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Holzbach earns fourth shutout of the year

By Tom Geilfuss, USM Assistant Coach, 12/03/16, 6:30AM CST

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Bay Area edges USM by a tally of 2-0


In a hard-fought game between the two teams who have contended for supremacy in the Eastern Shores Conference in the past several years, the University School co-op girls’ hockey team lost to the Bay Area Ice Bears of Green Bay 2-0 in an Eastern Shores Conference game on Friday, December 2nd at USM.

The game came down to a battle of two of the top goalies in the state.  The Ice Bears’ junior goalie Ana Holzbach kept her goals against average pure with her fourth shutout in as many games.  Holzbach stopped 17 shots in Friday’s matchup.  The Wildcats’ sophomore goaltender Marie Dedert kept her goals against average below 3.00 by stopping 27 of the 29 shots that Bay Area players fired at her.

The Ice Bears did score on two of their shots. Both their goals came in the first period, both as a result of point shots by senior defenseman Morgan Zirbel.

Zirbel scored the game’s first goal midway through a tightly battled first period.  On the play, Zirbel received a pass along the Wildcats’ blue line from her defensive partner junior Dani Reince.  Zirbel took a step toward the Wildcats’ net and rocketed a shot that sizzled past Dedert at 9:52.

Zirbel had an assist on the Ice Bears’ second goal.  It came during a Bay Area power play at 13:45. After a face-off, Zirbel skated the puck out of the Bay Area end.  She was met at the Wildcats’ blue line by a defender and lost the puck.  It popped to senior Jo-Jo Cano who skated it into the Wildcats’ right corner.  Cano delayed, then passed the puck out to the near point to Zirbel.  Zirbel fired a high shot toward the far post. The puck hit the body of her junior teammate Jordyn Kadrlik and caromed into the net.

The second and third periods were scoreless, but full of back and forth action.  Holzbach stopped breakaways by junior Megan McPike and sophomore Karley Lamoreaux in the second period, and she and her teammates held off a furious attack by the Wildcats in the third to seal the conference victory.

After the game, Jake Haury, USM’s head coach, said, “The girls worked so hard tonight. I am proud of the effort they showed. We had a tough week of practice and pushed them hard. They responded well and played a great game. We played our best game of the year and will need to build off of it moving forward.”

Bay Area is now 4-0 and 1-0 in the Eastern Shores Conference. USM is 0-3-1 and 0-1 in the conference.  The Wildcats leave town to play two games on Saturday, December 3rd in a tournament at the South Wood County Recreational Center in Wisconsin Rapids. At noon they will play the Western Wisconsin Stars in a non-conference game.  Depending on the outcomes of that game and of an earlier game between Viroqua and the tournament host the Point/Rapids/Marshfield Co-op, they will play another non-conference game at either 4:30 p.m. or at 6:45 p.m.

WiPH Game Summaries