Journalists are told, when writing a game story, to tell why a certain game was different or unique.

It's getting to the point where an Adam Connolly hat trick no longer qualifies. The sophomore phenom scored three goals against the Grafton Ice Hawks to lead his Homestead Highlanders to a 7-1 victory Friday night at the Ozaukee County Ice Center.

The teams headed to the dressing room after the first period with Homestead already up 3-0.

Grafton, a team that is still trying to establish itself in the area, used a power play opportunity to get back into the game, for however brief a time.

Grafton junior Steve Wick took advantage of a great pass from senior forward Travis Sette. Sette, playing a puck that had popped up into the air, sent a pass behind him to the front of the crease. Wick put the puck past senior goaltender Sam Morris for the first and only Ice Hawk goal of the night.

"Sammy played well," said Homestead Head Coach Chris Donovan. "He reacted well, took some rebounds. We're gonna need that confidence (down the stretch)."

Connolly scored at 15:39 on a power play game to get that one back, but he wasn't quite done yet. 16 seconds after that goal, linemates Peter Schmitz and Connolly teamed up again, when Schmitz sent a perfect pass through a defender to Connolly. The two worked together to beat the 2-on-1, with Connolly re-directing the puck off the end of his stick and into the net.

The goal was Connolly's third of the game. Although, if not for the public address system, his coach might not have known.

"Yeah, I think (it was a hat trick)," said Donovan. "I don't know, I don't have the scoresheet yet. It might be."

"It's one of those things where I don't even keep track of who's scoring," said senior defenseman David Trebatowski, the team's captain. "For me, it's just another point on the board."

For the remainder of the game, Homestead continued to keep pressure on and stay sharp. Grafton tried to get pressure in Homestead's zone, but their inability to play crisp and complete odd-man rushes kept them from taking advantage of the relatively open ice.

Schmitz and linemate Thomas Fazio each scored one more in the third to cap the scoring and the Highlander domination on the night.

"They kind of have the stagger," said Trebatowski. "One guy's always flying, the others are always kind of supporting each other. They 've really got that down."

If the running clock that the last half of the game was played under wasn't enough of a barometer, consider this: the hardest hit Homestead seemed to take all night was when freshman Michael Schulz ran into an official skating up the boards.

Donovan was happy with how his team played, but was hesitant to hang his hat on the victory. "We're starting to peak (at the right time)," said Donovan. "I still think we're a little sloppy at this point...I'm hoping that we're holding back (for the playoffs)."

The senior captain echoed that sentiment, but left room for improvement.

"We're definitely peaking," said Trebatowski. "We can still put a little more out there. We're looking forward to the playoffs.

Especially when you consider that Connolly isn't even one of the top two scorers on the team.