Falcons open the season strong with two wins

The Eagle River Falcons hockey team opened the 2025-’26 Great Lakes Hockey League season with two wins in November, including a 10-1 victory over the Sun Prairie Killer Bees on Nov. 22 and an intriguing 11-7 win against the M&M Shamrocks in the home opener this past Saturday in Eagle River.

The Falcons opened the season in Sun Prairie Nov. 22 and came away with a dominant 10-1 victory over the Killer Bees. In what started with a tight battle in the opening period, it ended with Eagle River netting five goals in the second period to really stretch the game open.

It was also a physical game with 56 combined penalty minutes between the two teams.

Alex Racino tallied six points to lead the Falcons, which included five goals and one assist. Lucas Otto finished with one goal and three assists.

Cody Everson got the scoring started for the Falcons 24 seconds into the contest for his first of the season. About 10 minutes later, Noah Weber gave Eagle River the 2-0 advantage, and 20 seconds after that, Racino put the score at 3-0. The home Killer Bees answered with their lone goal of the game to cut the deficit to 3-1 with 5:30 left in the first period. Eagle River outshot Sun Prairie 20-8 in the opening frame.

Eagle River came out of the locker room for the second with some fire. Racino scored three of the five goals in the middle frame, which put his game total to four. Everson and Jason Johnson also tallied goals in the second to extend the lead to 8-1 after two.

Falcons goaltender Ian Johnson recorded 39 saves in the win, and his busiest period of the night came in the second. Although the Killer Bees didn’t score after the first period, Johnson turned away 18 shots by Sun Prairie in the second and another 14 in the third.
Almost 10 minutes came off the board in the third before Eagle River closed the night offensively with two power-play goals by Racino and Otto.

Home opener

The local fans were in for an exciting game this past weekend after the Falcons lit the lamp 11 times in a victory against the Shamrocks.

Alex Carrillo got the scoring going for Eagle River just under seven minutes into the game, and was followed by another tally by Alex Hauswirth to make it a 2-0 game. That would be the score as the teams headed into the first intermission, and Eagle River held the 17-11 shot advantage.

From there, it was an offensive shootout, as the two sides scored a combined eight goals each in the second and third periods. Dylan Weber made it a 3-0 game three minutes into the second before Carrillo netted his second of the night a few minutes later to make it 4-0.

The Shamrocks responded with three unanswered goals to cut the deficit to one, 4-3, with under six to go in the middle period.

Eagle River closed the period with three more goals and led 7-3 going into the third.

The Falcons held on to the lead as both sides scored four goals in the third to continue the offensive onslaught.

Devon Sauvoa and Zach Kennedy led Eagle River with five points each, and did it in their own way. Sauvoa had two goals and three assists, while Kennedy scored once and racked up four assists. Bob McDonald also finished with five assists in the win. Carrillo netted three goals, and Hauswirth and Alex Kornely each had two.

Goaltender Mike Madosh finished his night in the net with 40 saves on 47 shots faced.

The Falcons hit the ice again this weekend on the road to face the M&M Shamrocks on Friday, Dec. 5, at 8 p.m. Eagle River will then be in De Pere Saturday, Dec. 6, for a game with the Deacons at 7:30 p.m. The next home game will be against the Fond du Lac Bears at the Dome on Saturday, Dec. 13, at 7 p.m.