Shoots, scores first title
University School breaks through
Special to the Journal Sentinel
— The University School Co-op and coach Jason Woods never were going to settle for anything less than the best in their quest for WIAA state girls hockey hardware.
With gold medals dangling around their necks and a gold trophy being passed around for rounds of photos, the Wildcats accomplished their season-long mission of winning the program’s first state championship.
Senior defenseman Sloan Sullivan scored a goal and had one assist to lift University School to a 2-1 victory against Hayward Co-op on Saturday afternoon at Veterans Memorial Coliseum.
“From Day 1, it was the only goal,” Woods said. “We kidded ourselves about winning conference and doing all that, but at the end of the day, this was it: Win state or bust. It wasn’t going to be good enough not to finish.”
Sullivan’s slapshot put the Wildcats on the board 4 minutes 6 seconds into the first period. University School extended its lead to 2-0 when Sullivan fed a pass to Nicole Unsworth, who was hanging out by the crease. Unsworth shot the puck in the bottom left corner of the net at 3:26 of the second.
Sullivan and Unsworth, a sophomore forward, combined for five goals and five assists in two state tournament games. Sullivan played only one season with the Wildcats after spending three years at Shattuck St. Mary’s in Faribault, Minn.
“We just get along really well on the ice,” said Sullivan, who will attend Union College in New York. “She knows where I am and I know where she is, and when I pass the puck, it usually finds her stick.”
The championship for University School (27-2) came in the program’s third state appearance. The Wildcats cobbled together a
Madison 15-game winning streak to finish the season.
Hayward (24-3) proved to be a formidable opponent in the title game but failed to finish a handful of scoring chances. The Hurricanes were able to successfully thwart University School in power-play situations but couldn’t overcome the scoring deficit.
Jenna Curtis tallied the Hurricanes’ lone goal on an assist from fellow sophomore forward Amber Heidenreich at 2:16 of the third period.
Tom Doig, in his first season as coach at Hayward, said his team has given up only 17 goals in 20 games against Wisconsin opponents.
The Hurricanes pulled goalie Lauren Tremblay with 1 minute to go but couldn’t score the equalizer. Tremblay, a sophomore, had 24 saves in the setback.
“We had chances, especially in the first period, but we couldn’t finish them,” Doig said. “And then you’re playing behind the eightball the whole game — chasing, chasing and chasing.
“I’ve worked them hard this year, harder than they’ve probably worked in their lives, and we got some rewards for it, and just came up one short.”
Woods said the Wildcats’ performance on defense in the third period was an important factor in the win. Clogging the neutral zone and keeping the Hurricanes from skating in and making plays was an important strategy.
Sophomore goalie Liz Ostermeyer collected 27 saves.
“Liz made two or three phenomenal saves, and that’s the difference in the game,” Woods said. “I thought our best period was our third period because we started to do more our style of defense.”
Nine seniors will leave the program, but with the return of Ostermeyer, Unsworth and sophomore forward Ellie Barney, Woods said he’s confident University School will remain competitive.
Unsworth was the scoring leader among boys and girls players last season with 107 points and continued impressive production this season with 95 points.
“I think we’re going to be very good, but we’ve got a lot of work in front of us,” Woods said. “Those seniors all played, and they all played significant time. We’re going to definitely have to make sure to replace them, but it’s going to be a little easier with the talent we have coming back.”
BOYS
Superior 6, Wausau West 0:
The Spartans (14-15-1) blew open the game with four goals in the second period. Beau Reder, Tyler Nystrom, Troy Shold and Caden Tchop scored during that run.
Peyton Flanders made 20 saves and got the shutout.
West finished 22-5-3.