BY RICH PALZEWIC
CORRESPONDENT

ASHWAUBENON – Playing short-handed, the Bay Port hockey team couldn’t keep up in a 3-0 Fox River Classic Conference loss to the Green Bay Notre Dame Tritons Dec. 16.

The Pirates were without two players (Caleb Johnson and Nick Messerschmidt) in a game played at the Cornerstone Community Center.

“Notre Dame is a good hockey team, but I thought we battled hard,” said head coach Mike Buchan. “Against good teams if you make a few mistakes like we did, they make you pay. If you look at the score, it was a close hockey game. In addition to the guys out we had some injuries that guys were playing through. We are getting better every day.”

The loss dropped Bay Port to 2-5-1 overall and 1-2 in the FRCC.

The Pirates didn’t record a shot until 11:42 into the game, but things remained scoreless after the first period thanks to goalie Riley Baye, who made two big saves in the last minute of the period. The No. 3 ranked Tritons (6-2, 4-0) had a 9-2 shots-on-goal advantage after the first 17 minutes.

Bay Port had a golden opportunity to take the lead three minutes into the middle period when they had a two-on-one chance, but Notre Dame goalie Bo Buckley kicked that shot aside.

The Tritons finally broke through on a Jacob Conrad goal at the 11:12 mark of the second period.

The Pirates then went on the power-play shortly thereafter, but any momentum was short-lived when Brendan Poshak scored short-handed to give Notre Dame a 2-0 lead.

The Tritons ended the scoring with less than four minutes remaining in the game.

“We’ve had a difficult time finding the back of the net so far this season,” added Buchan. “If you look at our games, we’ve had four overtime games and three of those were losses. We played well in those games and had opportunities to win. We have a ton of new guys and lots of turnover. It just takes time for everyone to get used to the play and how to do things.”

Bay Port was outshot by a 29-17 margin, while Baye made 26 saves.

The Pirates are next in action when they travel to Neenah Friday, Dec. 22, for a nonconference game at 8:00. Bay Port returns to FRCC action the next day at De Pere in a 3:00 game.

Box score
Notre Dame: 0, 2, 1 – 3
Bay Port: 0, 0, 0 – 0
First period: no scoring.
Second period: 1, ND, Jacob Conrad, 11:12; 2, ND, Brendan Poshak, 12:09 (sh).
Third period: 3, ND, Poshak, 3:45.
Shots on goal: ND, 9-8-12 – 29; BP, 2-8-7 – 17.
Goalies: ND, Bo Buckley (17 shots, 17 saves); BP, Riley Baye (29 shots, 26 saves).
Penalties: ND, 6-12; BP, 3-6.
Power-play opportunities: ND, 0-for-1; BP, 0-for-4.