Crusaders find a way past Eagles for Badger West crown

By Jim den Hollander

Editor/Publisher

Saukhockey.info

Looking to snap a nearly two-year long streak for the visiting Madison Edgewood Crusaders in Badger West Conference play and put themselves into the Conference championship picture, the Sauk Prairie Eagles had it all under control entering the final period Thursday (Jan. 19) at the Sauk Prairie Area Recreation Center (SPARC).

Eagles entered the game with just one conference loss, a 1-0 heartbreaker at LeBahn Arena in Madison on Dec. 3 against the Crusaders who have yet to lose a conference match since the Badger West division was created for the 2021-22 regular season.

After a scoreless opening period, senior Luke Mast fired his 22^nd goal of the season from junior Colin Harrington and freshman Landon Froese 50 seconds into the middle frame. Thanks in part to 17 saves from senior goaltender Kaden Stracke, that lead held up into the final period.

The goal lifted Mast into a share for the overall state points lead with 52j and he is second in state with 30 assists. Stracke is also ranked in the state’s top 10, his .918 Save Percentage seventh best.

The Crusaders found a way to spoil the night for a packed crowd at SPARC, getting on the board 4:49 into the final frame on a goal by senior Michael Baer and then stealing the win with the game winner scored by freshman Owen Barnet just 3:35 from the third period horn.

An early powerplay set the tone for the Eagles who looked dominant early in the final period but in the end, the Crusaders held a 16-10 edge in shots in the period and a 33-31 edge overall.

The win all but clinches a second straight Badger West crown for the Crusaders who have three division matches remaining but sit at 7-0 while the Eagles have just one conference game yet to play and are equally as comfortable in second spot in front of the 5-4 Oregon Panthers and 4-4 RWD Cheavers.

The Eagles will wrap up its conference schedule Tuesday (Jan. 24) at Monroe’s Stateline Ice and Community Expo (SLICE) and will finish the regular season with four non-conference tests. Next home game for the Eagles will be Friday against the Muskego Co-op Ice Force.

Despite the loss, goaltender Kaden Stracke (shown here earlier this season against RWD) turned in another solid effort against the Madison Edgewood Crusaders and he is currently among the state’s best in Save Percentage. ***Photo Courtesy Jessica Othmer***

Mast brothers dominate Cheesemakers

By Jim den Hollander

Editor/Publisher

Saukhockey.info

The Sauk Prairie Eagles made the trip to Monroe’s SLICE Arena worthwhile, collecting an 11-2 win against the host Cheesemakers in Badger West conference action on Monday (Feb. 7).

The host Cheesemakers hit the board first, but the Eagles responded with three before the end of the first period and five more unanswered goals in the middle frame.

The Cheesemakers hit the board first again in the final period, but the Eagles piled on another three before the final buzzer sounded and dominated the contest overall with a 49-13 edge in shots on goal.

Junior forward Luke Mast enjoyed another huge game for the Eagles, scoring five and setting up another pair while senior brother Nick Mast fired three and assisted on another and rounding out the team’s explosive first line was Erik Peterson with a goal and five helpers. As a unit, they combined for a 17-point night at the office.

Sophomore Thor Peterson scored and added two assists, junior Ethan Tranel scoring the other Eagles’ goal and senior defenseman Hakon Peterson collecting three assists. Seniors Porter Kreul and Micah Hanson had assists as well along with sophomores Colin Harrington and Karsyn Banta.

The Cheesemakers had two goals from sophomore Cole Buholzer.

In goal, junior Brooks McInerney collected the win with 11 stops.

The Eagles boosted its overall record to 17-3 with the win and the team will be back in action Tuesday (Feb. 8) with a non-conference test at SPARC before wrapping it up two nights later with one last shot at knocking off the undefeated (in Badger West Conference play) Madison Edgewood Crusaders.

The Cheesemakers fell to 2-20 in regular season action and finished a winless (0-10) Badger West campaign with one more regular season contest at home to the DeForest Norskies on Friday (Feb. 11).

