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Joey Danielak moves the puck into the offensive zone during the third period against Dodgeville on Saturday.

Thunder Place 3rd in 18U Battle at the REC

12/21/2021, 10:00am CST
By Josh Lacy

MARINETTE – The M&M Thunder High School hockey team placed third in their Battle at the REC Tournament over the weekend. The Thunder went 2-2 in four games, scoring wins over Marquette JV and Ontonagon (Mich.).

 

MARINETTE – The M&M Thunder High School hockey team placed third in their Battle at the REC Tournament over the weekend. The Thunder went 2-2 in four games, scoring wins over Marquette JV and Ontonagon (Mich.).

“All in all, it was a decent weekend,” coach John Danielak said. “The kids played great, and we took third, which is where we deserved to be. We still struggled with penalties which is something we need to work on. When we had success, it was when we stayed out of the box.”

The tournament was a round robin format with each team playing four games and points being awarded for victories, period wins, and shutouts. Marquette BB was crowned tournament champion after cruising to a 4-0 record and racking up 21.5 of a possible 24 points. Dodgeville finished second with a 3-1 record and 16.5 points. The Thunder totaled 9.5 points, while Marquette JV finished with 5.5 and Ontonagon tallied 1.5 points.

“Marquette BB was just outstanding,” Danielak said. “They are consistent up and down the roster and were a very deserving champion. I thought we were little overconfident against Dodgeville, and they played really well and did everything they needed to do to beat us.”

The Thunder were not at full strength for the weekend, missing key players in Adam Lemery and Ashlynn Haley. However, some key additions for the team made major contributions.

Jermene Zuehlke, Roman Steffeck and Blue Haley all debuted with the team.

“Jermene played really solid in his first games for us,” Danielak said. “I thought he was maybe a little nervous in practice, but once we got him in a game situation, he really settled in and did a great job.

“Roman’s presence really helped our goaltending situation where all the weight didn’t have to fall on just Niya (Patndeaude) or just Roman. Knowing they had that backup just in case you’re not on your game on a given day was important.

“We pulled Blue up from the Bantam team to help us, and he fit in seamlessly. He’s going to grow a lot this year, and I think the experience will help the Bantam team and him individually going forward.”

The Thunder started off with a 4-3 win over Marquette JV.

“Friday night we started on our heals a little bit,” Danielak said, “but we got the win without playing our best game.”

Simon Bowers gave the Thunder a point with a shorthanded goal assisted by Theron Thayer that gave his team a 1-0 lead after one period of play.

Thayer scored with assists from Broden Krause and Bowers to start the second period.

The Wildcats scored two-in a row to tie the game at 2-2, but Joey Danielak netted a power play goal assisted by Krause with two minutes to play in the second. Krause then scored the eventual game-winner on another power play in the final minute of the period.

Steffeck made 21 saves in to pick up the victory in his debut in front of the Thunder home crowd.

On Saturday, the Thunder fell to Marquette BB 9-1 and Dodgeville 6-1.

Evan Casey had the lone Thunder goal against Marquette BB while Krause added a third assist to his tournament resume. Corbin Spencer scored the Thunder goal against Dodgeville.

Niya Patneaude had 19 saves in the loss to Marquette while Steffeck totaled 33 stops against 39 Dodgeville shots.

“Marquette was coming off a 100-plus shot game, and we were missing a few guys so I knew it would be tough,” Danielak said. “I thought our play was better than the score reflected though. We were able to hold their shot count down under thirty and were the first team to take a point away from them in the tournament.”

The Thunder closed out the competition with a 6-0 win over Ontonagon Sunday afternoon.

“Sunday the kids were phenomenal,” Danielak said. “We stayed out of the penalty box, which is huge for us. We got a ton of shots and played really well.

The Boivin brothers got the scoring started in the first period when Joey Danielak won a face-off in front of the Ontonagon net and Kennison Boivin sent the puck toward the net from the right wing where it was tipped in by Mason Boivin.

The Thunder took 40 shots in the first two periods, but the score remained 1-0 until the third period when the shots finally started to pay off.

“Our guys were doing everything right, and I hoped they would continue to do that” Danielak said of the first two periods. “Their goalie was really quick, but we adjusted coming out of the locker room, and the kids just played great.”

Krause opened the floodgates with a power play goal in the opening minute of the period, and Theron Thayer quickly followed with a goal off the pipe and in.

Another Thunder power play resulted in a goal from Spencer pushing the margin to 4-0.

With eight minutes to play the Thunder added a goal from Krause off a face-off win from Mason Denny. Almost immediately following that strike, Spencer and Denny fed Krause in front of the net to cap the scoring at 6-0 and complete a third-period hat-trick for Krause.

Patneaude picked up the victory in the net for the Thunder after stopping all eight Ontonagon shots.

The Thunder will return to action after the holiday break when they travel to Hancock, Mich. for a pair of games January 7-8.

BANTAM

The Thunder Bantam team traveled to Iron Mountain for a pair of games on Saturday. The Iron Kings took both games with scores of 6-2 and 11-4.

In game one, the Thunder got goals from Damien Winterbottom, assisted by Blue Haley, and Brayden Rounds.

Game two featured goals from Avery Waloway, Logan Sakovitz, Haley and Rounds.

The Thunder will return to action following the holiday break with a trip into the U.P. January 8-9 when they will face Negaunee and Houghton.

PEEWEE

The Thunder Peewee team hosted Shawano A on Saturday, dropping game one 4-1 before rallying for a 3-3 draw in game two.

Collin Campbell netted the lone Thunder goal in game one, snapping his streak of eight consecutive games with at least a hat-trick.

Campbell wasted no time starting a new streak when he scored all three Thunder goals in game two.

Jack Aftanas was under constant pressure in game one, totaling 31 saves. He then added 14 saves to preserve the game-two tie.

The Peewee team will return to action on January 2, when they host Green Bay A. Game one is scheduled for a 9:30 a.m. start at the REC Center.

12U Girls

The Thunder 12U Girls team went 0-3-1 in a weekend road trip to Sauk Prairie and Wisconsin Rapids.

The weekend started with a 3-3 tie against the Sauk Monkeys.

Jadeyn Jashinsky scored with an assist from Kendal Truckey. Whitney Haile and Arianna Johnson added unassisted goals, while Gracelyn Loomis notched 12 saves to hold the tie.

The Monkeys posted a 3-0 win in game two. Haile dawned the goalie gear for the Thunder and posted 28 saves in the loss.

On Sunday, the Thunder were shutout 6-0 and 10-0 at Wisconsin Rapids. Loomis posted 30 saves in game one, and Truckey notched 20 saves in game two.

The Thunder girls will return to action January 7-9 when they host their 12U Girls tournament at the REC Center.

SQUIRT C  

The Thunder Squirt C team dropped games with scores of 8-0 and 3-2 at Green Bay on Sunday.

Lucas Wiltzius tended the net in game one and recorded nine saves.

The Thunder trailed 2-0 following the first period of game two, but goals from Holden Ruiz and Sullivan Reek leveled the score entering the final stanza.

Midway through the third period, Green Bay’s Karson Aplin broke the tie with the eventual game-winning goal.

Wiltzius was in net again, picking up 12 more saves to keep the Thunder within striking distance.

The Thunder Squirt C team returns to action January 2 when they travel to Oshkosh for a doubleheader.

Tag(s): 10U Girls  12U Girls  12U PeeWee A  14U Bantam  18U High School  10U Squirt B