SPASH Hockey Upends Rapids
By Robert Whitmire
STEVENS POINT — The SPASH Hockey team improved its Wisconsin Valley Conference record to 2 – 1 with a big early season win over visiting Wisconsin Rapids at the K.B. Willett arena last night. The final score was 6 – 1 dropping Rapids to 1 – 1 in conference play.
Devon Blaes scored twice in the first period putting SPASH up 1 – 0at the 4:58 mark on an unassisted goal. Blaes found the back of the net for his second goal of the night at the 10:33 mark with the assist to Carter Smigaj. Both goals were even handed.
Rapids lone goal came at the 11:21 mark of the period when Spencer Sparks broke out in front of the defense and put the puck past Panther goalie Spencer Wierzba. Sparks was assisted on the play by Issac Gilbert and Colin Brey.
SPASH took a 3 – 1 lead into the first intermission with a goal off the stick of Dayne Hoyord at 15:47. Assists went to Cole Beilke and Austin Conley.
“I thought we played pretty well as a whole but we also had our ups and downs and could have performed a lot better,” said senior forward Carter Smigaj.
Sophomore Will Mason picked up the lone Panther score in period two with assists to Leo Knapp and Nick Norrgran. Time of the even handed goal was 13:28.
SPASH rounded out the scoring with two third period scores off the sticks of Nick Norrgran and Carter Smigaj. Norrgan’s goal came at 1:25 with the assist to Leo Knapp. Smigaj found the net unassisted at 15:39.
Panther goalie Spencer Wierzba recorded 22 saves on the night. Tanner Reany turned away 30 shots for the Raiders.
“We definitely have a lot of skill on the team, especially on our first line,” said Smigaj. “But we really excel as a team when we keep it simple.”
SPASH had two penalties on the night for at total of four minutes. Rapids went to the penalty box once for a total of two minutes.
The Panthers return to action Thursday, December 21 when they travel to Merrill for a 7:00 pm game.
Scoring by Period:
SPASH 3 1 2
Rapids 1 0 0