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Big Cats On the Prowl in Verona

By Delmar Scanlon, WiPH Staff, 01/27/18, 11:15PM CST

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Brockton Baker leads Wildcats to Win

Verona slips by #8 SPASH

Verona hosted Stevens Point in a Saturday evening battle which came down to the final seconds. The first period was dominated by the Wildcats. Verona scored at the 8:11 mark of the first period, when Jake Osiecki made a cross ice pass to Mack Keryluk. Keryluk tipped the puck back to the middle of the ice to Brockton Baker to put the Wildcats up by one. Keryluk bumped the lead to two, when he forced a turnover in the high slot area and proceeded to bury the puck into the goal at 11:17 of the first. Keryluk picked up his second goal of the game with Brockton Baker and Mason McCormick being credited with assists with 4:57 remaining on the clock.

The second period scoring opened, when SPASH cut into the lead at 5:21 on a power play goal by Trey Zagrzebski assisted by Barrett Brooks and Cole Beilke. The Wildcats' Baker increased the lead back to 3 on a short handed goal with an assist from Mason McCormick at 11:32 of the second period. The Panthers converted a second power play opportunity with 1:33 remaining in the period as Carter Smigaj and Devon Blaes assisted on Eli Haas' goal. Verona's Baker scored his third goal of the game at 15:11 to finish the scoring for the second period. Verona held a 5-2 lead at the end of two periods.

Brockton Baker scored a power play goal 13 seconds into the third period with Jake Osiecki and Drew Dingle assisting on the goal. The Panthers were not going to quit and Carter Smigaj scored an unassisted goal at 5:19. SPASH scored their third power play goal of the game with 7:56 showing on the scoreboard. This time it was Devon Blaes scoring with Dayne Hoyord and Trent Metz being credited with assists. SPASH collected their fourth power play goal at 13:07. Trent Metz made a cross ice pass, keeping it just inside the offensive zone, to Cole Zagrzebski. Zagrzebski took the shot and Eli Haas redirected the puck past Garhett Kaegi to make the score 6 to 5. When Kaegi froze the puck with 1:34 remaining in regulation, Stevens Point took the opportunity to call timeout and pull goaltender Spencer Wierzba to put an extra attacker on the ice. This gave the Panthers 5 skaters as one of their players was serving a penalty. SPASH fans thought the game had been tied with 33.1 seconds remaining, but the officials had blown the play dead prior to the puck going into the net. Verona was called for roughing after the whistle. The Wildcats managed to hold on for the win.

Garhett Kaegi finished the game with 30 saves for Verona, while Spencer Wierezba had 20 saves for SPASH.

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