In the championship game of the Joe Raymond Holiday Hockey Classic, the Waukesha Wings faced the USM Wildcats. The Wings scored the only goal of the game in the second period for their 1-0 win over the Wildcats.

The first period went by with neither goals nor penalties but with aggressive, fast play on both ends. Both teams looked tough from the get-go and had lots of quality end-to-end action.

Coe Venes was called for hooking with 11 minutes to play in the second period, and Waukesha headed to the box for the first time that night. The Wildcats drove to the net, but Waukesha’s penalty kill unit did all they could to stop them.

Waukesha found themselves at a 5-on-3 advantage for 32 seconds after USM’s Peter Barney and Nick Epperson each served two minutes for tripping. Just 5 seconds after Barney’s penalty expired, Logan Geisness found the back of the net for a powerplay goal. Zed Dietrich had passed the puck across the front of the net where Geisness waited on the left side. He put the puck home over the top of USM goaltender, Bryan Botcher.

Another USM penalty, this time on Hayden Brown for slashing, gave Waukesha a powerplay opportunity, but strong efforts by Ben Hrabak and the rest of the Wildcats kept the Wings lead to just one after two periods of play.

The Wildcats killed another penalty, and found themselves with one last shot to tie up the game after Waukesha’s Wyatt Wilderman infracted a cross-checking penalty with 1:06 left to play.

USM called a timeout and made the decision to pull Botcher for an extra attacker and a 6-on-4 advantage.

Wings’ goaltender, Jake Kupsky, made a crucial last-second save to ensure the shut out win and tournament title.