Diving Into Deep Water
I have always been a pretty efficient swimmer, but as I finish this first attempt at staying on top of the boy’s side of WIAA hockey, I may be swimming too far from shore. The idea of adding another eighty-plus boys’ teams to my comfortable docket of 27 girl’s teams, may indeed prove to be too challenging, but I am going to give it a test run. The cooperation of the boy’s coaches will be an important factor. Full disclosure, I am not promising to recap every boy’s game, and I will take it week by week and see how it develops. So here we go…
The Fox Cities Stars grab the early headlines on the boy's side with a red hot 5-0 start. A year ago, the Stars were 13-11 under new head coach Todd Murphy. They won seven of their final eight regular season games last season before dropping their playoff game 4-1 to Bay Port. The Stars duo of Cade Adamovich (10G – 8A) and Andrew Ostermann (8G – 9A) are currently second and fourth in the state’s scoring race. Ostermann, a Kimberly junior, is a transfer back home from Norte Dame.
“Andy is great addition to our team and Cale has picked up right where he left off from last season,” said head coach Todd Murphy. Adamovich, a senior, had a great season as a junior (26G – 23A) for 49 points. “They are exceptionally talented players who feed off of each other, challenge others around them to compete harder and push our team to be better each and every day.” Murphy also mentioned another key addition, “Jake Koller played at Oshkosh last year, Jake provides a lot of depth at center for us.”
When asked about last years strong finish Murphy offered, “Honestly, I think it took us as coaches, being new, to really understand our team and that showed down the stretch last year. This year, we had that much more time over the summer and fall to talk through our players, their strengths and areas for improvement. That time leading into the year helped us plan for this year.”
Murphy elaborated on the strong start, “Our start this year, really starts with the support we receive from our community, booster club, students and parents. As a coaching staff, we were committed to increasing our strength of schedule this season knowing that one of the best ways to improve is to play some of the tougher teams around the state. We remind the kids to take it one day at a time, one game at a time, stay focused, stay disciplined and stay hungry.”
Elsewhere the week at hand will feature some titanic clashes, weather permitting, as 5-0 Wausau West travels to KB Willet to meet the undefeated 3-0 SPASH Panthers. Also, on Tuesday a pair of 4-0 teams battle as Northland Pines will challenge the defending D2 champions in Tomahawk.
A quick look at the early scoring races shows Tomahawk’s Jett Reilly on top the D1 list with (10G – 11A) 21 points and Gavin Hunt of Shawano/Bonduel (12G – 5A) leading D2 with 17 points. Black River Falls Calvin Lawowske is tied with Hunt for most goals with 12.
Lopsided Scores
I was talking with Matt Cranston, longtime head coach of the St. Croix Valley Fusion and the subject of lopsided scores came up. In a recent game, he said he had to do everything possible to keep the score down. “It was really hard keeping the score under ten,” he explained to me. “I know if we would’ve scored ten somehow my dad would’ve awakened from the dead and scolded me. I remember him telling me if you ever beat someone by ten goals you should be fired. Good thing for running time.”
With that thought in mind as I evaluate this new undertaking, I have decided to not publish any of those out-of-control defeats. They certainly are not in the best interest of the game. In addition, games that are entered into the site late will also likely not be summarized. On average there are about 70 boy’s games a week, so it will not be reasonable to recap them all.
Team Page Sponsors
As we all enjoy the absence of pop-up ads on the site, we encourage each team to locate a team page sponsor, $100 a year, to help us offset the loss of the pop-up revenue. If you have an interested sponsor, please contact me. drbauer13@gmail.com
Game Summaries
Antigo – Mosinee: Antigo’s Austin Martinson put on a goaltending clinic in Mosinee on Tuesday with a brilliant 60 save performance, but his Red Robins fell short when Tyler Baars took a perfect 2 on 1 pass from Reid Butalla and tucked it under the crossbar for a thrilling 2-1 overtime win. Cameron Kuklinski’s stretch pass to Butalla in the neutral zone set up the game winning goal.
Northwest Icemen – WSFLG: Aiden Johnson scored twice and Levi Randt turned away 35 shots as the Blizzard shut out the Icemen 4-0 in Barron. Caleb Parker had 23 saves for the Icemen. It was WSFLG’s first win of the season after two losses, 5-4 to Amery in OT and 5-2 to Tomahawk.
Black River Falls – RAM: After and 0-2 start, RAM got in the win column with a 7-4 victory over Black River Falls. Nate Spencer and Tanner Robinson each netted a hat trick, with Spencer also adding three assists for a six-point night. RAM opened the game with a 6-0 lead, but the Tigers responded with four unanswered goals including a pure hat trick by Calvin Lakowske.
Menomonie – River Falls: River Falls moved to 3-0 on the season with a 7-4 home win. The Wildcats sprinted to a 4-0 first period lead out shooting Menomonie 15-5. The Mustangs scored three in the second period while building an 18-9 shots advantage. Kovi Prochnow scored twice for the Wildcats and Jaxon Flanagan added a goal and three assists.
Tomahawk – Lakeland: The defending D2 Champion Hatchets unloaded 72 shots on T-Birds goalie Cam Bernard in an 8-1 rout of Lakeland. Jett Reilly (2G- 4A), Jonah Dickens (3G – 2A) and Jake Albert (1G – 3A) paced the high-powered Hatchets attack. Hudson Seymour made 23 saves for Tomahawk.
Waupaca – Medford: Waupaca senior goaltender Carson Jameson recorded his second straight shut out as the Comets downed the Raiders 5-0. Five different players scored for Waupaca. Freshman Cashton Reis was busy for the Raiders, stopping 32 shots.
Shawano/Bonduel – Pacelli: Quinten Harkey paced the Hawks with three goals as they skated past Pacelli 5-2 at Ice Hawks Arena. Both teams fired 40 shots on goal, with the Hawks Tyson Lyons posting 38 saves in the win.
Rice Lake – New Richmond: The Tigers won their second in a row after an opening season loss to Neenah. New Richmond unleashed 57 shots on the Warriors on their way to a 4-0 win. Hayden Van Gilder was brilliant in net, keeping the Warriors close at 2-0 deep into the third period.
Baldwin/Woodville – Hayward: Baldwin-Woodville earned their third win against one loss in the new season with a 2-1 victory over Hayward. Drew Buhr snapped a wrist shot from the point, on the powerplay, past Gavin Hand to give the Hawks a 2-0 third period lead. Keegan Walsh brought Hayward to within a goal when he fired a shot from just above the goal line that somehow got through Hawks goalie Landon Veenendaal. With a sixth attacker on, Hayward got a front door chance with about four seconds to play, but Veenendaal, who finished with 18 saves, denied the chance.
Appleton United – Pacelli: Zane Phillis tied the game at 2-2 for Pacelli at 8:54 of the third. United’s Tyler Bishop tallied the game winner on the powerplay with just under five minutes to play. Brady Boldt had 38 saves in the net for Appleton.
Ashland – RAM: Maybe the most thrilling game of the week as Ashland and RAM put up 13 goals in an overtime shootout. RAM, playing at home, opened a 3-0 lead in the first period. Ashland countered with four unanswered goals in period two to take a 4-3 lead, that was topped by two Ram goals to go back up 5-4.
At 11:28 of the third, Judd Justinak completed his hat trick and tied it at 5-5 for Ashland. A minute later Ethan Gates put RAB back up 6-5 on a shot from the blue line that eluded Oredocker’s goalie Blake Pospychalla, and 57 seconds later Ashland’s Gavin Olby took a perfect pass from Landon Pusakulich and tied it at 6-6.
4:24 into the first overtime, Tanner Robinson drove down the right-wing and backhanded the puck to the front of the net where Nate Spencer, driving to and stopping at the net knocked the OT game winner past Pospychalla who finished with 48 saves.
River Falls – Chippewa Falls: The Cardinals rode the strength of three powerplay goals in a 5-3 win. Easton Skelton scored two goals for Chippewa Falls. The Wildcats powerplay went two-for-two, but it wasn’t enough as Cardinals goalie Andrew Brovold stopped 27 shots.
DC Everest – Wisconsin Rapids: Gabe Simonson had two goals and an assist, Cole Van Slyke a goal and two assists and Xaiver May three assists as the Evergreens downed Wisconsin Rapids 5-1. Griffin Bunnell made 23 saves for DCE.
Mosinee – Northland Pines: Josh Graves and Cooper Saari executed a perfect give-and-go off the rush with Graves finishing with a backhand deke at the net to give the Eagles a 3-2 win over Mosinee at the Dome in Eagle River. Spencer Lemke and Reid Buttalla scored for Mosinee.
