The Orono Spartans travelled to Litchfield/Dassel-Cokato on Tuesday, Jan. 20 for another round of Wright County Conference play. The Spartans had just come off a big win against St. Cloud Cathedral the day before and were looking for another.

There was little action for most of the first period, but with just over a minute left, senior captain Joey Luedtke broke the seal with help from seniors Trip Renard and Will LeNeave to give the Spartans a 1-0 lead going into first intermission.

The Spartans took control of the second period, dominating on offense. Luedtke got his second goal of the game with assists going to sophomore Mark Willson and senior Will Dittrich.

Shortly after, sophomore defenseman Alex Dau got his second goal of the season, assisted by Dittrich and sophomore Revis Stephenson.

Litchfield broke the 3-0 lead with a goal of their own, but Orono soon answered back with junior David McCuskey’s goal, which was assisted by sophomore Luke Renard and junior Riley Vieth. The score was 4-1 going into the second intermission.

The Spartans once again took over the offensive zone during the third period, with Stephenson getting two goals within 13 seconds of each other.

The first came at 12:19 in the period, assisted by Vieth and sophomore Nick Anderson, then at 12:32 Stephenson shot and scored again, with Anderson and senior Alex Sellers getting assists.

Lastly, with less than two minutes left to play, senior Cole Goulet sealed the deal with a beautiful setup from McCuskey to bring the final score to 7-1, in favor of Orono.

The Spartans next saw action on Thursday, Jan. 22 when they hosted Holy Family Catholic in Orono. The game started off with a bang when Dittrich hammered one in with help from Renard and Luedtke.

Holy Family soon took advantage of a power play and tied up the game. They were able to carry that momentum and with 5 seconds left in the period, scored again to bring the score to 2-1 Holy Family at the end of the first period.

Holy Family dominated the second period; they scored two more goals by the end of the period to bring the score to 4-1.

During the third period, Orono answered back with a goal from Goulet, with assists from McCuskey and senior Logan Kinsel.

Ultimately, penalties killed the Spartans’ momentum, and Holy Family scored two more goals to bring the final score to 6-2, Holy Family.

Orono hosts New Prague on Tuesday, Jan. 27 and Mound Westonka on Friday, Jan. 30 at Orono Ice Arena to continue their play in the Wright County Conference.