skip navigation

Hudson outlasts Waukesha in cross-state battle

By Michael Trzinski, WiPH Staff, 01/13/18, 10:30PM CST

Share

Raiders take fast-paced 3-0 win over Wings


The lobby of the John Gornick Arena at the Hudson Civic Center was dominated by tables holding baked goods, stocking caps, t-shirts and was staffed by several young ladies who sold several hundred raffle tickets in addition to the wares stocked on the display tables.

Inside the rink, several cancer survivors were honored, including Dustin Danielson at center ice. All the Hudson players grabbed a microphone and announced to the crowd who they were playing for in Hudson's annual Hockey Fights Cancer game. After finding a puck for Mr. Danielson, he dropped a ceremonial face-off between his son, Hunter, and Waukesha's Oliver Nienas, whose brother Trent is fighting brain cancer.

The game was secondary to all the love and caring and generosity that was shown prior to the opening face-off between the host Raiders and visiting Waukesha, but all that love went out the window once the puck dropped on a cold Saturday afternoon in Hudson.

And after 51 minutes of fast-paced, hard-hitting play, the top-ranked Raiders edged the Wings 3-0 in Wisconsin Prep Hockey's Game of the Week.

The first period was scoreless, but not for a lack of action. From the get-go, the action was at breakneck speed, with the spectators turning their heads from left to right, repeating for all 17 minutes of the period, much like fans at a professional tennis match.

Each squad had a power play chance in the middle of the period, only to be denied by the respective PK units and netminders.

With just over two minutes left in the opening stanza, Waukesha's Griff Nickerson stole a puck in the Hudson d-zone, turned and fired a shot from the slot that Raider goalie A.J. Cohen snagged to repel the scoring chance.

Waukesha goalie Garrett Larsen stopped a baker's dozen worth of shots (13 for those too young to know the term), and Cohen had seven saves for the home boys.

Hudson broke through in the middle of the second to grab a 1-0 lead.

WiPH Game Summaries

Defenseman Jordan Halverson fired a shot from the left point, and before it could be smothered by Larsen, Dylan Carr made a dandy re-direct to fool the goalie and give the Raiders the lead.

That's how the period would end. Larsen had 12 saves, while Cohen stopped all four at his end in the period.

The third period began with a carryover penalty for Hudson, and when a second Raider temporarily relocated to the bin of sin, the Wings began 45 seconds of 5-on-3 action.

Once again, the vaunted Hudson PK, 100% on the year, kept the puck out of the net to keep the slim 1-0 lead intact.

In the next three minutes, action was literally end-to-end as Larsen stopped two breakaways and Cohen turned aside a Wings chance as the period wound down to the 12 minutes remaining mark.

The pace of play hardly slowed and finally, Waukesha coach Raja Aylsworth called a time-out with 1:27 left on the clock with the score still at 1-0.

As play resumed, goalie Larsen stood helplessly on Waukesha's bench watching six skaters battle the Raiders in an effort to notch the equalizer.

And as so often happens, the empty net welcomed a puck, this time courtesy of Hudson's Peyton Hanson, to give the Raiders a 2-0 edge.

With the goalie back in and with Waukesha perhaps a bit tired after a 3-2 win over Notre Dame 19 hours and 285 miles ago, saw the scoreboard change to 3-0 when Ben Lundeen grabbed a loose biscuit at the blue line and advanced on goal before sending a shot that beat the goalie high on the glove side.

The final 38 seconds were played out and Hudson grabbed a tough 3-0 win.

Cohen stopped five shots in the period to complete his shutout, 16 saves in all. Larsen had seven stops to finish with 32 for a game total.

Hudson improved to 14-0, while eighth-ranked Waukesha drops to 8-4-3.