The Wildcats faced off against the St. Edwards Eagles, who are currently ranked the number two team in the state of Ohio.

While the Wildcats kept their identity of pressuring the goal and outshooting their opponent, the Eagles came out victorious in a dominant 7-2 win.

“I think we shot the puck really well tonight, but we struggled going to the net. We do a solid job of getting to the net, but we were never able to finish the rebounds tonight, which needs to happen in the future against other talented teams,” Alpena coach Ben Henry said.

Alpena was desperate to get on the scoreboard from the opening face-off.

News Photo by Owen Kinzey Gavin Winterstein prepares for the puck drop during Wednesday night’s game in Alpena. AHS lost to St. Edwards High School’s hockey team from Ohio, 7-2.

Garrett Hamp remained in a breakaway opportunity where only the goalie stood between him and the net. Unfortunately for Alpena, Carson Merryweather completed the save and continued to play incredibly in the net all night.

With 2:50 left in the first quarter, Alpena put themselves in a horrible position after accumulating back-to-back penalties, leaving St. Edwards a considerable power play chance.

The Wildcats played outstanding defense for almost two minutes until Gavin Winterstein exited the box for Alpena, and the Eagles found the back of the net.

At 1:03, Matthew Dobrowsky scored, giving St. Edwards a lead it would maintain for the rest of the game.

Almost immediately after, the Eagles struck again. Geoffrey Lapsevich slipped the puck just to the right of Jonny Rensberry, extending the lead before the second period.

As the second period began, Alpena finally got a shot to fall. Preston Schuldt caught the puck midair, dropped it down, and slap-shot it past Merryweather, cutting the lead to 2-1.

Although Alpena got on the board, St. Edwards kept the intensity up and scored two more goals.

A four-on-four opportunity resulted in a goal after a shot was placed just past Rensberry.

Just five minutes later, Dobrowsky scored again. This time, it was on a backhand wrist shot placed in the goal’s top right corner.

Now down 4-1, Alpena needed a spark to have a chance going into the final period.

Hamp provided that spark with a shot initially saved by Merryweather but deflected into the net.

Down 4-2 going into the final period, Alpena would need many mistakes from Merryweather to have a chance.

Despite that thought, Merryweather kept the Wildcats scoreless during the quarter and added three more goals before the end of regulation.

The first came from Lapsevichon on a shorthanded goal, where Alpena allowed a goal on a power play.

After that, the Wildcats completely crumbled as another goal from George Blaskovic put St. Edwards up 6-2 with just 7:14 left.

The final goal was scored with under two minutes remaining by Lapsevichon, who completed his hat trick and the 7-2 win.

“Down the road, these are the teams we will play in the playoffs. We already learned a lot from this game, and we took a ton of videos we’re going to be watching throughout the season to get better,” said Coach Henry.