With a 14 game winning streak on their backs, the Millard West Hockey team looked to extend that against the Westside Warriors on Senior Night. Millard West came into this game on top of the standings with a 23-3-1 record. Also, with the regular season coming to a close and the playoffs etching closer, the Wildcats are looking to stay hot and show just how dangerous they can be. 

The first period started off a bit slow for both teams, but the league’s leading scorer,  senior Evan Christensen, put the Wildcats up early with 8:43 left to go. No more than two minutes later Christensen extended the 1-0 lead with another score with 6:26 left in the period. With 5:52 left in the first period, senior Neil Emert draws a tripping call so that put Millard West into a power play. The Wildcats were unable to take advantage of the power play so at the end of one the score was 2-0.

“I was feeling good today, but all that matters is that we got the win and we are ready for the playoffs” Christensen said. 

Early in the second period, Westside is called for cross checking and put Millard West into another power play with 8:13 left to go. The Wildcats capitalized on this one, Christensen has scored every point so far for the Cats and he scored his third point to put the Wildcats up 3-0 with 5:09 left in the second period. About a minute later, the Warriors finally responded to the Wildcats’ surge and got a point of their own to cut the deficit to 3-1. Five seconds later, the Warriors scored another point to put them down by only one with 4:08 left to go in the second period. Millard West responded to the two straight points from the Warriors as junior Boston Mansiem scored to extend the lead 4-2. After two periods the Wildcats took a 4-2 over the Warriors heading into the final period. 

Only 13 seconds into the third period, sophomore Kyle Sheldon scored for the Wildcats to put them up 5-2. Two minutes later sophomore Calvin Halverson extended the Cats lead 6-2 with about 9:56 left to go in the game. With 7:12 left, Westside is called for elbowing and puts Millard West into another power play. The Wildcats executed on the power play and Halverson scored his second to put West up 7-2 with 6:38 to go. Senior Preston Haulit is called for a cross check which put him into the penalty box. With a penalty kill, Westside took advantage and scored their third point of the game and cut the WIldcat lead to 7-3. With a quick score, the Warriors got another on Millard West, with 4:26 left in the game the Cats led Westside 7-4. Team captain Neil Emert scores his first and all but iced the game for West as they go up 8-4 with 4:00 left.

Millard West wins its 15 straight game in a row and with only a couple games left to go in the regular season, they look ready to destroy come playoff time.

“It is always great to win that many games in a row and it shows just how good we truly are” senior Neil Emert said. 

For seniors Evan Christensen, Neil Emert, and Preston Haulit, it was a great win on Senior Night.

“It’s going to be tough to walk away from, but I want to leave it a champion.” senior Preston Haulit said.

The Wildcats take on the Fremont Tigers on wednesday February 5th as they look to get postseason ready and extend their 15 game winning streak.