Pierce Park Pavilion will once again get maximum use this weekend with league and varsity games interspersed with Ultimate Tournament encounters.
On Saturday the day will kick off with rematches of the previous weekend Mite tests — the U6 group taking on the Sauk Prairie Flyers mites at 9 a.m. followed at 10:15 a.m. by the U8 mites.
At 11:30 a.m. the Bantam Thunderbirds will play host to the Beloit ‘B’ Bantams and at 1:30 p.m. the Peewee Thunderbirds will take on the Lake City 14U ‘B’ Whitecaps.
On Sunday a pair of teams will hit the road, the Bantam Thunderbirds traveling to West Salem for a 10:45 am. puck drop while the peewees head to Sparta for a noon faceoff against the Tomah/Sparta Titans, followed by another game against the same team at 3:45 p.m.
At 3:15 p.m. the Badger Lightning 10U Girls will play host to the Sauk Monkeys 10U ‘B’ squad at Pierce Park.
The Lake City 14U ” Whitecaps will hit the road for four weekend games, beginning tonight (Friday).
After a trip to Verona to square off against the Madison Mavericks at 7:45 p.m. tonight, the Caps will make a short trek to Baraboo’s Pierce Park Pavilion to face the Thunderbird Peewees Sunday at 1:30 p.m.
On Sunday the squad will travel to the Milwaukee area, facing Ozaukee in a 12:45 p.m. start followed by another match against Milwaukee Winter Club at 3:30 p.m.
The ‘A’ Whitecaps will take on the Sabres, a Chicago area team on Sunday with a pair of games at SPARC, starting at 10:45 a.m. and 1:30 p.m.
After dropping its first three games, the 10U ‘A’ Sauk Monkeys are riding a four-game run into action this weekend.
The Monkeys will hit the road to play in McFarland Saturday at 1:30 p.m. and will double their action on Sunday with 11:30 a.m. and 2:30 p.m. tilts in Waupun.
The ‘B’ Monkeys will be looking to break into the win column themselves when they travel to Baraboo for a 3:15 p.m. contest Sunday against the 10U Badger Lightning.
12U MONKEYS
The 12U ‘A’ Monkeys will start the weekend with a pair of games in Ozaukee at 3:45 and 6:45 p.m. and travel to Beaver Dam to take on the Wildfire in a single game Sunday at 11 am.
The ‘Monkeys will see a lighter weekend with just one game, Saturday at SPARC against the Madison Dragons at 4:30 p.m.
After dropping its first three games of the season, the Squirt ‘A’ Sauk Prairie Flyers are riding a four-game streak heading into road action this weekend.
The ‘A’ Flyers will face four tough opponeBts along the way though, beginning Saturday with a trip to Beloit for a 9:15 a.m. start and a stop on the way home at McFarland for a 1:30 p.m. contest.
On Sunday the Squirt ‘A’ Flyers will head to Waupun for games at 11:30 a.m. and 2:30 p.m.
The Squirt ‘B’ Flyers will also hit the road for Saturday games in McFarland at 12:45 p.m. and a night game in Middleton against the ‘C’ Cardinals at 8 p.m.
On Sunday, the ‘B’ Flyers will wrap up the weekend in Sun Prairie with an 11:45 a.m. match.
PEEWEE FLYERS
The Peewee ‘A’ Flyers will put its 4-4 record on the line with its first tourney tests of the season at an event in Spooner.
The ‘B’ Peewees (2-1) will play twice on the weekend, traveling to Madison Ice Arena to face the Polar Caps Saturday at 7 p.m. and traveling to McFarland for an 11:35 a.m. game Sunday.
BANTAM FLYERS
The 4-2 Bantam ‘A’ Flyers will play at SPARC Saturday at 6 p.m. against the Monroe Avalanche before heading to Janesville Sunday for a 4 p.m. game.
The ‘B’ Flyers will travel to Tri-County Ice Arena in Neenah for a pair of matches against the Fox Valley ‘C’ bantams at 1 p.m. and 4 p.m. on Saturday.
With Ultimate Tournaments taking over all of the area rinks this weekend the Yeti are hitting the road for some big matches.
SQUIRT YETI
The Squirt ‘A’ Yeti will be looking to build on its impressive 5-0 start to the regular season with three road tests.
