Teams
There's something about the Badgerland Conference Tournament that brings out the best in Fond du Lac boys hockey team.
The fourth-seeded Cardinals, which won the last two conference tournaments, opened up the first round with a 5-3 win Tuesday night over fifth-seeded Waupun in a game played at the Blue Line Family Ice Center in Fond du Lac.
Fondy will face top-seeded Appleton in a semifinal game played Friday night at 5:30 p.m. at the Blue Line for a chance to get to the championship game.
"Coming into this we knew we had to come in and play hard," Fondy's Caylen Dyni said. "Our home rink in the conference tournament, we needed this one trying to defend our conference championship from last year. It was a must win tonight."
After a close first period, where it was tied 1-1, Fondy started to take advantage its opportunities. The Cardinals scored three goals in the second and added another one early in the third to jump out to a 5-1 lead, giving them a comfortable lead.
"I thought it was good, I thought it was a typical Waupun first period," Fondy coach Ryan Sarazin said. "It was a good battle in the first and we traded goals. I think the key pull away for us was when (Waupun) had a chance one way, we came back and we scored the other way. Caylen was able to capitalize and help us pull away."
Dyni scored the game's first goal of the game at the 13 minute, 52 second mark of the first period but then Waupun's Brady Beekman answered to tie it up at 1.
Then Dyni added another one in the second while getting two goals from Jack Nejedlo, which gave Fondy a 4-1 lead going into the final period.
"They have been leading us all year and it's key that we counted on those couple goals," Sarazin said of Dyni and Nejedlo. "It solidified the game for us and it gave us that distance because you never know, you have to play right to the end.
It was Nejedlo's 24th and 25th goals of the year while Dyni scored his 17th and 18th.
"We haven't been scoring much lately so that was key tonight, putting the puck in the net," Dyni said. "It was good to get it from our line."
Joseph Voight scored Fondy's final goal with 14:52 left on the clock in the third, making it 5-1. But like Sarazin said, it was key for the Cards to get that comfortable lead because Waupun wouldn't go away.
The Warriors nabbed two goals in the third period – both on power plays – from Ryan Panten and Adrian Harmsen. But it was little too late for Waupun, as Harmsen's goal came with just over 30 seconds left.
Other than that, Fondy's defense played well. William Shober had 21 saves in the game for Fondy while Caleb Sauer had 24 for Waupun.
"William (Shober) is playing well, I didn't like the way we finished, though," Sarazin said. "I knew, even if it's 5-3, I knew it wasn't over. Especially with a rival team like Waupun."
Now the focus switches to Appleton, a team Fondy recently lost to in a close 2-1 game.
"It's our goal," Sarazin said of potentially winning a third straight conference tournament title. "We just played them the other night and we'd like another crack at them."
CLICK LINK BELOW to watch Fondy's Caylen Dyni interview: