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Antigo survives overtime thriller against Wausau East

By Bill Berg, WiPH Staff, 02/19/15, 10:30PM CST

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Jed Weix makes it 4-3 with breakaway goal

Jed Weix scored at 4:34 of the first overtime to give the second-seeded Antigo Red Robins a 4-3 victory of seventh seed Wausau East Lumberjacks on Thursday night at the Langlade County ice Arena in Antigo.

Apparently nobody told Wausau East that this was just a preliminary, a tune-up game, before the Robins had to face off against third-seeded SPASH and top-seed Wausau West. The Lumberjacks came to play.

East got the only goal of the first period, just seconds into a Robins penalty. With the face off in the Antigo zone, Jack Nuckles won the draw and Cody Krasowski fired it past Antigo net-minder Ryan Schmidt.

Schmidt recorded 5 saves in that first period, while Lumberjack goalie Neil Adams stopped all 13 shots sent his way.

A late penalty on East meant the Robins started the second with 1:49 of power play. Antigo controlled the puck in the Lumberjacks' zone for most of the power play until Alex Nagel ripped a shot from the top of the right circle and Adam Schmidt redirected it past Adams to tie the score.

Nagel would strike again to put Antigo up 2-1 with a top shelf slap shot from the top of the slot.

The lead didn't last very long. Max Piskula tied it up for East with a shot from the left boards that took a hop over Schmidt's left leg pad, and the second period ended at two apiece.

Saves in the second period were nine for Adams and seven for Schmidt.

Early in the third period, while skating a man down, Landon Dehnel and Jack Nuckles broke out of their defensive zone in a two on one. on a 2 on 1. Nuckles passed the puck to Dehnel who put it behind Schmidt for a 3-2 Lumberjack lead.

The Lumberjacks got a bit of a breather when Elijah Wickersheim drew a 5:00 major penalty for boarding. So instead of trying to mount a comeback, the Robins had to kill more than half of the time remaining while short-handed.

They did kill the penalty, and went back on the attack, but the Lumberjacks held firm. With just 1:24 and down 3-2, the Robins called their time out and pulled their goalie.

With less than a minute to play, Alex Nagel picked up the puck along the right boards and weaved his way towards the slot. Nagel then picked the top-left corner with a wrist shot from the left face off circle to tie the game at three.

Saves in regulation were 33 for Adams, and 21 for Schmidt.

Midway through the overtime period, Wickersheim spotted Weix behind the East defensemen and fired a long pass up the middle. Weix corralled it and came in alone on Adams. A quick wrist shot sent the home crowd wild, and advanced the Robins to the Sectional semi-final against Stevens Point on Tuesday night in Antigo.

WiPH Game Summaries