Eau Claire Memorial – New Richmond: The Tigers took a 3-1 lead on Brooks Posel’s second goal of the game in the second period. The Old Abes scored three unanswered goals, two by Peyton Huls and the third period game winner by Luke Schemberger to come-from-behind for a 4-3 victory. Memorial netminder Evan Madsen finished with 30 saves as the Tigers out shot the Old Abes 33-19.
Edgewood – Waunakee: Madison Edgewood opened their D1 title defense with a 4-0 shut out over Waunakee. Owen Porter netted a pair of goals as the Crusaders out shot the Warriors 42-21.
Northwest Icemen – Somerset: David Pond put the Icemen up 1-0 in the first period, but the Spartans responded with seven straight goals to win going away 7-1. Somerset got two goals each from Wyatt Olson and Devin Richardson.
Rice Lake – Eau Claire North: Rice Lake’s Hayden Van Gilder kept the Warriors close with 43 saves, including 34 over the final two periods as the Huskies prevailed with a 3-0 win. Mikah Halverson scored twice for ECN.
Verona – Middleton: Middleton’s Patrick Passini single handedly erased a 2-0 Wildcats lead with a pure hat trick as the Cardinals stormed back in a 3-2 win. Two of Passini’s scores were on the powerplay. Parker Wang had 29 saves for Verona.
East/Merril – Cedarburg: The Bluejacks got their first win of the season and the first win for new head coach Brain Bednarczyk in a wild 6-5 win over Cedarburg. The first period featured three goals runs by each team as Cedarburg broke out to a 3-0 only for the EMU to tie before the end of the period. Jackson Pierce’s third goal of the game at 9:36 of the second period proved to be the game winner for the Bluejacks. 42 saves by the Bulldogs Ethan Burt kept the game tight.
“It was a good team win,” said Bednarczyk. “We came back from being down 3-0 which showed a lot of heart and effort. They did a good job of sticking to our plan and trusting each other. We have a lot to work on but tonight was a step in the right direction.”
Madison Edgewood – Notre Dame: Edgewood moved to 2-0 with a convincing 4-1 road defeat of Notre Dame. The Crusaders held a decided shots advantage 44-24 and got a pair of goals from Owen Barnet.
Waupaca – Oregon: Oregon improved to 3-0 with a sound 8-2 defeat of the Comets. Ethan Disch pumped in four goals for the Panthers.
Bay Area – USM: It took two overtimes to decide this D1 clash. Skating 3 on 3 in the second overtime, Cash Ebeling knocked a loose puck ahead to Henry Laurent who was off alone on USM goaltender Andy Werner. Laurent snapped a shot from between the circles that Werner stopped, but Laurent followed his shot to the net a put his rebound home for a 4-3 OT win.
Waupun – Tomah/Sparta: Benton Nagle was rock solid in goal leading Tomah/Sparta to a 3-0 victory with 38 saves. Brayden Schreier added a pair of insurance goals in the third period to nail down the win.
Northland Pines – Amery: The Eagles remained undefeated at 4-0 with a 4-2 decision over Amery. Pines broke a 2-2 third period tie with a late goal from Milan Chobanov with 49 seconds to play. Jazek Jantzen hit the empty net 37 seconds later. Amery’s Carter Meyer had strong game for the Warriors with 40 saves.
Madison Memorial – Mosinee: It was big city versus small town as the Spartans traveled north to take on the Indians. Memorial had leads of 2-0, 4-2 and 5-3 as the second period ended. Mosinee’s Reid Buttalla closed the lead to 5-4 at 5:30 of the third. Indian goaltender Rowan Kahon, who finished with 41 saves, kept Memorial at bay in the final period. Spencer Lemke tied the game for Mosinee 1:28 to play and Tyler Baars got his fourth point of the night with game winning goal 41 seconds later. Baars then got point number five an empty net goal.
Monona Grove – Somerset: Ryder Bible scored first and last as the Silver Eagles handed Somerset a 3-0 loss at home. Wyatt Godfrey was perfect in net for Monona Grove with 27 saves.
Viroqua – Antigo: Red Robins goalie Austin Martinson recorded 47 saves leading Antigo to victory, 6-3 over Viroqua. Antigo got two goals each from Liam Burt and Billy Portman.
Fox Cities – Appleton United: The Stars ran the winning streak to five games with a 6-2 win over Appleton United. Fox Cities got a balanced effort with goals from six different players improving to 5-0 on the season.
Verona – Sun Prairie: Verona erased a 1-0 Cardinals lead with three unanswered goals to earn a 3-1 decision. Jack Albert scored the final two Wildcat goals. Parker Wang contributed a strong 35 save
