Junior forward Jack Anderson scored on the Verona hockey team’s very first goal Thursday, but the Wildcats were never able to find the net again, settling for second place in the Big Eight Conference with a 5-1 loss inside Capitol Ice Arena against Middleton.

The win gave the Cardinals (21-3-0 overall, 12-2-0 conference) their second straight conference title, while Verona (14-9-1, 10-4-0) finished second.

Though Middleton senior Tony Wuesthofen got a piece of the puck, Anderson’s shot found its way over the goal line 25 seconds into the first period.

“Guys on both teams get up for this game every year,” head coach Joel Marshall said. “We played fairly well in the first period. We knew it was a game that we were going to get outshot in because of their depth, but we didn’t end up being as short-handed as we were at the end of the game.”

Already having one player not suited up and home sick, the Wildcats lost four more throughout the course of the game.

With the playoffs coming up next week, Marshall said the coaching staff decided to keep two of those guys out in the first half as a precaution, showing minor head injury symptoms, and two more in the third period.

On the other side, if the Cardinals were stunned at all by the Wildcats’ quick goal, it didn’t last for long as Nolan Kouba answered on the game’s next shot 26 seconds later.

Despite a quick start by both teams the game entered the second period in a 1-1 stalemate as Verona’s Alex Jones and Wuesthofen found their rhythm between the pipes.

An always highly-contested rivalry game, that’s when the game started to get a little chippy and the opportunistic Cardinals capitalized with power-play goals from Colin Butler and Casey Harper in the fourth and 16th minute.

“Obviously, we had some penalty issues there that hurt us in the second period,” Marshall said. “I don’t know what kind of momentum or flow to the game you can get into when you’re killing off six penalties in one period. The bench was shortened. The guys were killing penalties all the time. You’re definitely not going to gain anything from that.”

David Bunz tacked on an insurance goal with two-and-a-half minutes remaining in the third period, while Justin Engelkes set up three of the Cardinals goals.

Jones finished the night with 39 saves, while Wuesthofen faced only 17 shots in the win. 

As the No. 4 and No. 1 seeds in the playoff, there is a very good chance the teams could face each other in the sectional semifinals. 

Verona, seeded fourth, will face fifth-seeded Sun Prairie at 7 p.m. Thursday. The Wildcats beat shutout Sun Prairie (14-9-1, 9-5-0) a combined 6-0 in two games this season. 

“It’s very hard to be beat a good team, which I would like to think that we are, three times in a row. With the amount of energy and emotion that goes into this rivalry, it’s even harder,” Marshall said. “The odds might be on our side the next time, but we have to go through Sun Prairie first.”

Top-seeded Middleton host either eighth-seeded Cottage Grove or ninth-seeded Oregon at 8 p.m. Friday at Capitol Ice Arena. Middleton beat Monona Grove 9-1 and did not play Oregon this year.