Oakes shutout paces Cheavers to opening win at Monk’s Classic

By Jim den Hollander

Editor/Publisher

Saukhockey.info

The RWD varsity Cheavers moved to within a win of capturing the annual Monk’s Cheeseburger Classic Championship with a 5-0 win against Tomah/Sparta on Saturday (Dec. 26.)

This season’s abbreviated version of the annual Christmas Holiday tournament sees four teams, the Viroqua Blackhawks and Wisconsin Rapids Red Raiders taking part as well.

The second game of the day Saturday saw junior goaltender, Cooper Oakes collecting his second shutout of the season and the Cheavers its third in eight games and the game winner came from junior Trevor Slaght who dove across the crease to knock in a rebound 3:23 into the contest. Junior Clayton Pfaff and sophomore John Scott collected assists on the first period’s only goal.

Senior Danny Ely doubled the margin in the opening minute of the second period from freshman Brady Baldwin and the same two combined on the third goal, this time Baldwin pulling the trigger with help from Ely and sophomore Caden Brandt.

Brandt fired the final two goals, his 11^th and 12^th of the season, ranking him among the state’s top scorers. The first came in the second with help from Slaght and senior defenseman Connor Schyvinck and the other came with under four minutes to go from Ely and Slaght. Both were powerplay goals, the Cheavers scoring on its only two opportunities in the contest while denying Tomah/Sparta on its two chances.

Brandt is not the only RWD player turning heads this season. The 14 assists collected by Ely is third best in state this season and he is also among the top dozen points with 19.

Defensively, Oakes is in the top dozen in Goals Against Average (2.00); Save Percentage (.927) and wins (4).

In the earlier contest the Red Raiders defeating the Blackhawks 10-2 so the Monk’s Cheesesburger Classic will be decided Sunday (Dec. 27) at 5 p.m. at the Lake Delton Ice Arena between the Cheavers and Red Raiders.

In an earlier meeting, the Cheavers grabbed a 2-1 win against the Red Raiders at Reedsburg Area Community Arena (RACA) to move to 2-0 on the season.

Natural hat trick for Mortimer leads Peewee B Cheavers to win column

By Jim den Hollander

Editor/Publisher

Saukhockey.info

The RWD Peewee ‘B’ Cheavers enjoyed its best weekend of the season so far Dec. 19-20, grabbing wins in two out of three games all played at Reedsburg Area Community Arena and snapping a winless streak dating back to Nov. 29.

After collecting a 4-1 win against the Onalaska/Holmen Tornado Saturday, the Cheavers battled back for a 4-3 win against the Verona Wildcats ‘C’ team early Sunday, then gave the Sauk Prairie Flyers all it could handle and falling just short on another comeback attempt 6-5.

Tornado 1 @ Cheavers 4

In the first game, Dec. 19 against the Onalaska/Holmen Tornado, Noah Mortimer collected a rare natural hat trick scoring all three goals as the Cheavers opened a 3-0 first period cushion, including the first 52 seconds into the contest.

All three were unassisted and Mortimer collected his fourth point with an assist on a goal for Olivia Renneberg halfway through the second period. Aiden Knull also helped on the goal.

Meanwhile, Mason Mattson turned in a great effort in goal, beaten just once on 10 shots when the Tornado struck for its lone goal in the fifth minute of the third period.

Below is the third goal of the period for Noah Mortimer

Wildcats 3 @ Cheavers 4

The Cheavers found themselves looking up at a 2-0 deficit after a period Sunday but rallied back to tie with two unanswered middle period goals. Caydence Putz provided the first goal for the locals, from Andrew Stando and Backeberg just past the five-minute mark of the second.

Andrew Stando took over from there, tying the game with 28 seconds to go in the period with his first of three.

Stando gave the team its first lead with another unassisted tally 61 seconds into the third period but the Wildcats pulled that back less than a minute later.

The game winner came on a feed from brother Matthew, Andrew Stando slamming it home with one second to play.

Below is Stando’s last second goal.

Flyers 6 @ Cheavers 5

Possible Regional opponents squared off in a doozy of a match in the final game of the weekend for the Cheavers, the visiting Flyers holding off a late charge by the Cheavers for the win.

Both teams scored two goals in the opening period, but the visitors carried a 6-3 lead into the third before the Cheavers went to work.

After earlier hat tricks, both Andrew Stando and Mortimer found the mesh for an unassisted first period goal and Mortimer added the lone Cheavers’ goal of the middle period.

Those first period goals came in response to Flyers’ goals for Baryn Macleish and Ryan Jorgenson who set up the first goal. Tyler Jorgenson also picked up an assist.

In the second period, the Cheavers experienced their second natural hat trick of the weekend, this time on the receiving end as Caden Argall struck for three goals in 4:36 to rally back from a 3-2 deficit into a lead the Flyers wouldn’t relinquish.

Kash Caldwell added another for the Flyers a couple minutes later unassisted and the opening goal of the middle period was another goal for Mortimer, unassisted.

The Cheavers went to work trying to chip away in the third period, Backeberg scoring early in the period then adding another, from Mortimer who wrapped up a seven-point weekend with 5:27 to play.

That was also close as the Cheavers would get in this one though.

Ethan Goodman and Jameson Ballweg split the work in goal for the Flyers, Goodman handling six of nine in the first half and Ballweg turning aside three of five in the second half. For the Cheavers, Olivia Renneberg stopped 15 shots.

The successful weekend boosted the Cheavers overall record to 4-8-3. They will look to build on that success right after Christmas as they play host to Sun Prairie C2 twice on Dec. 26 and Sun Prairie C1 the following day. The Cheavers earned a 4-4 tie with Sun Prairie C2 on Dec. 6.

The Flyers were wrapping up a two-win weekend having defeated the Dodgeville Ice Wolves on the road Saturday and the wins boosted their overall mark to 5-7 and they are out of action until Jan. 2.

Gada so close to shutout in Squirt Cheavers first win

By Jim den Hollander

Editor/Publisher

Saukhockey.info

The RWD Squirt ‘B’ Cheavers played twice on the Dec. 19-20 weekend, wrapping up its pre-Christmas stretch with its first win of the regular season.

In the first game, the Cheavers had the luxury of playing a road game on home ice at Reedsburg Area Community Arena against the Sun Prairie Squirt C1 Cardinals, dropping a 6-1 decision, but the following day, again as the road team at RACA, the Cheavers built a 2-0 lead and held on for a 2-1 win against the West Madison Polar Caps Squirt ‘C’ team.

In the opener, the Cheavers hit the board first with a goal from Cole Renneberg on a feed from Caleb Backeberg but the Cardinals scored a short time later and teams were still even at 1-1 heading to the second period.

Four unanswered second period goals put the Cardinals in front to stay and one more in the third wrapped up the scoring.

Jase Uminski turned in a 14-save effort for the Cheavers.

Jamison Haag put the Cheavers up early in the second game but this time, the lead held up almost to the end, Briar Messer adding an insurance goal with 4:31 to play. That turned into the team’s first game winner of the season when the Caps denied RWD goaltender Aria Gada a shutout inside the final five seconds of play on their 12^th shot of the game.

The weekend split boosted the Squirt Cheavers overall record to 1-10-2 and they will look to continue their recently found momentum with three games on home ice Dec. 26-27.

Below is the game winning goal scored by Briar Messer

The Squirt B Cheavers celebrate their first win of the 2020-21 season