The Notre Dame Tritons scored three goals in the first eight minutes and held on to defeat the Superior Spartans 4-1 in a very physical contest in the consolation game at the Red Flint Rock and Stone Meltdown Saturday afternoon at Eau Claire Hobbs Ice Arena.

Freshman Mike Gregoire got the scoring started for Notre Dame when he punched in a rebound from the low left side past Spartan goalie Petyon Flanders at the 3:37 mark of the first.

A mere nine seconds later, Jack Wied scored an unassisted goal to make it 2-0, Notre Dame.

Superior coach Jason Kalin had seen enough and took his timeout less than four minutes into the contest.

Despite the brief respite, the Tritons got on the board just under four minutes later on a score by Collin Appleton, with assists from Bryce Poshak and Logan Braun to make it a three-goal lead.

Then it was Superior's turn.

Senior Grant Hanson scored on an assist from Beau Reder at the 7:57 mark to cut the lead to 3-1.

Notre Dame failed to convert on two power play opportunities near the end of the period, which ended with matching minors for slashing, including one on Flanders, who apparently took exception to the play going on around him.

The second period saw no scoring, but lots of hitting and a few penalties (seven in total).

The Tritons almost got another tally three minutes into the final period, but the alert goal line official noticed the net was off and waived off the goal, unbeknownst to Flanders, who was very demonstrative in showing that the net was off.

Poshak scored for NDA with 1:23 left on a pass from Appleton, with the freshman scoring high on the blocker side to account for the final goal.

The Superior goalie came off with 1:07 left for an extra skater, but despite a great effort by the six skaters, they were unable to cut into the 4-1 lead as the horn sounded.

Zach Krysiak had 32 saves (11-9-12) in a solid effort for the win, while Flanders had a heavy workload as well, stopping 28 (10-7-11) shots for Superior.