On Saturday the team will travel to its closest rival, playing twice at Pierce Park Pavilion in Baraboo against the Thunderbird squirts. First game will be at 3:15 p.m. and both teams will be back on the ice at 6 p.m. for a rematch. The Squirts will wrap up the weekend at Stoughton ‘A’ at 8 a.m. Sunday morning.
The Squirt ‘B’ Yeti (2-1) will travel to Oregon ‘B’ for a 2:15 p.m. game Saturday and head the opposite way Sunday facing the West Salem ‘B’ Squirts, also at 2:15 p.m.
PEEWEE YETI
The Peewee Yeti (4-3) will be hit the road Saturday, taking on Oregon ‘B’ on the road at 3:30 p.m. Saturday and doing some double duty on Sunday with stops in Sparta to play the Titans at 10 a.m. and Viroqua at 12:30 p.m. to meet the BlackHawks.
BANTAM YETI
On Saturday, the Bantam Yeti will visit Cap Ice for a 5:40 p.m. game and will be in Viroqua for a pair on Sunday, starting at 12:45 p.m. and 2 p.m.
The Sauk Prairie bantam Flyers, made up of several members of last season’s State championship peewee team played host to the rival RWD Yeti bantams Friday (Nov. 3) with the Evelyn Gurney Remembrance Game at Sauk Prairie Area Recreation Center (SPARC).
A pregame raffle and cookout helped raise funds for the Gurney family who were on hand to drop the ceremonial opening faceoff while surrounded at the center circle by members of both teams.
A touching tribute for a popular preceded a game that saw the home side move away with two unanswered goals in both the first an second periods before cruising to a 7-1 win.
The Flyers scored twice in the game’s first five minutes but Jesse Arnold, in goal for the Yeti stood tall after that against a 14-shot first period barrage.
Michael Jolicoeur and Ryker Hovland fired the first period markers with an assist for Logan Harrington.
In the second, Harrington set up another, this time Logan Harrington pulling the trigger early in the period while Reid Knoll converted a feed from Kash Kaldwell late in the frame.
In the third period, Baryn Breunig, Harrington and Jolicoeur added goals for the Flyers and Kaldwell added another assist.
Jameson got to within 24 seconds of a shutout with 16 saves in goal for the Flyers before Tyler Krieski gave the Yeti a small consolation spoiling the bid with his goal on a setup from Landen Uminski.
Arnold wrapped up the night facing 40 shots in goal for the Yeti.
Raffle items helped raise funds for the Gurney family at the Evelyn Gurney Remembrance game at SPARC on Nov. 3
The David Lohrei era, likely the most successful years in Sauk Prairie Eagles varsity hockey team history has come to an end.
Lohrei, stepped behind the bench for he Eagles at the start of the 2016-17 season, bringing with him a lengthy resume that dated back to the late 80’s when he started out as an assistant coach with the NCAA program at University of Miami (Ohio).
He moved on to coach a half dozen seasons with the Sioux City Musketeers of the USHL, then moved to the pros with eight seasons with various minor pro league teams.
In seven seasons with the Eagles, Lohrei was over .500 every season and finished with an awesome 109-39-7 overall record.
His son, Mason made the news recording his first NHL goal as a member of the Boston Bruins on Monday night and his daughter, Zoe, also a defender just started her junior season at Adrian College in Michigan in the NCAA Division 3 Northern Collegiate Hockey Association.
The combination of Lohrei, and a solid group of youth players has seen the Eagles battle among the top teams in the Badger North and Badger West Conferences.
Congratulations to Lohrei on a awesome career.
The school recently announced the hiring of Colin Trulock, a Baraboo resident who moved to the area a little more than a decade ago after a successful junior and college career to coach the Baraboo Thunderbirds varsity team. He started this season as the Defensive Coach with the Dells Ducks. More on Trulock in the team’s 2023-24 preview in the days ahead.
Riding a wave of success started a week prior in Minnesota, the Dells Ducks earned a split on home ice against the Steele County Blades this past weekend.
The team stretched its winning streak to three games and collected at least a point in the opener of a home series for a third straight time as well with a 6-5 overtime thriller on Saturday night at Lake Delton Ice Arena.
Unfortunately, the streak came to an end the following afternoon as the Ducks continued another trend, dropping the second game of a third straight home set.
