MONROE — A dreadful second period erased an otherwise strong performance by the Monroe boys’ co-op hockey team in a 5-2 loss to Monona Grove Dec. 18 at SLICE.

“We can play with the top teams in our conference,” Monroe junior Jared Dillon said. “We just have to play all three periods.”

The Silver Eagles used a four-goal barrage during a 10-minute stretch in the second period to turn a 1-1 tie into a route.

It all started when MG sent the puck into its offensive corner and Monroe defender Connor Nafzger, instead of passing the puck along the boards, made an ill-advised pass between the circles. Silver Eagles senior captain Michael Zande intercepted the puck and quickly snapped it past Monroe goalie Heath Bear to make it 2-1 with 10:33 to play in the period.

“We made a couple of bad passes there and we paid for it. I think it was a little shot to us because we kind of staggered and the kids didn’t respond to it very well. The next three, four, five minutes were very tough and it got us behind the 8-ball,” Monroe head coach Barry Einbeck said.

Two minutes later, Zande, who finished with a hat trick, screened Bear on a power play, which allowed Tanner Smith to light the lamp from the left circle.

With 5:03 left in the second, Zande scored his second after Matt Klonsinski sent a one-timer pass from Sebastian Karns-Bingham off the crossbar from the left side, which deflected right to Zande’s stick, who flipped it into the wide-open net from the right side.

Zande capped the hat trick with just 15 seconds left in the frame on the easiest goal of the night. Brady Geronthanas flung a desperation puck onto the net with time winding down on another power play. Bear took it off the chest and tried to corral it under his body, but the puck slipped through his legs while outstretched on the ice. Zande put his stick on the puck just in front of the red line in the crease and tapped it home with four seconds left in the power play, giving MG the 5-1 advantage.

“We’ve got to learn to pick our heads up more when we get down and have adversity on us. We’ve got to learn from the mistakes that we have, and that’s what Barry has been saying — we can’t put our heads down,” Dillon said.

The Silver Eagles (3-3, 2-2 Badger South) scored the first goal with 9:46 to play in the first period, but the Cheesemakers (3-5, 0-4) countered less than five minutes later. On a power play, Cooper Dreyfus flipped a pass to Colton O’Connor, who found Jared Cline, who found the back of the net with 4:54 left before the first intermission.

“We did play pretty well in the first,” Einbeck said. “It was nice to get that power play goal because we’ve been struggling to get those. I thought that would propel us into the second. The kids were pretty excited, but we came out a little flat in the second there. We struggled a little bit, but that’s going to happen. We have to find better consistency.”

Midway through the third the Silver Eagles were called for back-to-back penalties within 20 seconds of each other. That gave Monroe a rare 5-on-3 advantage.

“I called a timeout and wanted to set up a different — we change our power play on that when it’s a 5-on-3. We just talked about the puck movement that we wanted and shots. It’s something new — the kids haven’t played in a 5-on-3 yet this year and they struggled a little bit,” Einbeck said. “The puck movement was there, we just needed to put more shots on net.”

The Cheesemakers could only put four shots on goal in the 100 seconds of a two-man advantage, including two in the final 20 seconds. After faceoff in the Monroe defensive zone with 10 seconds left in the 5-on-4 advantage, Cheesemaker freshman Blaze Janecke took a loose puck to center ice, tussling off a defender and sending a perfect pass to a streaking Travis Edmunds, who buried the breakaway goal to make it 5-2 with one second left in the power play and 8:16 left in the game.

“That third period was really big for us — we got that one goal and we beat them that period. We took a little more of step up in our game that period,” Dillon said. “We just have to learn how to play all three periods.”

Monroe had other breakaway attempts elsewhere in the game, but were unable to capitalize — most notably with two clear runs in the opening minutes of the second before MG went on its run.

“You look at it as a 5-2 game, but we had three breakaways that we didn’t score on, a couple 2-on-1s that we didn’t get shots off of,” Einbeck said. “Those are the things that we have do. We have to score on one of those breakaways, we have to score on a 2-on-1 — we have to be better when we get in those situations. But I’m happy with the way we performed. I’m happy we’re getting those opportunities to get ourselves back into the game.”

The players know that those quick opportunities need to be seized for better overall team success.

“The breakaways — we’ve got to bury on some of them. We’ve got to finish and score some goals there — at least one of them. We’ve got to get the momentum more on our side,” Dillon said. 

Monroe had a game scheduled against Whitefish Bay (7-1) in Milwaukee Dec. 21 and then a conference game at Milton (2-5, 0-3) Dec. 22. The Cheesemakers last game before the calendar turns will be in the Northwoods at Phillips (1-5) Dec. 29.

“The mood is good and I think they are learning and I just hope things keep moving forward as the season goes on,” Einbeck said.