecking fiercely, the Wildcats took several quick shots close in on Shober. Rebounded away from the scramble in front, the puck popped into the high slot. Judge darted in from the blue line, and like a sharp-eyed sniper, he bulleted a shot into the net at 14:40.

Several penalties in the third period gave the two teams time to work on penalty killing and power play. Near the period’s end, USM scored the game’s final goal.  As the Wildcats skated into the Fond du Lac zone, Geisness sent the puck to Epperson near the left boards.  Epperson slid it to the center to Kandel. Kandel stickhandled past a defender, closed in on Shober, and lifted a backhander over the goalie’s blocker at 14:40 to seal the Wildcat’s win.

USM is 1-0 and 0-0 in the Classic Eight Conference.  The Wildcats take on Middleton in the opening round of the Paul Meyer Memorial Tournament at 7:00 p.m. on Friday, November 27th at USM