As a result of the weekend, the Ducks are a more competitive 3-3 dating back to the start of the Blaine (MN) Showcase tournament. Other teams from the bottom of the Midwest-West Division have collected points as well though the Ducks continue to battle to escape the bottom floor of the nine-team division.
Ducks 6 Blades 5 (ot)
It’s difficult to find a better played game for the Ducks of the 17 played so far this season.
Anthony Falzone went to the crease for a third straight and delivered another solid effort between the pipes. The team continues to struggle getting out of the gate in the opening period. But after Falzone got the team through the opening minutes, things settled in and the Ducks rolled to an 11-9 edge in shots. Almost certainly the first time the Ducks held the edge in shots after 20 minutes this season.
Not only did the locals lead on the shot clock, Jack Kopfstein and Ashot Davtyan both scored second half goals to lift the Ducks into a 2-1 lead after 20.
Kopfstein, the team’s leading scoring also set up the second goal with other assists coming from Lucas Epperson, Quinten Clausen and Keynan Miller.
Owen Plumert made it a two-goal cushion in the first minute of the second period, from Braydan Kirchmann and Reece Atkins, but the visitors rallied back with three goals in the next eight minutes, the second and hird scored just seven seconds apart.
As a result, the Blades owned a 4-3 cushion, but Owen Plumert and Alic Schuster both notched goals before the end off the period as teams entered the third even at 5-5. Assists went to John Scott, Austin Holmberg, Kirchmann and Kopfstein.
With a crazy second period in the rearview mirror, goalies stepped up down the stretch, Falzone and Bence Gaspar of the Blades combined to stop all 31 shots fired in the final frame. For Falzone, his 21 third period saves wrapped up a 45 shot total for the night.
Overtime belonged to the Ducks who fired three shots before Austin Plumert found the mark from Scott and Holmberg.
The Ducks took full advantage of their chances, scoring twice on five powerplays and the Blades also collected one with an exrra attacker on a night that saw teams combine for 54 minutes in the sin bin. Apparently, they were just getting warmed up.
Blades 5 Ducks 1
The Ducks looked to stretch the streak to four Sunday but got sidetracked as discipline was thrown out the window by both teams.
Frustration at some questionable calls in the game played a part, but things went south in the second period with the game very much still up for grabs.
Five misconducts and a major helped the teams combine for 89 minutes in penalties. Both teams were guilty, but a brawl with just over five minutes to play in the second period completely changed the focus of the Ducks who trailed just 2-0 at the time.
This one stayed close until the final minutes.
Owen Plumert scored the lone Ducks goal, from Gabe Krueger and Atkins with 3:44 to play, cutting into a 3-0 Blades lead, but an empty neter with 64 seconds to go and another goal 24 seconds later made the score more lopsided than the game actually was.
Falzone was in goal again and provided his team with another 40 saves as he is delivering what he hoped to bring to the team this season now.
The weekend split leaves the team at 4-11-1-0 so far, sitting in an eighth-place tie with the Minnesota Mullets who also have played 17 games.
The Ducks have played six of the other eight teams in their division and will cross another team off that list with a Friday-Saturday pair at South Wood County Recreation Center in Wisconsin Rapids agaisnt the Riverkings (9-3-0-2).
The Riverkings will be the final team to play on home ice after starting out with six weeks on the road. The rivalry with the Riverkings has built over the past decade primiarily as they are the closest team to the Dells geographically.
Game time for both contests is 7 p.m. and the Riverkings generally draw some big crowds for home games.
Ducks will head to Motown for their second and final Showcase event the following week and will not play on home ice again until Dec. 14 when they begin a stretch of six straight games at the Lake Delton, Ice Arena.
Duck Quacks – Congratulations to Colin Trulock who began this season as the Dells Ducks Assistant Coach, specifically responsible for the Defense corps.
Trulock recently accepted the head coaching position with the Sauk Prairie Eagles varsity hockey team as Head Coach David Lohrei has resigned from the position. Pracitces for varsity teams began Monday in Wisconsin.
Recently Dan Smolen who has transitioned nicely from player to coach this season also announced he will be leaving after the Christmas break as he will attend college.
Head Coach Anthony Rohde forged a solid relationship with both assistants as well as Jeramy Greenwood who helps out with the Ducks whenever he is not needed with the RWD vasity hockey team where he is also an assistant coach.
To help, team owner Shaun Falzone stepped behind the bench with Rohde this past weekend along with local hockey talent Derek Tylka.
