It was another good hockey game between two long-time rivals. The teams were evenly matched, the pace was fast, and the action went back and forth all night. In a defensive battle that showcased two fine goalies, the Madison Edgewood boys’ hockey team defeated University School 2-0 in a non-conference game Saturday night at USM.

The Crusaders’ senior goalie Tommy Mohs stopped all 17 shots by the Wildcats. At the other end of the ice, senior Mac Schmidt stopped 21 of the 22 the Madison Edgewood shooters took on him.  Except during penalty situations, neither team allowed the opposition an appreciable amount of sustained pressure in the defensive zone.

There were only three penalties in the game, but they were key to the contest’s outcome.

At the very end of the first period, the Crusaders were assessed a major penalty.  The infraction allowed the Wildcats to have five minutes of power play time to open the second period.  The Crusaders killed the penalty efficiently allowing USM just three shots and almost scoring on a 2-1 shorthanded break.

Then the situation suddenly changed. At 4:01 of the second period, the Wildcats took an ill-advised penalty that turned their power play into a 4-against-4 situation for the final minute of the Edgewood major.  It shifted the momentum. Furthermore, as the Edgewood penalty expired, the Wildcats took another penalty, giving the Crusaders a 5 against 3 power play.

The Crusaders capitalized.  They got the puck in the USM zone and began to work it around.  Junior Vincent Weis got the puck on the blue line and walked it to the left, opening a passing lane to sophomore Carter Hottman in the right circle.  Weis passed the puck to Hottman.  Hottman looked and saw junior Grant Reichenbacher in the opposite circle and crossed the puck to him. Reichenbacher fired and put the puck into the net before Schmidt could slide across to stop it.  Time of the goal: 6:01.

There were no more penalties in the game, and it resumed its non-stop action.  Both Mohs and Schmidt made some good stops and the score remained 1-0 until the final minutes.

USM called a time out and pulled Schmidt with 2:07 left in the game.  Mohs and the Crusader defenders stopped the 6-on-5 attempts by the Wildcats.  Eventually the Crusaders were able to get an empty net goal when, at 15:33, senior Blake Richter chipped the puck into center ice, raced to it, and fired it from the red line into the goal.

After the game, USM’s head coach Jason Woods commented, “it was a good high school hockey game.  We played a very good team to a near draw tonight.  A 5-on-3 goal against and an empty netter were the deciding goals.  We have to understand we are our own worst enemies at times.  We need to realize when we ignore the noise and just play, we are as good as anyone.  I think we learned that tonight, and, because of that, we will keep moving forward.”

USM is 9-3-2 and Edgewood is 8-4-1.  The Wildcats play Greendale in a Classic Eight Conference game at 7:00 p.m. on Tuesday, January 12th at USM.