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Bay Port nets win over De Pere; advances to play Notre Dame

By Josh Staloch
Correspondent


ASHWAUBENON – In a high-scoring battle between two evenly matched teams Feb. 20 at the Cornerstone Community Center, the Bay Port hockey team broke a late tie in a 4-3 win against De Pere to advance in the WIAA Division 1 playoffs.

“De Pere gave us a good game,” said Bay Port head coach Mike Buchan. “They took advantage of some penalties we picked up, but there’s no quit in our team. As soon as De Pere scored, we came back with a score and ended their momentum. That was the key to the game.”

The Pirates earned the right to play No. 1 Notre Dame Academy Feb. 25 at Cornerstone.

The Tritons advanced with a 10-0 win over Sheboygan South.

The No. 4-seeded Pirates got to work right away with Bryce Strand scoring 3 minutes into the game off a Sean Samels assist.

Over the rest of the opening period, Bay Port would get several more good shots on goal, including a head-on blast from medium range turned in by Krystof Voska, only to be denied by De Pere goalkeeper Jay Wegner.

By the end of the first 3 minutes of play in the second period, the Pirates had taken 14 more shots than the Voyageurs and were controlling the pace of the game.

But a cross-checking penalty on Strand gave De Pere an opportunity they took advantage of, with Brett Pansier scoring to even the score at 1-1 before the second intermission.

Bay Port responded by opening the third period with a score from Carl Cano on a rebound.

Jack Chilson and Tyler Brady assisted on the power-play goal.

Less than 2 minutes later, Jack Dose got a shot past Bay Port’s Marcus Niemi to even the scoreboard at 2-2.

The game’s next big moment came 2 minutes down the road when Chilson rifled a shot into the back of the net for a 3-2 lead. Cano assisted on the score.

With 4:29 remaining, the Voyageurs got another opportunity, as Bay Port’s Ty Froelich was sent to the penalty box for tripping.

Again, De Pere cashed in after Grant Tritabaugh scored (Peter Blaha assist) less than a minute into the power play to tie the game with time winding down.

Exactly one minute later, Bay Port’s Jay Ribar scored on a rebound to snatch the 4-3 win.

Sam Lyons and Strand recorded assists on the play.

Niemi made 16 saves in net for the Pirates.

“We’ve had lots of one-goal games this season,” Buchan said. “We’ve ended up on the wrong side of some of those, but to win by one goal tonight was nice for us. I’ve got to give it to De Pere – they played hard and pushed us to the brink. At the end of the day, our guys had one more shot than they did.”

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