Eagles down Cardinals 3-2 at SPARC

By Jim den Hollander

Editor/Publisher

Saukhockey.info

The Sauk Prairie varsity Eagles hockey team bounced back from a tough loss at home to the RWD Cheavers with an impressive 3-2 win against the visiting Middleton Cardinals Thursday (Feb. 3).

Sophomore Colin Harrington scored his second goal in two games, taking a pass from junior Luke Mast for the only goal of the first period. That lead stood up until teams combined for three goals in the final 82 seconds of the final period.

An unassisted tally for senior Nick Mast doubled the Eagles margin but the Cardinals finally hit the board with 24 seconds to play in the middle frame, sophomore Brady Engelkes burying the only shot of 15 in the first two periods to get by junior Kaden Stracke in the Eagles’ net.

Luke Mast restored the two-goal margin 12 seconds later from Nick Mast and senior Erik Peterson.

The lone third period goal was another from Engelkes, his 28^th of the season.

With his goal, Nick Mast has 38, tying him with Oregon’s Kyle Rohrer as the third highest scorer in the WIAA. Luke Mast sits 10^th in state in assists with 36.

The win boosted the Eagles’ regular season record to 15-3 with three games to play.

Eagles will make the trip to Monroe’s Stateline Ice and Community Expo (SLICE) to play the Cheesemakers in Badger West Conference action on Monday (Feb. 7). The following night, the Eagles will return to SPARC where it will close out the regular season against Tomah and then two nights later, the Madison Edgewood Crusaders.

Schaetzl backstops Tbirds to Badger West win

By Jim den Hollander

Editor/Publisher

Saukhockey.info

There’s one more game to go, but the Baraboo/Portage Thunderbirds clinched fifth place in the Badger West Conference with an 8-4 win at Monroe against the host Cheesemakers at Stateline Ice and Community Expo (SLICE) on Tuesday (Feb. 1).

The win shows that a team plagued with injuries and illness through much of the season could be taking shape in time for what will be a tough post season run.

Last time the new conference rivals met, the Thunderbirds claimed a 2-1 win at Pierce Park Pavilion Dec. 18. The win at SLICE saw the Thunderbirds coming up with its best offensive total this season.

Cheesemakers hit the scoreboard first and carried a 3-2 lead into the middle period. It was 4-2 7:50 from the end of the middle period, but it was all T-Birds after that.

Four goals in the final 7:03 had the Baraboo/Portage squad up 6-4 and they added two more unanswered goals in the final period to put it away.

Senior Gabe Fitzwilliams paced the Thunderbirds’ attack with two goals and two assists, sophomore Carson Zick adding two goals and an assist and senior Oliver Scanlan contributing a goal and two assists.

Senior Zach Huffaker also scored a pair with the other Thunderbirds’ goal fired by junior Peyton Sloan. Sophomore Bodie Thompson and junior Monte Hartmann picked up assists.

Both teams fired 12 shots in the opening period, Thunderbirds with a 15-9 edge in the middle frame and senior goaltender Andrew Schaetzl stopped all 15 shots he faced to allow his team to pad its margin despite being outshot 15-10. Overall, Thunderbirds held a 37-36 edge in shots.

The win boosted Thunderbirds to 4-18 and 2-7 in Badger West Conference play. Thunderbirds were scheduled to wrap up conference play Friday (Feb. 4) on home ice against the Badger West Conference leading Madison Edgewood Crusaders.

That will leave two games next week, the final home contest against the Avalanche at 7 p.m. Tuesday and its final game on the road in Waupun two days later, followed by playoffs which will get underway the following week.

Nick Mast hatty enough to Eagles against T-Birds

By Jim den Hollander

Editor/Publisher

Saukhockey.info

The Sauk Prairie Eagles kept a long winning streak alive but got a strong push back from the Baraboo/Portage Thunderbirds at Pierce Park Pavilion on Tuesday (Jan. 25).

