When Cedarburg athletic director Brian Leair strode carefully across the ice and dropped a puck at the center circle on Thursday evening, he was helping initiate the area’s newest high school team.

The Lakeshore Lightning, in its inaugural season, is a co-op girls hockey squad made up of student-athletes from Cedarburg, Homestead, Grafton, Port Washington, Cedar Grove-Belgium and West Bend.

The Lightning played its first home game on Thursday at the Ozaukee Ice Center, with Leair and Homestead Athletic Director Ryan Mangan dropping the ceremonial first puck before the contest to signify that those two schools played lead roles in the establishment of the new team.

Lakeshore took on the Fox City Stars team, falling behind 4-0 early in the contest, then rallying but ultimately falling short by a 4-3 count.

The game itself, though, was secondary to the birth of the new team, an event that was several years in the making.

“The Ozaukee Youth Hockey Association has put forth serious efforts for many years to grow the sport of girls hockey in our area, and those efforts have borne fruit for years,” said Brian Connolly, the father of several Homestead boys players over the years as well as Lakeshore goaltender Erin Connolly.

Leair added, “I think for the past several years, there’s been a desire to start a co-op team with the area high schools. Over the last few years, it picked up a little bit more momentum, and last winter is really when the push came to try to formalize this and make it a reality.

“A lot of people helped out, and that’s when it really got going.”

Leair appreciates the concept of a co-op team as well.

“It’s neat because you’ve got girls from different schools coming together and pulling for each other,” he said. “It’s a really different dynamic. It’s something new for our school, and I’m excited. It’s a neat atmosphere and it is great to have this opportunity for the kids.”

Cedarburg leads the way with nine players: freshman forwards Darby MacLeish, Alea Kahn, Kate Tenney, Avery Bolander, Hannah Frontier and Hannah Schuette, sophomore defender Mackenzie Queoff, sophomore forward Emily Gabel and freshman defender-goaltender Riley Schmitter.

Homestead has six: sophomore goaltender Connolly, sophomore forwards Lindsey Scozzafave and Lexi Emond, junior defender Addie Anderson, sophomore defender Alex Burns and freshman forward Kira Dayton.

Grafton is represented by freshman defender Crystal Todd, and rounding out the squad are sophomore defender Dani Drake of Cedar Grove-Belgium, sophomore forward Hayley Brown of Port and freshman forward Emily Breckenridge of West Bend.

The team is coached by Scott Matczak, who directed the intermediate SHAW hockey program in the metro Milwaukee area and who grew up playing the sport.

The Lightning will be playing 18 games this season, with 13 against varsity foes and five against junior varsity squads.

“We’re trying to create a schedule that has as many WIAA-based teams as possible,” Leair said.

One of those is the Fox City team that provided the opposition in the opener on Thursday.

Players and coaches alike were excited about the first home contest.

“This was a good feeling and there was a lot of high intensity,” Matczak said. “Everyone was superpumped and the team was ready. We played (Fox City) two weeks ago and lost a really tough one by a few goals. (The Lightning) wanted to bring it to this team.”

Goalie Connolly said, “We were all really nervous and excited, because it was our first home game. It was awesome looking out in the stands and seeing all the people who were coming to support us. It was really fun.”

Fox City took a 4-0 lead early in the second period but Lakeshore came to life.

Gabel tallied the first goal, with assists from Schmitter and Brown, with 6 minutes, 16 seconds left in the period. Breckenridge scored off an assist by Drake just three minutes later and Gabel put in her second goal with help from Schmitter with three minutes remaining. “After our first goal,” Connolly said, “we got the momentum up and we just started pounding them and pounding them, and good things happened.” Neither team scored again, although Lakeshore had several shots at the tying goal, including two in the final minute after Connolly had been pulled for an extra attacker.

Matczak appreciated the effort, saying, “Our goalie, Erin, played phenomenally. Hayley is just playing phenomenal hockey and Emily is doing a great job. Hannah was the backchecker of the game at center. We’re just a solid team all together.”

Asked about his team’s prospects for the rest of the season, the coach said, “My goals are to build a strong team with a good foundation that’s just going to be moving forward and making solid strides. The North Shore is going to see a lot of progress being made. My goal is to have everyone in the state realize who we are.”