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Great Northern Showdown

By webjr, 01/06/11, 8:23AM CST

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Game of the Week: #9 Waupaca vs. Mosinee

 The Waupaca Coments and Mosinee Indians are going to Stevens Point tonight for a battle over first place in the Great Northern Conference. Both teams come into the game without a conference defeat and Friday's game (which counts as Mosinee's home conference game against Waupaca) will help create a front-runner.

Winning the Great Northern Conference is going to be an important argument when it comes time for sectional seeding at the end of the regular season. “We have three goals, win our conference, go to state, and win state,” said Waupaca coach Randy Flesch. “Winning our conference is very important because I believe our conference is stronger than in years past, as Appleton has felt against Mosinee already.”
 
“As a coach I really look at conference standing as major component  when it comes time to seeding the sectional. I feel that conference standings are as close to a  year long view of your team as you can get,” said Mosinee coach Derek Yirkovsky. “Head-to-head competitions can be tough because a team might not play well during the one game you saw them and it can really give you a unfair perception of that team.”
 
“We sometimes forget these are high school boys and they can be very inconsistent from day to day,” Yirkovsky added. “I think it is important for us to be able to go into the seeding process as the top or one of the top teams representing the Great Northern Conference so we can get a good seed for the playoffs.”
 
Waupaca's top line of Brad Navin, Bjorn Asher and Tyler Donaldson will definitely be on display tonight.  The group has combined for 55 goals so far this season. Unfortunately for them, Mosinee's backstop, Wade Michalski is as good as they get.
 
“We will need to get 40-50 shots,” said Flesch of Michalski. 
 
“There is no doubt that we need to keep that first line in check in order to win the game,” added Yirkovsky. “I do not go into a game like this and think that we will completely shut down a line of this quality because Brad Navin is so good you know he will get his scoring opportunities.”
 
Expect Mosinee to play their top defensive pair against Navin, Asher and Donaldson, while they play a defensive line to keep the ice open for top forwards Bryce Hladovcak and Jared Sprink when Navin's line is off the ice.
 
“I have not seen Waupaca play yet this season but last year they played two lines and I believe four defensemen” said coach Yirkovsky. “We will try to out work them and wear them down and hopefully get some scoring opportunities along the way. We will probably play 3 or 4 lines depending on the pace and match-ups and hopefully we will be able to take advantage of our deep bench. “
 
When asked about Mosinee trying to shut down Navin's line, coach Flesch added of his team, “True our top line does most of the scoring but we rely heavily on our 2 sets of defense that are all returned players from last year, they go to work every other shift.”
 
There will be a lot of interesting story lines on the ice Friday.  Waupaca and Mosinee will battle for first place in the Great Northern Conference.  Waupaca's top end talent versus Mosinee's deep bench. Players of the Week Brad Navin and Bryce Hladovcak will square off against each other. And Navin, the state's leading scorer, will have to contend with one of the state's top goalies in Wade Michalski. 

Quotable

 "Anyone that knows anything about hockey will tell you that having a good goalie is the most important thing for a team to be successful. We have a ton of young kids playing right now and it helps them to develop knowing that if they make a mistake Wade is going to save them. The young kids can go out and play and not have to worry as much about screwing up and costing the team a goal they can just go play the game. As a coach there is no greater comfort than to know you have an elite goaltender on your side and he can keep things steady while we gain our balance in front of him. As a team we have been inconsistent at times this year but Wade has covered for us when we need him to like all good goalies do." - Mosinee Coach Derek Yirkovsky

Waupaca Team Stats and Recent Results

Mosinee Team Stats and Recent Results