By Murray Gleffe
Correspondent
ASHWAUBENON—The No. 4 ranked Notre Dame Tritons (5-1-3 overall, 3-0 FRCC) escaped with a 2-1 boys’ hockey victory over the Bay Port Pirates (6-4 overall, 3-1 FRCC) in a matchup of frontrunners held Dec. 22, at the Cornerstone Ice Center.
Bryson Hyska tallied the lone goal for the Pirates, while Sam Peterman and Eli Canadeo scored for the Tritons.
Marcus Niemi made 25 saves in net for Bay Port, and Bo Buckley notched 13 for Notre Dame.
There were only four penalties called despite the physicality of the game.
The trio of Sawyer Scholl, Brendan Poshak and Corbin Skinner peppered the nets early for the Tritons, but couldn’t find the scoreboard.
The Pirates finally got their first shot on goal after Hyska slapped a shot in on Buckley.
With the game still scoreless with under six minutes to go in the opening period, Niemi made a lunging poke check with his stick to preserve a golden scoring chance by Tritons forward Josh DeLange.
With 2:33 remaining in the first period, the Pirates went on the power play and capitalized just nine seconds later when Hyska found the back of the Tritons net off a nifty assist from Aaron Ribar.
“We came out with a lot of passion to start the game,” said Mike Buchan, Bay Port hockey coach. “Marcus made some key saves in that opening period and we had the momentum.”
The Pirates took a 1-0 lead into the second period, but the Tritons looked like the fresher team on skates as they quickly evened the game at one apiece just 31 seconds in.
Notre Dame outshot Bay Port 7-1 for the first 9 minutes of the middle stanza and it looked like at times the Tritons were on the power play with much of the action occurring in the Pirates zone.
Niemi stayed strong, however, and the score remained tied until the 8:44 mark when controversy ensued!
Bay Port had a 2-on-1 fast break and Hyska appeared to find the net just beyond the cross bar.
The puck squirted all the way back to the right face-off circle and the light never came on.
The lead official waved off the goal and play continued on.
At the end of the period, the Tritons forged ahead 2-1 after Canadeo beat Niemi with a beautiful wrister in which two Tritons’ forwards were used as screens.
“I was very disappointed at how we came out to play in the second period,” added Buchan. “I don’t know if it was because we had the one goal advantage, but we were flat.”
The Tritons took their one goal margin into the final period.
With 5:41 left in the game, the Pirates had a chance on the power play when Jake Boxer sent a rocket in on Buckley. At the last second, Buckley made the glove save.
The Pirates were unable to pull their goaltender after they were called for a penalty with under two minutes to go and the Tritons went onto victory.
“We obviously would have loved to have had the opportunity to have a man advantage and would have pulled Marcus down the stretch, but got the penalty,” said Buchan. “We’ll learn from it and we have a lot of hockey left in January and February to keep getting better.”
Box Score:
Bay Port: 1, 0, 0—1
Notre Dame: 0, 2, 0—2
Shots on Goal:
Bay Port: 5, 4, 5—14
Notre Dame: 9, 9, 9—27
