Waukesha motivated for shot at hockey title
Junior goalie Garrett Larsen and his teammates couldn’t be more prepared for this moment.
At the end of the regular season, the Waukesha hockey team had faced each of the other nine teams ranked in the final wiscosinprephockey.net state poll. They went 4-4-1 in those games with all but one of the losses by one goal.
Add to that a victory over the champions of North Shore (Homestead), a tie with the Badger South winner (Madison Edgewood) and a win over the Big 8 runner-up (Middleton).
After surviving that slate, there is no doubt the Wings can hang with any team in the state. The question is whether they can put it all together this week.
Waukesha makes it third straight state tournament appearance when the Wings play D.C. Everest at 6:15 p.m. Thursday in a quarterfinal at the Veterans Memorial Coliseum in Madison.
Milwaukee-area hockey programs are still in trying to catch up to the rest of the state. Just three times has there been a state champion from the area. On two other occasions did an area team reach the final.
Last year Waukesha snapped a sixyear drought in that regard when it reached the title game before losing to Hudson, 2-1, on two power play goals.
“After we lost last year I think it left a chip on the shoulder for all the guys coming back,” Larsen said.
A year later Waukesha (20-4-3) returns with a team that overcame an early-season adjustment period and arrived in Madison with a 12-game winning streak.
Waukesha returned a large core from that team, but had to adjust to life without Ian Malcolmson, last year’s Mr. Hockey. He averaged about 31⁄2 points per game, obviously a huge percentage of the team’s offense.
In Malcolmson’s wake, the Wings have been more a balanced offense, although junior Chad Larsen (1.74 points per game), sophomore Garrett Wilderman (1.52) and junior Trenton Tucker (1.38) do the most damage statistically.
Those three make up Waukesha’s first line. Seniors Joziah Dietrich and Griffin Nickerson and junior Ben Sorge skate the second shift.
“We found the right combination. We switched things around, I probably haven’t had to make a move from a line or power-play perspective since midyear,” coach Raja Aylsworth said. “You can kind of look after the first of the year and you can see where it clicked in as far as scoring is concerned.”
Since the start of the year, Waukesha has played 17 games. Fourteen times the Wings have scored at least three goals. In three tournament games, they’ve outscored their opponents, 15-3.
That was has been more than enough for a defense that from Day 1 has been the most settled part of the team.
Garrett Larsen, a returning all-state player, has dropped his goals-against average from 1.77 last year to 1.18 this season. Some of the credit for that goes to the tandems of senior Kevin Broda and junior Gabriel Radomski and junior Douglas Kirkofer and senior Izaiah Dietrich.
“Our defensive structure is the best we’ve had right now,” Larsen said. “Without them, we wouldn’t be where we are. They put limited shots on me and give up limited scoring opportunities. They give me easy shots.”
Together they hope to make Waukesha’s third straight trip to charm. The team received the third seed and in D.C. Everest faces a team fresh off victories off two top-10 opponents.
Should Waukesha advance it is likely to face No. 2 seed Eau Claire Memorial with defending champion Hudson the favorite to come out of the other side of the bracket.
“We’ve competed with everyone,” Aylsworth said. “The games we’ve lost were by one goal, except for Hudson. They scored two empty netters at the end to make it 3-0. It was 1-0 with a minute and a half left in the game. If these guys come out and play the way they’re capable of, we should be able to skate with anybody.”