SUPERIOR, Wis. – The 2024-25 Yellowjacket men's hockey team has been playing games for almost a month, and through the first four weeks of the year, something has become very clear.
 
The Yellowjackets love playing on Fridays.
 
Through the first four weeks of the season, the Yellowjackets are a perfect 4-0-0 on Fridays, with the most recent victory coming over Lawrence in the opening round of the Superior Showdown sponsored by Subway.
 
With all four wins coming on Fridays, the Yellowjackets were hoping to buck the early trend and do a few things Saturday night. First, they were looking for their first Saturday win of the year, which would lead to their first weekend sweep of the campaign, which would lead to winning the Superior Showdown for the second year in a row.
 
This year's Superior Showdown championship was a rematch of last year's game with St. Scholastica, which was an instant classic the Yellowjackets won, 3-2 in overtime.
 
The chances for a championship looked good for the Yellowjackets early on, but St. Scholastica didn't go away and rallied to defeat the Yellowjackets 3-2 Saturday at Wessman Arena.
 
At the end of the night the Yellowjackets have a 4-3-1 overall mark to go along with a 1-1-0 record in Wisconsin Intercollegiate Athletic Conference (WIAC) play.
 
The Yellowjackets went ahead 2-0 near the midway point of the second period when Chris Ishmael (Oakville, Ontario/Abbey Park Secondary School) scored his first goal of the year on a penalty shot, but St. Scholastica countered a few minutes later and scored twice in the third period to get the win. The eventual game-winning goal came with just 2:11 to go in the third period.

Jack Boschert (Florissant, Mo./Duchesne) started in goal for the Yellowjackets and suffered his first defeat of the season, falling to 3-1-0. Boschert made 27 saves in the game.

Game Notes

• The Yellowjackets opened the scoring at 7:44 of the first period as Justin Dauphinais (Val Caron, Ontario/École Secondaire Catholique Horizon) created a turnover in the offensive zone, skated in on goal and put a backhand past St. Scholastica goaltender Eino Rissanen.
• With the Yellowjackets on the penalty kill in the second, Ishmael broke up a play at the blue line and went in on the breakway, where he was tripped and awarded a penalty shot. Ishmael broke into the zone, faked to has backhand before moving to his forehand and sliding the puck into the net at 8:47 to push the lead to 2-0.
• The goal was the first successful penalty shot for a Yellowjacket since January 27, 2012, when Josh Kesler scored against UW-Stout.
• St. Scholastica cut the lead in half at 13:15 of the second when Wyatt Wurst scored from long range, getting shot through traffic that eluded Boschert.
• The Saints tied it at 5:35 of the third on a goal by Brodie Girod. Then at 17:49 Jacob Seitz was left uncovered in the slot, and his shot beat Boschert up high to make it 3-2.
• With Boschert out for an extra attacker, the Yellowjackets had a late surge in the offensive zone, but they were unable to get the equalizer.
• The Saints outshot the Yellowjackets 30-21.
• The Yellowjackets were 4-for-4 on the penalty kill and have killed off 30-of-33 shorthanded opportunities through eight games for a percentage of .909.

The Yellowjackets will go back on the road and shift back into conference play Friday, Dec. 6 when they travel to River Falls to take on the Falcons. The opening faceoff is set for 7:05 p.m. at W.H. Hunt Arena.
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