By Murray Gleffe
Correspondent
ASHWAUBENON – The Notre Dame Academy boy’s hockey team has arguably been the best in Northeast Wisconsin for the past three years.
No. 1-seeded Notre Dame left no doubt in defeating No. 2 Neenah/Hortonville/Menasha 7-2 in a Division 1 Wisconsin Interscholastic Athletic Association sectional final game Feb. 25 at the Cornerstone Community Ice Center.
With the victory, the Tritons qualified for the state tournament Mar. 3-5 at the Alliant Energy Center in Madison.
“It’s a game plan where you want to start fast,” Notre Dame Head Coach Cory McCracken said. “We established ourselves by getting behind their defense, and we got bodies around their goalie to make it difficult for him to see pucks. We had lots of guys who won’t show up on the tally sheet who did a great job for us on the ice tonight.”
The Tritons joined Hudson and Madison Edgewood as state qualifiers thus far.
The remaining sectional final between Brookfield East co-op and University School Milwaukee will be played Saturday, Feb. 26, to determine the fourth and final spot in the field.
Depending on seeding – which will take place Sunday – Notre Dame will play in the state tournament Friday, March 4, at either 10 a.m. or 12:15 p.m.
“We are going to take it one game at a time,” McCracken said. “I think we’re in a solid position to be a No. 2 seed. Either way, we’ll be ready for the opponent that’s handed to us.”
The Tritons will try and better their runner-up finish in 2020 and semifinal appearance in 2021.
The matchup against Neenah featured the same number of goals as the first meeting – a 5-4 Neenah win – but the difference was the Tritons jumped on the Rockets from the get-go.
With the fans barely settled into their seats, Hunter Bill sent in a wrister from the blue line that found the back of the net to give Notre Dame a 1-0 lead.
“We started hot by putting lots of pucks on the net,” Bill said. “We wanted it bad.”
The madness didn’t end there.
Joe Gerbitz scored about 40 seconds later, as the Tritons opened up a two-goal lead.
Midway through the first period, NHM’s goalie, Jaeden Hannus, gave up another goal when Keegan McCarron redirected a shot by Notre Dame’s Michael McIntee for a 3-0 lead with 10 minutes remaining in the first period.
The physicality of the game was evident, as numerous whistles stopped play for goalie interference or the net coming off its moorings.
In the final seconds of the opener, after each team exchanged goals, the Rockets had a breakaway goal disallowed after the lead official determined the horn had sounded before the puck crossed the goal line.
“We have lots of skill on this team,” McCracken said. “However, sometimes we use it in the wrong way. We got casual with the puck, and that’s part of the growing-up process for some of these kids. It would have been a momentum changer, but I think our guys responded well going into the middle period.”
With a 4-1 lead heading into the second period, the Tritons tacked on goals by Callan Budinger and McCarron to take a 6-1 lead with still more than half the game left to be played.
Later, after a breakaway attempt by NHM was thwarted by a Notre Dame penalty, the Rockets were awarded a penalty shot.
As NHM’s Matthew Hasler danced around the left side of the net, Tritons goalie Lleyton Jaschke made a pad save at the last moment to preserve the five-goal cushion.
“When the lights are bright, you want your best players to come out and make saves,” McCracken said. “(Jaschke) did that tonight and in Detroit a few weeks back. It’s not by accident – he’s good.”
Neenah’s Aidan Paschke and Notre Dame’s Bill rounded out the scoring.
“We have a young group of guys, so we want to make sure we recover,” Bill said. “We have to get into the right mindset going to Madison. Our seniors have brought great leadership to this program. We’ve come a long way since the beginning of the season.”
Sports editor’s note: To read about Notre Dame’s sectional semifinal win, CLICK HERE.