Last March the Verona Wildcats stopped the Green Bay Notre Dame Tritons quest for a State title in the Semifinals.  Many of the faces were part of that game still were on the rosters of the two teams trying to get back to that same place.

Nevermind the fact they are rated numbers 1 and 3 in the state.

This year.

This year it was NDA winning a 5-4 overtime thriller.

"We knew we were gonna face some adversity somewhere along the way this season." said NDA forward Brett Gruber, the reigning Pavelski Award winner.

The teams played to a scoreless draw after one period as both teams  were playing with alot of flow, and shots were thru screens for both but Verona's Alex Jones had 6 saves and NDA netminder Aaron Campbell with 9 stops.

The Tritons finally got thru catching Verona in a line change. Brett Gruber got the puck at the Verona blue line, drove the slot, toe dragged and snapped a wrister blocker side for a 1-0 lead with 9:18 left in the period.
 
Verona used a power play to get some momentum their way and scored on a shot from the left of Campbell to tie the game.

With time winding down in the period NDA forward Sam McCormick found a soft spot in the zone and wristed a shot past Jones with 9.8 seconds left in the period for a 2-1 lead for NDA after 2 periods.
  
Verona took over in the third as Brogan Baker scored with 14:15 left, and then broke the tie when Harry Seid was left alone in the slot on a rush during a power play that Campbell got partially and it rolled into the net for a 3-2 Verona lead with 9:51 left in the third.
 
Verona got the margin to 4-2 with 5:48 left as a shot hit traffic in front and went up in the air and hit a body and rolled  in the net. Phillipe Fromberger was credited with the goal and an assist to Harry Seid.

"We were looking for a goaltender interference call," said NDA Head Coach Cory McCracken. 

NDA called their time out with 2:45 left. "We were too much out on the perimeter and we told our guys to stick to the gameplan," said McCracken. 

Off the faceoff the netminder was already pulled and NDA got it a one-goal game when Gruber let loose a sharp angle wrister which caught Jones off the near post for a 4-3 game with 1:56 left.
 
Off the faceoff Campbell was still on the bench and the Tritons got pucks to the net and finally Jarod Zirbel scored thru a pileup in front for a 4-4 tie.

Both teams had chances in the extra session, including a point blank chance by Verona's Charlie Parker. But NDA had the same sort of look and Gruber wristed the shot over a fallen teammate for the gamewinner. "It seemed to take forever for it to go in," said Gruber of the winner.
 
"Both teams made some mistakes in the overtime, we got a bounce and Gruber buried one," said McCracken.

Campbell had 19 saves for NDA, while Verona's Jones had 25 in the game.