On a relatively balmy 28 degree early-January afternoon, the Fond du Lac Cardinals invaded the South Wood County Rec Center, hoping to steal a win from the Wisconsin Rapids Red Raiders on rink manager Jim Arnold's 39th birthday (or so he says).
After a back-and-forth battle for the first two periods, the hosts scored a pair of goals 18 seconds apart seven minutes into the final stanza and hung on for an 8-5 win in what would be called a 'slugfest' in baseball parlance.
The guests got on the board first just under three minutes into the period.
Caylen Dyni grabbed a pass and fired a shot from the slot that beat Rapids goalie Tyler Werne high on the blocker side for the early 1-0 lead. Adam Grimm was awarded an assist on the play.
Fondy grabbed a 2-0 lead just a few minutes later on a nice re-direct.
Zach Schmit fired a shot on the ice from the left point and just before the puck got to the goalie, Dyni placed the blade of his CCM twig on the ice and saw the biscuit pop over Werne's glove for the two-goal lead. Schmit and Jack Nejedlo earned helpers on the play.
After a Rapids penalty midway through, Casey Esselman almost cut the lead in half but his short-handed chance went bar-up.
As the aforementioned penalty expired, Luc Kreuser came steaming out of the box and headed for the puck, which he was able to strip away from a Fondy player. Kreuser skated in to the right of the goalie, deked, and then slid the puck past Fondy goalie William Shober's straining glove to make it 2-1.
Just 13 seconds later, Grant Scharmer grabbed a pass from behind the net and sniped the puck past the FDL goalie to tie the game at two. Kreuser and Isaac Gilbert were credited with assists on the play.
A couple minutes later, Nejedlo and Dyni connected on a cross-ice pass for a back-door goal, giving the junior assistant captain his third goal in just 726 seconds of play.
The Red Raiders evened the score while on the PK.
Logan Conkey stole the puck at the blueline and took the puck deep, deking the goalie and sliding it past the FDL netminder at 15:00 of the first.
WiPH Game Summaries
Wisconsin HP-18 beat Michigan Juniors 6-3
- By Matt Carey, Contributor 04/28/2024, 4:00pm CDT
Wisconsin Seniors beat Colorado 10-2
- By Matt Carey, Contributor 04/28/2024, 12:30pm CDT
Wisconsin HP-18 crushed Colorado
- By Matt Carey, Contributor 04/28/2024, 7:15am CDT
Wisconsin Seniors defeat Michigan HP-18
- By Matt Carey, Contributor 04/28/2024, 7:00am CDT
Michigan Seniors slip past Wisconsin HP-18
- By Matt Carey, Contributor 04/27/2024, 7:15am CDT
North Dakota edges Wisconsin Seniors 3-1
- By Matt Carey, Contributor 04/27/2024, 7:15am CDT
Wisconsin HP-18 loses to Minnesota Seniors 2-3
- By Matt Carey, Contributor 04/26/2024, 6:45am CDT
Wisconsin Seniors lose 1-3 to Minnesota HP-18
- By Matt Carey, Contributor 04/26/2024, 6:45am CDT
WEHL 16U Southwest Skate All The Way To USA Hockey Semi-Finals
- By Coach Hoehn, WEHL 04/16/2024, 5:45pm CDT
WEHL 18U South East Girls at USA Hockey Nationals, March 20-24
- By Bill Berg Jr, WiPH Staff 03/20/2024, 7:45pm CDT
The period would end with that 3-3 tie, with shot advantage to Rapids, 13-8 in the first 17 minutes.
The second period was completely different, as only one combined goal was scored.
Rapids had two great opportunities early on, but Gilbert sent one off the crossbar and then a cross-ice pass bounced off a Cardinal defender, but Shober was able to alertly snag the puck out of mid-air.
A few minutes later, Gilbert had another chance but Shober made another nice glove save with just over 11 minutes left in the middle period.
Just over a minute later, Gilbert challenged again and his chest-high shot was sticked aside by Shober, using the paddle of his Bauer goalie stick to send the puck into the corner.
Rapids grabbed the lead for good on a deja-vu goal by Kreuser, who duplicated his first period goal with another deke-job at 11:48. Scharmer got the helper on the play.
The period ended with the home boys holding a 4-3 lead. Rapids held a 12-5 shot edge in the stanza.
Fondy almost tied it up a couple minutes into the final period, but the shot from the right side glanced off Werne's right pad before slipping off the outside of the left post to keep the score at 4-3.
Rapids got a pair of scores in 18 seconds to more or less put the game away four minutes later.
Conkey and Cody Kohls moved in on a 2-on-2, with Conkey bringing the puck down the left side. At the last moment, Conkey sent a precision pass to Kohls in the low slot, who one-timed the puck past the goalie on a picture-perfect play to make it 5-3 Rapids.
Less than 20 seconds later, Gilbert sent a high shot on net and as Shober tried to glove the puck, it slipped out of his glove and dropped behind him for the Red Raider goal. Scharmer and Kreuser got assists on the play which gave Rapids a 6-3 lead.
Thirty-eight seconds later, Fondy scored a fluke goal to cut the lead to two.
Nejedlo was in the left circle and fired a pass across in an attempt to connect on a back-door play, but the pass bounced off the skate of a Rapids defender and slid in past a surprised Werne to make it 6-4.
Two minutes later, Gilbert banged in a rebound goal to make it 7-4, with assists to, who else, Scharmer and Kreuser.
Nejedlo cut the lead to 7-5 with an assist to Grimm, with just under four minutes left to set up an exciting finish.
The clock ticked down to just over a minute left and Shober came off for an extra attacker, but Rapids scrubbed that plan when Kreuser completed his hattie just eight seconds later with the empty-netter.
Fondy had a power play for 39 seconds at the end, but failed to score as the puck was tied up in front of the Rapids crowd as the horn sounded.
Shots were 18-6 in favor of Rapids in the period.
Werne stopped 14 shots for Rapids (9-3-1), while Shober was much busier, making 35 saves for Fondy, who dropped to 5-6.