The team’s hottest shooter of late, senior Nick Mast fired all three Eagles goals, the lone goal of the first period and two more in the middle period before Thunderbirds’ sophomore Carson Zick fired his team’s only goal late in the second period.

Sauk junior Luke Mast collected a couple assists in the game with others for senior Erik Peterson and sophomore Steven Romaker.

Senior Oliver Scanlan and sophomore Dylann Carpenter picked up assists for the Thunderbirds.

T-Birds’ senior goaltender Andrew Schaetzl stopped 29 of 32 shots he faced including all 16 thrown at him in the third period while Eagles’ junior goaltender Brooks McInerney picked up with the win with 10 stops.

The Eagles’ extended its current winning streak to 11 games, dating back to Dec. 20 and boosted its overall record to 14-2 and its conference record to 5-2.

The Eagles have five games remaining to play, beginning Tuesday (Feb. 1) when the RWD Cheavers, one of only two teams to defeat the Eagles this season, pay a visit to Sauk Prairie Area Recreation Center (SPARC) at 7 p.m.

Thunderbirds drop to 3-16 on the season so far and 1-7 in Badger West Conference play. The team will play a pair on the road, Thursday (Jan. 27 at McFarland) and Tuesday (Feb. 1) at SLICE in Monroe, before returning to the Pierce Park Pavilion to take on Madison Edgewood Feb. 4.

Following those three games, the Thunderbirds will have two left on its regular season schedule.

Eagles wrap up third straight shutout against T-Birds

By Jim den Hollander

Editor/Publisher

Saukhockey.info

The Sauk Prairie Eagles and Baraboo/Portage Thunderbirds returned from a brief holiday break to face each other at Sauk Prairie Area Recreation Center (SPARC) on Monday (Jan. 3) night.

The Eagles collected a 9-0 win, its third straight goose egg to wrap up its first round of Badger West Conference play at 3-2, snapping two conference losses in a row.

Teams played through seven minutes without a goal, but the Eagles wrapped up four in the final 10 minutes of the opening period and piled on three more in the middle frame before wrapping it up with two down the homestretch.

Seniors Hakon Peterson and Micah Hanson and junior Luke Mast fired two goals apiece, Peterson adding two assists and Mast setting up one. Seniors Nick Mast and Erik Peterson both notched a goal and two assists, the other goal fired by junior Landon Clary.

Luke Mast boosted his season points total to 46, fourth best in the state behind only the Oregon trio of Kyle Rohrer (57), Andrew Jicha (51) and Joe Roemer (47). He is also third in assist. Nick Mast’s goal was his 26^th of the season, boosting him to second in state, tied with David Emerich of Waunakee and just two behind state leader, Jicha.

The Eagles held a 44-8 edge in shots on goal. Junior Brooks McInerney picked up the shutout in goal and first year Burke Schweda was the busiest man on the ice, in goal for the Thunderbirds.

The Thunderbirds returned home to Pierce Park Pavilion where it was scheduled to play host to the Black River Falls Tigers on Tuesday and the Eagles head straight into the second half of its Badger West Conference schedule with a trip to SLICE in Monroe to play the host Cheesemakers on Thursday night.

Badger West this week

By Jim den Hollander

Editor/Publisher

Saukhockey.info

A busy week of Badger West head-to-head matches set up a crucial week ahead filled with big matches as the six teams hit the halfway mark on the conference schedule.

Key game of the week saw the Madison Edgewood Crusaders making its home ice debut with a 6-1 win against the Sauk Prairie Eagles giving the visitors its first loss and first loss in what ended up being the lone game of the week for both teams.

The Crusaders remain undefeated in conference play and enter this week with the Panthers as co-leaders entering their head-to-head battle on Monday (Dec. 13) which will be part of next week’s conference summary.

The Panthers enjoyed a big week, starting with an 8-0 win at SLICE against Monroe Cheesemakers Monday and also including a 9-8 edge against Big Eight leading Janesville Bluebirds on home ice Tuesday.

