Jared Schmeltzer
Reporter

On Tuesday night, Nov. 26, the Merrill-Wausau East hockey team hosted Tomahawk at the Marathon Park Ice Arena. EMU (East Merrill United) were in control from the first puck drop, jumping out to an early lead and building on it throughout, on their way to a 6-0 win.
“We had control from the beginning of the game and kept it the whole way,” said Merrill head coach Chris Marlowe. “Despite some key penalties that gave Tomahawk a 5-on-3 advantage at one point, we were able to keep the shut-out. Freshmen goalie Jake Furrer recorded a total 24 saves to blank the Hatchets.”
A penalty on the Hatchets in the 11th minute of action gave the Bluejacks a one man advantage which they took advantage of, scoring a goal 11:04 into the match. A pass from Eli Pagle found the stick of Blake Raddatz who fired a shot passed the Tomahawk goalie for an EMU score. Raddatz wasn’t done there, as he found the goal again just four minutes later. Raddatz skated passed a pair of Hatchet defensemen and beat the goalie to put EMU up 2-0 with five minutes remaining in the first period.
The second period saw Tomahawk get into early penalty trouble again, allowing the Bluejacks to score in the first three minutes. A pass from Raddatz to Jack Piskula gave Piskula all the room he needed to fire a shot passed the Hatchet goalie for another EMU score. 8:21 into the period Piskula found Trent Pozorski who snapped a shot into the back of the goal, extending the Bluejack lead to 4-0. Piskula would score one more time in the period, coming off of a Greg Glovinski pass 11:47 into the period.
In the third and final period the Bluejacks tacked on one final goal. Piskula passed the puck over to Isaac Young who didn’t take long to finish the play, scoring EMU’s sixth goal of the game.
EMU’s stat leaders for the game include: Jack Piskula (2 goals, 2 assists, 4 points), Blake Raddatz (2 goals, assist, 3 points) and Jake Furrer (24 saves, assist).
The Bluejacks will be back on the ice on Tuesday, Dec. 3, as they play host to Lakeland Union High School at Marathon Park, with the puck dropping at 7 p.m.