Waunakee Varsity Hockey opened its 2011-12 campaign looking to build on last year's successful playoff run but faced a couple hurdles to do so. Losing ten seniors and being down a few players due to Waunakee's football playoff dominance put the team in a tough spot for the season opener.
With just a handful of full practices before heading to University School of Milwaukee's Paul Meyer Memorial Tournament, the coaching staff had their work cut out for them. Senior team captain Jason Ford has to adjust to two new linemates, and many younger players were seeking to fill a regular spot in the varsity line up for the first time.
While the team came up short (3-0) against the host Wildcats, they stayed in the fight through two plus periods. With Ford leading the offensive attack, senior defenseman Chase Busch and sophomore Keegan Ford anchored the defense in front of three year varsity goalie Mitch Horras. Horras turned away 17 shots in the loss.
Saturday night's contest against familary foe Middleton started out with a surprise addition to the team: the five football players who just 24 hours earlier won a third straight Division 2 State Football Title. This game had the potential to be very different from the previous battle the night before.
Middleton opened the scoring at the 5:16 mark of the first period before Jason Ford slammed one home just a minute later to even things up. Later in the period, feverishly killing off a penalty, senior Austin Braska wrapped in a short handed goal to put Waunakee up 2-1. However that lead was short-lived as Middleton evened things up on a power play goal at 13:39.
Players who haven't skated this season (football players); skaters who haven't laced them up for several years (defenseman Devin Lysne and forward Bradley Statz) seemed to become more comfortable as the game wore on. The second period saw Waunakee muster only one tally, with senior Ron Zaleski capitalizing on a Cardinal goalie mistake at 8:07. The Cardinals though continued the pressure, putting up four goals and taking a 6-3 lead going into the third period.
Sophomore defenseman Keegan Ford notched his first goal of the season, a power play goal 25 seconds into the 3rd, but that was all the gas the Warriors had left in the tank. The fall to the Cardinals 6-4.
Waunakee is hosting a tournament Friday and Saturday at The Ice Pond, with the JV and Varsity both seeing action against Wisconsin Rapids and Waupaca.