As a junior player, Tylka played much of his youth hockey with the Madison Capitols and started his junior career as a 18-year-old with the Dubuque Thunderbirds of the former CSHL. The following season he played Tier 2 in the Superior International Junior Hockey League and spent his age out season as the first captain with the Minot Minotauros in the NAHL.
Tylka moved on to play three seasons of ACHA Division 1 hockey with the University of Oklahoma Sooners.
Best of luck to Trulock and Smolen in the months ahead, welcome back to the bench Shaun and a big welcome to Tylka who gives the Ducks yet another strong local presence.
The second night of Bar Down Beer League play featured a pair of thrillers at Lake Delton Ice Arena Sunday night.
Included in the duels was the season’s first shootout and first scrap as the four teams showed there is not much separation between the teams.
The opening game wasn’t clinched until Dan Smolen sank an empty net marker at the buzzer to clinch a 4-2 edge for the Army Ducks against Black.
The second match was even closer, going to a shootout before the Yellow Jackets clinched a 3-2 edge againt the Green Machine.
Army Ducks 4 Black 2
Just one goal came out of the opening two periods, Max Cummings getting Black on the board from Lucas Andruskiewicz early in the contest.
Zach Zamzow converted a pass from Alic Schuster early in the third to get the Ducks on the board but Black recaptured the lead just 29 seconds later on another set up by Andruskiewicz, this time Mitch Henke pulling the trigger.
Josh Krueger led the way back for the Ducks, tying the game with an assist for Eric Thompson, then putting the White crew in front with an unassisted tally 2:11 from the end, setting the stage for Smolen’s clincher.
Burke Schweda made it tough of the Ducks’ shooters, in goal for Black and Matt Tylka collected the win in goal for the Army Ducks.
Yellow Jackets 3 Green Machine 2 (so)
The second game also started slow, the first goal scored in the second period by Dawson Hinze with help from Adam Stanton and Mike Weck.
Dan Smolen evened it, from Anthony Rohde later in the period and Yellowjackets grabbed the lead on another Rohde set up, this time Austin Luxford with the goal.
Stanton collected his second point of the game with a laser beam wrister just under the bar with assists for Steve Mordini and Dawson Hinze.
Teams were still even at the end of regulation time thanks in part to the standout goaltending of Dane Hinze in goal for Green and Matt Melvin for Yellow.
Austin Luxford of Yellow and Adam Stanton of Green notched first round goals in the shootout but the only other goal came from Tyler Carey in the third round, Melvin making the stop to clinch the win for the YellowJackets.
The South Central Wisconsin Elite Hockey League team, including Sauk County players, Dayana Wade and Sophia Gesicki started with an impressive win but that ended up as the lone victory in three games at the Wisconsin Tier II 16U State Championship tournament in Fond du Lac this past weekend.
After a 3-1 win against SouthEast WEHL in its opening game Saturday, the team dropped a 4-1 decision to eventual state champion Western and also lost 9-3 to North Central/NorthEast in its final game.
SouthEast 1 South Central 3
Teams started slowiy in their first game, playing through a scoreless opening period before Mary Gaffaney got South Central on the board with the only goal of the second, from Ella Cook and Caroline Cutrano.
SouthEast evened the score early in the final period but Wade notched the game winner, unassisted on a powerplay with 5:39 to play and Gaffaney added another in the final minute, also unassisted.
Sofia Martinelli picked up the win in goal but unfortunately there were no shot tallies kept.
South-Central 1 Western 4
Western surely knew it dodged a bullet in this one as the standout goaltending of Katelyn Gustafson denied South Central a second win, despite a 36-22 edge on the shot clock.
Western opened a 2-0 first period lead and was up 3-1 heading to the third, Abby Hoffelder with the goal, from Cook.
Aubrie Dowd ad Martinelli split the work in goal, combining on an 18-save game that wasn’t clinched until an empty net goal 44 seconds from the buzzer.
NC/NE 9 South Central 3
The final game was tough from the start as the Northern squad opened a 4-2 first period cusshion and widened it to 6-2 in the middle frame, holding a 40-16 edge in shots along the way.
Cutrano, Cook and Gaffaney each collected a goal, Cutrano also adding an assist for South Central and Martinelli was the game’s busiest player, stopping 31 shots in the contest.
Sauk Hockey 