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USM drops OT heart breaker to Notre Dame

By Tom Geilfuss, USM Assistant Coach, 12/09/18, 5:30PM CST

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Wildcats outshoot Tritons 45-18

In an overtime contest between two of Wisconsin’s top three boys’ hockey teams, Reid Milton scored a goal to give third-ranked Notre Dame de Baie a 2-1 victory over the number one team, University School, in a non-conference game played on Friday, December 7th at the Cornerstone Ice Arena in Green Bay.

Blake Carey, one of USM’s captains commented on the tough loss for the Wildcats, “It was a battle, and we knew coming into the game that would be the case. Both teams are very skilled. We came out skating and that’s credit to the boys in our locker room. We played hard. Sometimes you don’t get the bounces you want or things don’t go your way, and I believe that happened tonight. This by no means takes us away from our ultimate goal as a team. It was a great effort by our guys tonight.”

In the clean, well-played game between two undefeated opponents, the teams exchanged first period goals then played tight, defensive hockey through two scoreless periods.  USM fired 45 shots in regulation time, but Bo Buckley, the Tritons goalie, stopped all but one, a first period goal by Robby Newton.

On the play, Carey got the puck along the mid-boards in the USM zone.  He lined a cross ice pass to TJ Fenton in center ice.  Fenton tipped the puck past a Notre Dame defenseman.  Newton swooped in to get it as it crossed the Triton’s blue line.  Newton skated in on a breakaway and fired a shot from the low slot past Buckley at 3:50.

Notre Dame’s Riley Onell tied the game on one of the 17 shots the Tritons took on Patrick Kelly, USM’s goaltender, in regulation time. As the Tritons cycled the puck in the USM zone, Onell took a shot from the slot.  The rebound off of Kelly’s pads careened to the sideboards.  Sawyer Scholl skated in from the point to get it.  He continued on and moved behind the net then passed it out to the slot where Onell was unguarded.  Onell fired a wrist shot past Kelly at 10:54.

Then, 1:06 into the added period, Milton’s goal kept the Tritons undefeated and handed the Wildcats their first loss of the season.   He scored it by taking a low shot from the point.  The puck hit a defenseman’s skates in front of the net, flew up and curled back down behind Kelly and dropped into the net.

“Tough one to swallow,” said Jason Woods, USM’s head coach. “Two thoughts immediately pop into my head. First, we should not have come out of that first period tied, 1-1. We should have been up four or five to one by the end of that period. We missed golden opportunity after golden opportunity. Instead of rolling four lines and six D from there, we have to do some different things. Secondly, I have to own the game-winning goal. I put a young man on his off hand to try and generate scoring, and he couldn’t get the puck out. They score on that play. That’s on me. I put him in a really tough spot right there.  Still, we know who we are and what we are capable of. I’m proud of these guys and think the sky’s the limit for them.  We will be just fine.”

Notre Dame remains undefeated at 3-0-2 and 1-0 in the Fox River Classic Conference.  The Tritons play Fond du Lac St. Mary’s Springs in a non-conference game at 8:00 p.m. on Saturday, December 8th at the Cornerstone Ice Arena in Green Bay.

USM is 6-1 and 1-0 in the Classic Eight Conference.  The Wildcats play Brookfield in a Classic Eight Conference game at 7:00 p.m. on Friday, December 21st at the Ponds of Brookfield.