A scheduled meeting between the Eagles and Panthers was postponed and will now be played on Dec. 20.

RWD hit the conference win columns with victories against both Baraboo Portage on home ice Tuesday and at SLICE in Monroe Thursday but wrapped up the win with a tough non-conference loss to Baldwin on Saturday.

The Thunderbirds also dropped a pair of non-conference matches, both at Pierce Park Pavilion in Baraboo while the Cheesemakers lost a pair of conference matches as well as a road game against Muskego

MADISON EDGEWOOD CRUSADERS (4-1, 2-0 Badger West)

SAUK PRAIRIE EAGLES (3-1, 1-1 Badger West)

These two are included together as their lone game of the week was against each other.

After dropping its season opener, the Crusaders have now racked up four straight including conference matches against both RWD and Sauk Prairie.

It’s starting to look like this team could be in for a special season with an awesome group of seniors leading the way.

J.J. Wiebusch was in on five of the six (2g, 3a) against the Eagles and has put up 15 points in the team’s four wins. Parker Murn and Cody Menzel both collected four points in the game and Aidan Lenz had three set ups.

In goal, sophomore Rowan White and freshman Hayden Reuhl have combined on the 4-1 record, stopping all but 11 of 118 shots against so far.

For the Eagles, the Mast brothers, senior Nick and junior Luke both played a part in the lone goal, and they have combined on 27 points through four games for the Eagles.

After playing Oregon on Monday, the Crusaders will stay home to entertain the Cheesemakers Tuesday wrapping up the team’s pre-Christmas schedule. They have yet to play Baraboo/Portage and those two teams will meet twice in the second half of the schedule.

The Eagles are scheduled to entertain Baraboo/Portage at SPARC on Tuesday and will be at RACA in Reedsburg to play RWD. The Eagles will remain busy, the moved game to Dec. 20 leaving them with still five games to play before the break.

OREGON PANTHERS (6-1, 2-0 Badger West)

The offensively gifted Panthers continued to wreak havoc on opposition goaltenders this past week, scoring another 17 goals and racking up two more wins.

After the 8-0 shutout at SLICE Monday, the team played at home Tuesday and an equally impressive Janesville Bluebirds team its first loss 9-8 on Tuesday.

The Oregon team, ranked among state coaches as one of the top Division 2 teams in the state, rolled into Tuesday’s game with 59 goals through its first seven games – an average of more than eight per match. The Bluebirds rolled in undefeated through its first three games with 29 goals scored so the 17 goals in the game was likely no surprise.

The trio of forwards – junior Kyle Rohrer, sophomore Andrew Jicha and senior Joe Roemer continued their season opening barrage combining for 30 points in the two games.

Rohrer notched eight goals and five assists in the two games and entered this week as the state leader with 41 points. Jicha had two goals and six assists and is currently second in state with 36 points while Roemer picked up two goals and seven helpers and currently sits third with 32 points so far.

The Panthers are scheduled to start the win making the trip to LaBahn Arena Monday in a battle of the only two teams undefeated in conference play so far. After hosting RWD the following night, the Panthers will wrap up the week with a non-conference contest against Fond du Lac Warbirds on Saturday in Oregon. Wrapping up the pre-Christmas portion of its schedule, the Panthers will travel to Sauk Prairie on Monday, Dec. 20.

RWD CHEAVERS (5-5, 2-1 Badger West)

RWD picked up a pair of big wins to climb over .500 both in conference and overall, but a tough 5-3 loss against the visiting Baldwin-Woodville Hawks on Saturday was a bit of a spoiler.

RWD has shown itself to be well balanced so far, collecting 19 goals in the three games played while allowing just one in the two conference matches.

Junior Caden Brandt and senior CJ Pfaff both collected eight points in the two wins while senior goaltender Cooper Oakes kicked out all but one of 30 shots faced and picked up a shutout. Brandt’s 19 point have him in a tie for ninth in state.

