MIDDLETON – Lucky number seven struck again for defending WIAA Division 1 state boys hockey champion Edgewood.
No. 2 seed Edgewood (26-2) defeated No. 3 University School of Milwaukee (19-9) for the second time in a month with a 7-2 victory in the second semifinal at the WIAA state boys hockey tournament March 6 at the Bob Suter Legacy20 Arena. It marked the fourth straight playoff game where the Crusaders tallied seven goals and it marked 15 total goals in two matchups against the Wildcats this season.
“I was really, really proud of our group,” USM coach Corbin McGuire said. “We obviously didn’t have the greatest start to the game, going down 3-0, but they never gave up for us and we were a couple good bounces away from [making] it a lot tighter than it was.”
The defending champions looked to knock out their challenger early with a goal 77 seconds in off the stick tape of senior defenseman Ian Ludmer, who also tallied the second goal of the contest at the 15:40 mark of the period with Edgewood on a 5-on-4 advantage to make it a 2-0 game. Edgewood captain Owen Porter added a third with just 26 seconds left in the opening period and the Wildcats went back to the dressing room down three goals after just 17 minutes.
“I think late in the first, we had a bunch of scoring opportunities that we didn’t capitalize [on], and we knew that they were still going to get their chances,” McGuire said. “We’re a very resilient group, that if we stay on it, that the puck is going to eventually find the back of the net.”
The Wildcats responded to the early adversity with a bang to start the second stanza with leading scorer Everett Waltersdorf firing a bullet past Brady McGuire on the power play for his 31st goal of the campaign to trim Edgewood’s lead to 3-1 on assists from Henry Bechthold (goal, assist) and captain Tyler Cook.
The Wildcats rang the post and hounded Brady McGuire’s crease for a good portion of the period, but a D-to-D passing mishap at the blue line on its third opportunity with a man advantage halted any shot at a comeback. Porter chipped an easy outlet pass off the turnover to Owen Koch on the break and the senior beat Charlie Pickart to restore Edgewood’s three-goal lead at the 15:19 mark of the period for a 4-1 lead through two periods.
“We look at it and say, yeah, we can make 3-2, and it probably could go a different direction,” McGuire said. “I think we executed the power play effectively to that point … and while we were disappointed to give up that shorthanded goal, they got a power play right away in the third period there and we’re right back in it. For us, it was a letdown for sure, but credit to them. They never came back to the bench discouraged or frustrated or blamed themselves or other people. They found a way to get one back.”
Bechthold gave the Wildcats one last lifeline 39 seconds into the final period with a power-play goal from the faceoff circle to the right of McGuire, who stopped 34 shots on 36 attempts, to make it a 4-2 game. Edgewood proceeded to tack on a pair in a 75-second span from Owen Koch and then Owen Porter for the second time before Sam Hartman’s dagger came at the 11:55 mark of the third on a bad angle shot attempt to the right of Pickart (22 saves) that just snuck over his right shoulder.
It was a tough finish to a strong season for the Wildcats, who made their first state appearance since the 2022-23 postseason and the 17th in program history, but the program’s captain beamed with pride for getting the program back to where they felt it belonged.
“I’m proud of all 11 seniors and all my classmates,” Cook said. “Everyone couldn’t be more proud of what we’ve done to get us back to the sectional championship and to win it, and then to get [to state]. Obviously, we’re all sad and bummed about the outcome this afternoon, but I wouldn’t have wanted it any other way.”
This article originally appeared on Milwaukee Journal Sentinel: USM’s late-period letdowns doom Wildcats in WIAA boys hockey semifinals
Reporting by Michael Whitlow, Milwaukee Journal Sentinel / Milwaukee Journal Sentinel
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