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Byrne and Friends Lead Old Abes Over Notre Dame

By Bill Berg, WiPH Staff, 01/15/22, 12:15PM CST

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The game was scoreless for a period and a half before Connor Byrne, Peyton Platter, and Luke Lindsay took charge to lead the Eau Claire Memorial Old Abes to a 4-1 win over the Notre Dame Academy Tritons in the opening game of the Warriors Showcase Tournament in Wausau on Friday night. The trio accounted for all four goals and the four assists while goalie Will Seymour stopped 29 of 30 shots in the victory.

The first period was scoreless and looked to be even in terms of time spent in each zone, but Notre Dame tripled the shots on goal of the Old Abes. The ECM defense did a great job of breaking the puck out of their zone and moving it up the ice. "We normally do a pretty good job of breaking the puck out of our zone. Mainly because our defense men are all good skaters and have good puck skills," said Old Abes head coach Mike Collins.

Seymour stopped all 13 shots he saw, and NDA netminder Addison Tyczkowski turned aside the four shots that got through to him.

Notre Dame got on the board first with a rebound goal from Travis Pokel at 9:59 in the second period. Pokel’s linemates drove hard to the net on the left side and got off a shot on Seymour, and the rebound kicked out to Pokel at the hashmarks on the right side. His shot went high over Seymour’s glove.

Byrne and Platter teamed up for the first time late in the period when Platter fired a low shot from the outside hashmarks of the left faceoff circle. Byrne was between Platter and Tyczkowski, and redirected the puck past the netminder.

"The chemistry of our top line of Peyton Platter, Tyler Starich and Connor Bryne has been great and they are all very skilled, extremely competitive players," added Collins. "Lindsay is a defenseman but does get involved offensively and did so last night."

The third period belonged to the Old Abes. Lindsay got th scoring started with a one-timer from the right circle off a pass from Platter in the corner. Byrne added his second of the night while parked on the back door during a four on four situation. Platter spotted him and fired the pass for an easy tap in. Byrne completed the hattrick with a rebound of a shot by Lindsay with just over two minutes to play.

When asked about seeing a high level team like Notre Dame three times in a season, Collins stated "Yes, you do see more film and take notes but you still have to play the game. They are a very good team. We are enjoying this season thus far and hope to keep it going! "

ECM advances to meet Wausau West in the Championship game at 3:15 on Saturday. NDA will face Onalaska/LaCrosse in the early contest.

WiPH Game Summaries