The team has collected at least a point from 14 players in its first eight games.

BARABOO/PORTAGE THUNDERBIRDS (1-5, 0-2 Badger West)

A tough 8-0 loss against conference rival in Reedsburg was sandwiched between a pair of non-conference losses Monday against Madison LaFollette East Lakers (6-3) at Pierce Park Pavilion Monday and Thursday (10-4) against Brookfield Stars.

The team was missing eight players due to illness, injury or other reasons against the Cheavers, and the team has not had a full lineup on the ice yet this season.

Seniors Oliver Scanlan and Gabe Fitzwilliams have tried the lead the squad, both scoring in both non-conference matches, Scanlan ending the week with three goals and Fitzwilliams with two. The other goals came from junior Luke Schweda and freshman Jordi Beale.

Thunderbirds have dropped four in a row and face a tough assignment Tuesday making the trip to Sauk Prairie to play the Eagles and staying on the road Thursday for another tough game against the Bluebirds, then returning home to Pierce Park Pavilion Saturday to face the Monroe Cheesemakers.

MONROE CHEESEMAKERS (1-8, 0-3 Badger West)

A rough week for the Cheesemakers saw the team dropping conference losses to both Oregon (8-0) and RWD (8-1) and wrapping up the week with an 8-1 loss on home ice against the Muskego Co-op Ice Force. The losses stretched the team’s current losing streak to five games and they have dropped their first three Badger West matches.

Junior Nolan Bodenstein and sophomore Wyatt Janecke scored the Cheesemaker goals. The week ahead will be tough as well, beginning with a conference match at La Bahn Arena in Madison against the Crusaders Tuesday and a Saturday contest at Pierce Park Pavilion against Baraboo/Portage to wrap up the first half of the conference schedule.

Griebe stops 26 to lead JV Cheavers past T/S

By Jim den Hollander

Editor/Publisher

Saukhockey.info

After surrendering the first goal, the RWD junior varsity Cheavers rallied back for a 3-1 win against Tomah/Sparta at the Reedsburg Area Community Arena (RACA) on Tuesday (Dec. 7,2021) night.

The visitors hit the board just 3:07 into the contest on a powerplay opportunity, but that was the only shot to elude freshman Alex Griebe in the RWD net. He went on to a 26-save win, including all 17 shots in the second and third periods.

Yevgeny Dedun knotted the game at 1-1 with his solo effort 3:12 after the T/S tally and the game winner came from Caleb Eastman late in the period, from Kaden Uminski and Mark Othmer.

That lead held up until the third period when Uminski added some insurance with his goal, helped by Alec Breunig. The win boosted the season record for the JV Cheavers to 5-2 and the, along with the varsity squad will next be in action at State Line Ice and Community Expo (SLICE) on Thursday night.

Peewee A Flyers pound Jr. Knights

By Jim den Hollander

Editor/Publisher

Saukhockey.info

After dropping a 2-1 decision to the RWD Cheavers early in the day, the Sauk Prairie Peewee ‘A’ Flyers made the Beloit Jr. Knights pay a heavy price later Nov. 13.

The Eagles slammed home eight first period goals on its way to an 11-0 shutout win at Edwards Activity and Sports Center in Beloit against the host Junior Knights.

Ryker Hovland, Alexander Kirk and Rowan Krauss scored two each for the Flyers and Braden Schlough notched a goal and two assists in the win. Baryn Macleish-Breunig and Michael Jolicoeur notched a goal and assist, and the other goals came from Logan Harrington and Gavin Froese. Caden Argall chipped in an assist.

Jameson Ballweg collected the shutout win in goal.

The win against the Knights got the Flyers back on the winning track and boosted the team’s overall record to 4-2.

The team enjoyed this past weekend off and heads into action on the Thanksgiving weekend with a pair of games at Stateline Ice and Community Expo (SLICE) in Monroe at 9:15 a.m. and 1:30 p.m. Sunday against the host Avalanche