The Annual Lake Delton Ice Arena Dells Cup tournament saved the best for last – at least in the opinion of the local fans.

The Peewee ‘B’ Red Championship saw the RWD Cheavers ending the weekend against the same team it opened with but with a more favorable result.

A 5-0 shutout against the Ozaukee Ice Dogs at Lake Delton Ice Arena  avenged an opening night 3-2 loss to the same team at Reedsburg Area Community Arena (RACA).

The Cheavers dropped another 3-2 decision to the eventual ‘Blue’ Championship winning West Madison Polar Caps on Saturday night at RACA, but the locals came ready to play Sunday morning, putting its first of two shutouts together with a 9-0 whipping of the Oshkosh Warbirds sending them to the rematch against the Ice Dogs.

 

Uminski and Kowalski get it done

Sunday’s championship win was a full team effort, but a pair of players stepped up their games in starring roles.

Jordan Kowalski kicked out 30 shots to grab the goose egg in goal for the Cheavers and Landen Uminski notched a hat trick to power the offense, two of them on dazzling rushes that started near his own goal.

One of those rushes came 2:35 into the contest for an unassisted game winning goal.

That lead carried into the second period when the Cheavers doubled its margin with another solo effort provided by RJ Manley.

Manley sent Uminski in for the third goal, near the halfway mark of the final period giving the Cheavers a little breathing room and Uminski wrapped up his hat trick 93 seconds later, all but clinching the win.

Hailey Dietl finished it off with her goal 70 seconds from the final horn with an assist for Uminski.

The win came in the sixth game of the weekend for the Peewee Cheavers, but if they were worn out from the play, it didn’t show as they celebrated their banner-winning victory.

Below is a summary of the three round robin games for the Cheavers.

 

Ozaukee Ice Dogs 3 RWD Cheavers 2

In the opening contest, Kowalski faced 33 shots and stopped 30, keeping his team in the game despite a lopsided 33-17 edge in shots for the Ice Dogs.

Caleb Kundinger scored the lone first period goal for the Ice Dogs before Manley tied it with 6:51 to play in the second period.

That held up until the third period when the Ice Dogs grabbed two early goals, 1:11 apart.

Manley’s second came with just six seconds remaining in the match.

 

RWD Cheavers 2 West Madison Polar Caps 3

On Saturday night at RACA Manley put the Cheavers on the board before the end of the first minute, from Uminski, but the Caps scored twice in 26 seconds near the middle to grab a lead. Uminski tied it, from Manley, 56 seconds later and teams were even at 2-2 at the end of the first period.

Camden Sauer, grandson of the former UW-Badgers Head Coach Jeff Sauer, fired his second of the game 3:02 into the middle period and it ultimately stood up as the game winner.

Kowalski turned in another 18 saves in the contest but the Cheavers outshot the Caps 25-21 in this one.

 

Oshkosh Warbirds 0 RWD Cheavers 9

Desperate for a win on Sunday morning, the Cheavers delivered in a big way, settling this one quick with four first period goals. Another four in the second left no doubt.

Uminski started off his big day with a four-goal, two assist game. Elizabeth Haag and Tyler Krieski added two goals each, Haag also collecting an assist. Dietl notched the other Cheavers’ goal and helped out on three others and Ethan Wilcox also picked up a couple assists.

Peewee ‘B’ Blue Championship

West Madison Polar Caps 1 SHAW 0 (ot)

 

West Madison Polar Caps also avenged an earlier defeat when it met the Southeast Hockey Association of Wisconsin (SHAW) Hockey Timberwolves in the other Peewee ‘B’ final, but it came because of patience.

Teams played through three 12-minute periods without a goal scored and were nearly through the five-minute four-on-four overtime when Nathan Justman launched a hard wrister from the blue line that traveled through a maze of bodies and into the SHAW goal to end the contest suddenly.

The same two teams met on Friday with SHAW opening the event with a 5-2 win, then adding a 3-2 decision against Ozaukee and on Sunday morning, a 3-1 win against Verona Wildcats.

The Polar Caps regrouped from its opening defeat with an 8-1 win against Verona and the Saturday night win at RACA against the Cheavers.

 

Peewee ‘C’ Championship

SHAW 3 West Madison Polar Caps 2

The Peewee ‘C’ championship game matched the same two teams, but this one was won by the SHAW squad.

Teams were even at 1-1 after a period but SHAW scored the lone second period goal and added another with 4:54 to play. That one became big when the Caps pulled one more back 64 seconds from the final buzzer.

Owen June scored twice, and Luca Davido added the other for SHAW, Jonah Tollefson and Ashton Wedige both scoring for the Polar Caps.

The final wrapped up a 4-0 weekend for SHAW, beginning with a 3-0 win against Ozaukee Ice Dogs on Friday, then continuing with a 4-3 edge against the Caps and a 7-2 decision against Waunakee Wildcats.

 

Squirt ‘B’ Championship

Pandemic Penguins 10 New Richmond Tigers 3

 

 

The Penguins brought together players from the Illinois-Wisconsin border area in a tough season and their new bond paid off at the Dells Cup.

The Penguins trailed the Tigers 2-1 after a period and held a slim 4-3 margin heading to the third before grabbing control with three goals in the opening two minutes of the final frame.

The trend of first round teams meeting in the end continued as these two first squared off Friday night, the Penguins again using some late goals to secure an 8-3 triumph.

The Penguins went to defeat the De Pere Voyageurs 4-2 and got by the Beloit Jr. Knights in its final game.

The Tigers handled the Jr. Knights 8-1 before wrapping up with an 8-3 win against the Voyageurs.

Squirt ‘C’ Championship

Washington County Ice 4 Des Moines Buccaneers 2

The Ice carried a 2-1 lead out of the first period against the Bucs and the one-goal margin was still intact at 3-2 heading to the third. The clincher came with 2:31 to play in the contest.

The Ice were also avenging an earlier defeat as it was the Bucs with a 3-0 shutout margin Saturday night at the Lake Delton Ice Arena.

The Ice started paly with a 5-1 win against Beloit Jr. Knights on Friday night at RACA with the Buc following them onto the Reedsburg rink for a 1-0 win against the Oregon Panthers.

The Bucs wrapped up a perfect round-robin set with an 8-2 win against the Jr. Knights while the Ice secured the other championship spot with a 7-2 win against the Panthers.

 

Next Up – Ponytail Classic

The weekend event was the third and final Dells Cup event of the season at the Lake De

lton Ice Arena, leaving just the Eighth Annual Ponytail Classic. This year, the popular event will feature U-10, U-12, and U-14 Divisions. It was originally scheduled to be the first tournament of the season but was later rescheduled for March 26-28.

The Lake Delton Ice Arena will also host a unique event, the Ice Wars 2021 tournament for both squirt and peewee players. Rather than taking teams, the event will have individual players signing up to play in the April 9-11.

Players will be invited to the Lake Delton Ice Arena March 19 for a 90-minute skating and drill sessions under the watchful eye of high School, junior and college coaches. Following that, players will be drafted onto one of four teams – Army, Navy, Air Force and Marines.

Players will return for the tournament, representing their respective branches a three-game round robin event followed up by Championship games on Sunday, April 11.

Only 64 players – 15 skaters and a goaltender for each of the four teams will be included and the sign ups are on a first-come, first-admitted basis.

For more information on either the Ponytail Classic or the Ice Wars 2021 event, feel free to contact Aaron Kirby at Lake Delton Ice Arena – email dellsicewars@gmail.com. Registration forms for the event can be found at www.lakedeltonice.com.