By NICK BRILOWSKI
Special to the Gazette
Although it may be unfair to label the third game of a hockey season as a "must-win" game, the possibility still remained that the Stevens Point Area Senior High School (SPASH) team could see its overall and Wisconsin Valley Conference record fall to 0-2-1 with a loss to Wausau West last Thursday at K.B. Willett Arena.
However, the Panthers had different ideas, scoring three unanswered goals en route to a 4-1 win over the Warriors and their first victory of the season.
"I think we played a pretty complete game today," SPASH head coach Jack Stoskopf said. "Good things happen when you take care of the little things."
"After the first two games, we had 20 minutes of philosophical discussion on what it's all about. If you take care of the little things, big things will follow."
Following a scoreless first period, Joe Pavelski put the Panthers on the scoreboard first, recording a power-play goal at the 3:07 mark of the second period off assists from Michael Soik and Brian Soik.
But the lead was short-lived as SPASH took a pair of penalties to put Wausau West on a 5-on-3 advantage. Trevor Schultz capitalized for the Warriors, knocking the puck past Panther goalie Shaun Kruzitski for a power-play goal to knot the score at 1-1 at 5:01.
SPASH's specialty team unit continued to capitalize on the man-advantage as just over a minute later Mark Lutz beat Warrior goalie Jordan Albright to give the Panthers a 2-1 lead.
"Mark's got the green light to go," Stoskopf said of his senior captain. "He's an effective offensive player. He was a standout (tonight)."
It didn't take the Panthers long to stretch their lead to two as Jay Wolf tipped home a Lutz shot from the point 16 seconds later for a 3-1 edge at 6:39 of the second period.
SPASH then put the game out of reach early in the third period as Nolan Wessell ripped home a shot from the right wing to give the Panthers the final margin of victory 1:34 into the final period.
Kruzitski stopped 16 Wausau West shots in the contest to record the victory in the net for the Panthers who improved to 1-1-1 on the season while the Warriors fell to 2-1.
Stoskopf said that it was good for his team to get the victory in terms of gaining confidence and staying in the thick of the Valley Conference race.
"Sometimes I think you learn from your losses, but you also learn from a win," he said. "A team can grow in a healthy way when you win.
"In our league, every point is golden. The team that wins the conference is the team that's tough day in and day out."
After hosting Marshfield on Thursday, Dec. 13, SPASH will return to action on Tuesday, Dec. 18, when it travels to Northland Pines.