skip navigation

Young Spartans upset SPASH to advance to finals

By Bill Berg, WiPH Staff, 02/22/23, 8:15AM CST

Share

The kids from Superior have arrived early. With ten freshmen and six sophomores on their playoff roster, the Spartans traveled south to Stevens Point to take on the SPASH Panthers in a sectional semi-final match on Tuesday night. But it was a pair of crusty old veterans that lead Superior to a 4-2 victory and a meeting with the Hudson Raiders on Friday.

It was a pair of freshman who got things started for the Spartans. Jackson Marthaler picked up a loose puck in the corner of his defensive zone and carried it up the boards into the SPASH end. He peeled around at the hashmarks and fed a cross-ice pass to fellow freshman Brayden Severin who was wide open around the left faceoff circle. Severin shot high and beat Panthers goalie Hunter Christjohn just 50 seconds into the game.

SPASH tied it up at 11:40 in the first. Maksim Salienko missed on the short side with his shot, but the puck bounced off the back boards to the other side of the net where Jackson Spees found it and tucked it in the net before Superior goalie Trent Peterson could get across.

The Panthers out-shot the Spartans 12-5 in the first period.

SPASH took a 2-1 lead with a power play goal early in the second frame. Mason Keller took a pass from Kade Smigaj and fired a one-timer from the right faceoff dot.

Then Superior started to get their legs back after the long bus ride, and Carson Gotelaere and Lucas Williams took over. Gotelaere sprung loose on a short-handed break away midway through the second. He was held and hooked by a Panthers defenseman on the way, and did not get a shot off. With a delayed penalty coming up, Gotelaere found the loose puck behind the net and fed it to Williams who slammed it home to tie the score at two apiece.

Less than a minute later, Gotelaere put Superior back on top 3-2 with a wrist shot from left circle that hit Christjohn in the shoulder and deflected into the top of the netting.

The Spartans had a 10-8 advantage in shots in the second.

Superior kept the pressure on the Panthers in the third, out-shooting them 11-5. Gotelaere sealed the win with a wrist shot from the slot off an offensive zone face-off with just 28 ticks left on the clock.

WiPH Game Summaries