Hockey team in fifth-place game
By Greg Seubert
If the Waupaca boys’ hockey team wanted to move up in the Great Northern Conference tournament, the Comets needed a big performance against Tomahawk.
That’s exactly what happened Jan. 28 at the Waupaca Ice & Expo Center, as Eli Bartel scored four goals and seven teammates also found the net in an 11-1 win over the Hatchets.
The fifth-seeded Comets had opened the tournament two days earlier with a 7-5 loss to No. 4 Rhinelander.
The win over Tomahawk places the Comets in the tournament’s fifth-place game on Saturday, Jan. 30, against sixth-seeded Antigo, while Rhinelander will face second-seeded Mosinee in the championship game. The Hodags knocked off top-seeded Northland Pines 5-2 Jan. 28 in Eagle River.
Waupaca 11, Tomahawk 1
Michael Wennesberg opened the scoring 26 into the game and the Comets added six more goals to take a 7-0 lead into the second period.
Bartel completed his hat trick in the first period and added his fourth goal 20 seconds into the second period.
James Sternweis, Braeden Ryan and Alex Gusmer also scored for Waupaca in the first period, while max Gusmer and Ryan Mace scored in the second period and Evan Saunders completed the scoring with the only goal of the third period.
Zack Friske scored Tomahawk’s goal in the second period.
Elliot Bartel and Jed Vanden Bush led the Comets in assists with four each, while Sawyer Mielke added three.
Waupaca outshot the Hatchets 39-22 and goalies Hagen Rasmussen and Brody Berens combined to make 21 saves.
Rhinelander 7, Waupaca 5
The Comets didn’t have an answer for the Hodags’ Harlan Wojtusik, who scored four of his team’s seven goals at the Rhinelander Ice Arena.
Waupaca took a 2-1 lead into the second period. Rhinelander’s Sam Schneider had opened the scoring, but Eli Bartel and Vanden Bush also scored.
Wojtusik tied the game at 2-2 in the second period with his first goal and Max Gusmer gave the Comets a 3-2 lead, but the Hodags responded with three unanswered goals to take a 5-3 lead into the third period.
Both teams added two goals in the final period, with the Comets’ scores coming off of Gusmer’s stick.