Eagles’ hockey team rolls

On ‘Rock the Rink’ night, the Sauk Prairie Area Recreation Center Ice Arena was packed and ready for a matchup between two of the leading contenders for the Badger North Conference boys’ hockey title.  Sauk Prairie’s co-op hockey team didn’t waste any time letting the Reedsburg/Wisconsin Dells Cheavers know whose home ice it was. Sophomore wing Nick Mast recorded a hat trick and senior tri-captains Camden Desroches and Riley Jelinek each scored two goals as the Eagles skated to a 9-1 rout of Reedsburg/Wisconsin Dells last Friday night. Sauk Prairie (5-0-0, 1-0-0 Badger North) exploded for seven first-period goals, including five in a five-minute span, to send a message that the Eagles are for real.  The Sauk Prairie co-op has outscored its opponents 39-5 and recorded two shutouts this season. “Everybody was just going crazy,” said Jelinek, who ranks second in the state with 21 points and is tied for fifth with 11 goals in five games. “We had a lot of fans here waiting for us. We came out and showed up.” Sauk Prairie coach David Lohrei and several Eagles’ players acknowledged that social media chatter during the week provided ample motivation for their powerful start. “They had a whole bunch of posts about how they were going to make this their rink and how they were going to walk through us,” Jelinek said of the Cheavers. “We just came out and played body and played strong.” Meanwhile, Reedsburg/Wisconsin Dells (2-2-1, 0-1-0), the defending conference champion, left the rink searching for answers on what had just happened. “We were ready,” Lohrei said with a smile. “Their coach probably thought they weren’t, and that’s never a good mixture. “But more importantly, I can’t worry about the other team’s readiness. I worry about ours. Our structure, our puck movement, the things we wanted to accomplish started rolling right away. It was one of our bigger wins in five years.” It wasn’t pretty, but the first goal set the tone for the night when freshman Luke Mast scored just 56 seconds into the game off an assist from senior Dylan Andrews. Sauk Prairie got the puck behind the goal and Mast deflected a pass off the skate of a Cheavers’ player and past goaltender Cooper Oakes for a quick 1-0 lead. “We got the lucky goal early,” Lohrei said. “It hit off a skate. Once we got that one, we kind of went with it.” Then it was sophomore Erik Peterson’s turn as Luke Mast and sophomore Micah Hanson assisted on Peterson’s fourth goal of the season less than a minute later. Senior defenseman and tri-captain Willy Hanson said he knew something special was about to happen before the Eagles took the ice for the opening face-off. “Before the game, the guys were dead silent,” Hanson said. “It was probably the most focused I’ve ever seen them. We just wanted to go out there and play.” While the visiting Reedsburg/Wisconsin Dells crowd was stunned, the hometown fans roared their approval, not knowing the best was yet to come. “It was important, we got the energy going right away,” Desroches said. “Those first two goals from the red line really picked it up for us. We had five shifts in a row that scored a goal. “We were making a lot of good stick to stick passes. Everyone was on. We didn’t make many mistakes, especially in that first period. Basically, we didn’t miss a pass the first six minutes of the game.”  Jelinek recorded the first of his two goals in the game at the 3:14 mark off an assist from sophomore Hakon Peterson on a two-on-one breakout for a 3-0 lead. “It’s always fun getting the other student section out of the game,” Desroches said. “That’s a big part of it. When they’re cheering, it not exciting when you’re on your bench down 3-0 and the other student section is roaring.” Two minutes later, Desroches scored off assists from Nick Mast and Jelinek much to the dismay of Oakes, who earned all-conference honors a year ago after allowing just 15 goals in 10 conference matches. “He was first-team all-conference last year, but I think our team played pretty well,” Lohrei said. “We shot the puck. We controlled the puck. We know we’ve got to go to their building. They will be waiting for us. That will be a pretty big game.” The Eagles were far from being finished with their first-period flurry.  Desroches and Jelinek assisted on the first of Nick Mast’s two opening-period goals at the 6:34 mark for a 5-0 lead. Desroches then scored an unassisted short-handed goal 3 minutes later to keep the pressure on. Nick Mast found the back of the net off a pass from Jelinek in the 11th minute to cap the first period flurry. Sauk Prairie outshot Reedsburg/Wisconsin Dells 20-4 in the first period and 36-17 for the game. That took the pressure off of Eagles’ senior goaltender Jordan O’Connor, who finished with 16 saves, including 10 in the second-period when the Cheavers’ tried to cut into their deficit. “I give Jordan credit,” Lohrei said of O’Connor. “She made several key saves in the second period. She stopped the ones she had to stop.”  While the Cheavers outshot the Eagles 10-6 in the second period, Sauk Prairie tallied the only goal when Nick Mast made it 8-0 with his third goal of the game at the 9:42 mark off assists from Jelinek and senior Jay Liedtke. “It was super exciting, just getting off to a good start and continuing it through the first period,” Jelinek said. “We slowed down in the second period.  “But our first period was really strong. We played our structure. We played fast. We played quick. We played physical. That was big, too.” Reedsburg/Wisconsin Dells spoiled O’Connor’s shutout bid when junior Danny Ely scored at 3:36 of the final period off assists from Thomas Pfaff and Clayton Pfaff. The Eagles got in the last word, though, when Jelinek — who also had four assists — scored his 11 goal of the season on assists from Liedtke and Nick Mast with just under 11 minutes to play. “We knew that this game was the most important of all the conference games,” Willy Hanson said. “We wanted to get off to a good start and we did. We’ve just got to keep playing hard.” Sauk Prairie gave Reedsburg/Wisconsin Dells the only blemish on its league schedule a year ago when the teams skated to a 1-1 tie. But Lohrei said this was only the first of many challenges the Eagles will face this season in their quest for the conference title and postseason success. “I give our seniors a lot of credit,” Lohrei said. “It’s been four good years for these guys. They know the importance of this year. They know their time is running out. Any time you play Reedsburg, it’s a big game. As it turned out, they responded.” • On deck: After hosting Baraboo in a Badger North Conference game on Tuesday, Sauk Prairie will travel to Beaver Dam for a league game on Thursday at 7 p.m.   Dec. 13  Sauk Prairie co-op 9, Reedsburg/Wisconsin Dells co-op 1 Reedsburg …….............. 0 0 1 — 1 Sauk Prairie ...............… 7 1 1 — 9 First period: SP — Luke Mast (Dylan Andrews), 0:56; Erik Peterson (L. Mast, Micah Hanson), 1:48; Riley Jelinek (Hakon Peterson), 3:14; Camden Desroches (Nick Mast, Jelinek), 5:50; N. Mast (Desroches, Jelinek), 6:34; Desroches, 9:54 (sh); N. Mast (Jelinek), 11:31. Second period: SP — N. Mast (Jelinek, Jay Liedtke), 9:42. Third period: R/WD — Danny Ely (Thomas Pfaff, Clayton Pfaff), 3:36; SP — Jelinek (Liedtke, N. Mast), 6:08. Saves: R/WD 27 (Cooper Oakes); SP 16 (Jordan O’Connor). Penalties-minutes: R 3-6; SP 4-8.