A few years back--on March 1, 2008, to be exact--the Eau Claire Memorial Old Abes were celebrating their perfect 26-0 season on the ice at the Alliant Energy Center, taking turns holding aloft the trophy that symbolized the state hockey champion of Wisconsin.

Just under five years later, the Notre Dame Academy Tritons are marching toward the goal of an unblemished season and moved one step closer as they defeated those same Old Abes 7-2 Saturday evening in Showdown in Titletown action.

NDA scored early in the first with an unassisted goal by Steven Phillips at the 3:34 mark.

Midway through the period after a Triton penalty expired, Will Pavek snuck out of the sin bin and grabbed a lead pass, but the puck slipped off his stick as he was attempting to put the puck on net.

Memorial tied the game with a goal by Charley Graaskamp at 13:36.

A half-minute later, an apparent ECM goal was waved off when it was decided by the officials that the puck was kicked into the net by Dylan Ross. (My daughter, who took the picture, said that it looked like the puck bounced off the skate of Ross and then he shot it in before it crossed the goal line.)

Then came the dreaded 'last-minute goal,' this time courtesy of NDA. With just under a minute to play, Brett Gruber grabbed a tourover in the slot and snuck a backhander past ECM goalie Alex Geving to send NDA to the intermission with a 2-1 lead. Shots were 11-10 in favor of the Old Abes.

The second was all Notre Dame, as they scored four times in a span of 6:35 in the middle of the period to lock this contest up.

Grant Kluesner scored from the point at 4:53 to make it 3-1. Two minutes later, Pavek scored from the left circle after grabbing a loose puck.

The Tritons came down with a 3-on-2 and Anton Brix converted from the low right side when his shot went through the five-hole at the 9:00 mark.

With just over five  minutes left, Riley Christensen scored on a rebound from the front to make it 6-1.

Shots were 15-4 in favor of NDA.

Hunter Strozewski scored at 2:30 of the third to cut the lead to 6-2, but Phillips scored for the second time in the contest just 26 seconds later to take the wind out of the ECM sails.

The Old Abes held a 14-10 shot edge, but were unable to get more than one in that period past NDA goalie Eli Hicks, who stopped 27 shots in the game. Geving stopped 28 of 35 for the Old Abes.