Losing its tournament-opening game Thursday afternoon did nothing to discourage the Wisconsin Seniors.

It served as quite the opposite, really. Motivated with a clearer understanding of what might work for them, the Grey squad went to work, played their style, and did not falter again.

On Sunday it culminated in a championship for the Wisconsin Seniors, who dispatched the Michigan Seniors 5-2 to seize the National Invitational Tournament title for the second time in three years. 

“The important thing was that we wanted to get better as the weekend went on, and I think we did a good job at that,” coach Tim Ebner says. “We learned from our mistakes in the first game, and we learned what will work for us.”

In that opening loss to the Minnesota Seniors, Wisconsin was guilty of perhaps trying to play too cute instead of sticking to its bread-and-butter of getting pucks deep and keeping it structured and simple. They would not make those mistakes again.