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Wildcats Clinch Big 8 Conference & get #1 Seed

By Jeremy Jones, 02/06/17, 8:45AM CST

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Verona is the conference champ & #1 Seed for the 5th time since switching to the Big 8 in 2009

Jack Anderson scored on a breakaway late in the second period to help the Verona boys hockey team clinch at least a share of its fifth conference title since moving to the Big Eight in 2009. Anderson was one of four different goal scorers on Friday for the Wildcats.

“(Defenseman) Jeff Bishop gathered the puck and Anderson flew the zone … Bishop flipped the puck in the air to Anderson, who gathered at the far blue and was in alone with the goalie,” Verona head coach Joel Marshall said.

Anderson made a slight fake then beat Cardinal goalie Sam Dunn with a high hard shot over the glove.

Getting the conference championship was a goal for the team since the start of the season.

“We dropped a few tough nonconference games to start the year, so we looked at the conference race where those losses didn’t matter, as almost a clean slate,” Marshall said. “I knew before the season started the Big Eight would have a lot of parity, I believe I even predicted the conference champ would have three or four losses.”

Janesville, which still had four games left in conference, could have forced the Wildcats to share the title. The Bluebirds tied Madison Memorial on Saturday, however, giving Verona the title outright.

Bishop got the Wildcats on the scoreboard four minutes into the second period – 15 seconds after a tripping penalty by Sun Prairie’s Noah Nehmer. The visiting Cardinals answered a little less than one minute later, however, with a Travis Kernen even-strength goal.

Verona’s Cale Rufenacht and Jake Keyes added a pair of insurance goals in the third period, and Garhett Kaegi stopped 18 of 19 shots on goal to preserve the victory. Dunn had 27 saves for the Cardinals.

“Because we played well and won against all the other sectional teams on our schedule, we were able to get the No. 1 seed despite our 11 loses,” Marshall said. “There is always a little added pressure with the No. 1 seed, however, we played many of these teams before and had a challenging nonconference schedule to prepare us for the post-season run.”

Marshall said, in his 10 years of coaching at Verona, he has never seen this much parity in our section, from No. 1 through 7.

“Everyone has their big wins and bad losses during the season,” he continued. “It should make for an existing tournament series in section 6.”

http://www.unifiednewsgroup.com/verona_press/sports/boys-hockey-wildcats-clinch-big-eight-title-outright/article_046557f9-cd39-5a3c-8013-bdc99164eca0.html


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