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Wildcats Edge Mustangs in Conference Matchup

“Good Teams find a way to win when they suck”

In the words of Head Coach Tom Canfield, this is how the Varsity Ice Hockey team’s monday night game went. A late 9:30 start time pitted the Wildcats against conference rivals Marquette. Heading into monday, both teams were tied for the lead in the Rockwood Conference. According to Canfield, the team was “slow to pucks, slow to battles, and defensively sloppy”, but the Cats still managed to scrape away a respectable 4-2 win.

The first period was not great. The post thanksgiving fog started late for the Wildcats, and they looked visibly exhausted from the outset. Senior Willie Canfield cancelled out an early Marquette goal halfway through the period and added a second minutes later to make it  2-1. In the second period, Marquette fought back and tied the game. Late pressure from the Cats almost saw them regain the lead, but the second ended with a 2-2 deadlock.

The Wildcats managed to find their speed in the third. After an abysmal first and second period, the third had passion. Strong forechecking pinned the Mustangs deep in their zone for much of the period, and the Cats soon found a breakthrough. Junior Harry Medler won a battle behind the Marquette goal, and slid a perfect pass to junior Zach Nall in the slot, who emphatically finished to make it 3-2. Following the goal, the Westminster defense calmed down for the first time in the game and prevented any response from the Mustangs. Minutes later, a powerful forecheck from Nall stripped an unlucky Marquette defender of the puck. Nall scored on the resulting breakaway to make it 4-2. The Mustangs attempted a late game push to salvage any points from the game, but senior goaltender Scott Caldwell denied any chance for a tie.

The Cats are hosted by the Seckman Jaguars on thursday, December 3rd in a rematch of the Marquette Invitational semifinals. Be there.