It’s not a party until something gets broken, and after scoring a goal against Wheaton West, Glenbard’s Dylan Sokol turned Saturday’s rivalry game in front of a packed house into a party.

In scoring the final goal of Glenbard’s 3-0 win, Sokol skated across the slot and casually tucked the final goal inside the far post. Then he skated directly to the corner to celebrate with Glenbard fans on the other side of the glass.

Sokol jumped into the glass and it cracked vertically, with half of the pane falling to fans’ feet outside the ice. There was still 13:39 remaining on the clock in the second period.

Luckily, the game fairly quickly resumed on the second rink inside Center Ice of DuPage, with players essentially swapping places with the public skaters that had been using the second rink.

“I’ve never played in a game where that happened before,” Glenbard defenseman Dom Pasdo said.

Nary a goal occurred after the move to the second rink, as Glenbard improved to 5-0 in IHSHL West play. First-period goals came from Wyatt Flewelling and Jack O’Neill and Glenbard finished with a 33-20 edge in shots in earning its first shutout of the year.

“We played really well defensively. That was probably the best defensive game we've played all year,” Glenbard coach Jason Hawkins said. “We’ve been giving up a decent amount of goals to start the season, but we've been focusing on our own zone for the last couple of weeks.

“Getting a shutout was big. (Wheaton) had 20 shots total but not many quality looks. We kind of kept them around the perimeter and obviously, (goalie) Trevor Hoh was solid in net.”

Hoh and fellow goalies Colin Carr and Ethan Jackson have rotated in net for Glenbard. Hoh made a few big saves in the second period to preserve the shutout and has been in net for three of Glenbard’s five league wins.

Glenbard struck first at the 13:14 mark of the first period, when Flewelling fired from the right side and the puck hit traffic in front of the net and caromed into net. Daniel Jones and Ethan Jackson got credits for assisting on the play.

In a period that saw Glenbard earn a 17-9 edge in shots, the second goal came with 2:19 remaining. Patrick Gonzalez fired from the point on the left side and O’Neill redirected it; the redirect clanged in off the far post and Glenbard (5-0-0) had a 2-0 lead.

Hawkins liked the methodology behind both first-period goals.

“One was a screen and the second one was tipped so it was just getting our bodies to the front and creating that traffic,” Hawkins said. “That’s going to make it tough for their goaltender to see the puck and that was effective for us in the first period.

“We came out real aggressive and got after the puck. And getting a forecheck going was key, in putting pressure on them and forcing some turnovers.”

Pasdo also liked what he saw in a dominant first period from his side.

“We just controlled the offensive and defensive zones,” Pasdo said. “We had the puck the majority of the time and we were just communicating well throughout the ice. We were talking, playing fast, and attacking them.”

Shot totals were closer in the second and third periods, with Glenbard posting advantages of 6-4 and 10-7 in shots, but the damage to Wheaton West in the first period was done.

“They came out fast and put us on our heels right away,” Wheaton coach Keith Fahrforth said. “I give Glenbard credit for getting traffic in front for those first two goals.”

Sokol’s second-period goal came when he beat a defenseman in the left corner and took the puck across the front of the net. Wheaton goalie Tyler Bute had to commit at the near post and Sokol capitalized, skating by and calmly wrapping it around the far side of a sprawled goaltender.

“That was a great, great individual effort,” Hawkins said. “(Sokol) beat the defense, cut across the front, and showed good patience to get the goalie to commit. Then he took it around him and just slid it in there for the goal.”

It was Skodol’s third goal in league play, while Flewelling scored his fourth and O’Neill scored his second league goal of the year.

The first line of Skodol, O’Neill, and Sam Harper shined for Glenbard in the win, as did the second line of Reid Fournier, Daniel Oostman, and Michael Drayton. Hawkins applauded the play of defensemen Prasdo, Flewelling, and Gonzalez among a defensive core that also includes Andrew Keas, Sean Marinc, Henry Lazzaro, and Ben Starmann.

He also thought team depth helped key the win over Wheaton West.

“In the locker room after the game we said that was just like almost like the ultimate team victory,” Hawkins said. “All four lines were contributing and we rolled four lines all game, which is something we always like to do. We knew Wheaton had kind of a smaller bench and I honestly think just running four lines all game may have worn them out.”

Hawkins hit the nail on the head where Wheaton West was concerned, especially once the game was moved to a larger surface after the glass broke.

“At that point, we were down to eleven skaters due to a few injuries and a player being ejected so moving to a larger surface presented another challenge,” Fahrforth said. “But the boys held it together pretty well the rest of the game and it showed our coaching staff these boys were willing to fight against any adversity. Even though it was a 3-0 loss, we took a lot of positives away from the game.”

Fahrforth also applauded his jayvee’s 1-0 overtime shootout victory against Glenbard prior to the varsity game, and was particularly pleased with the play of a couple varsity players despite the loss.

“The two standouts for us were Tyler Bute, who faced a lot of quality chances and kept the game from getting away from us,” Fahrforth said. “Jake Smagacz was another big contributor. His motor never stopped the entire game and he kept the rest of our team pushing.”

Wheaton West (2-4-0) followed Saturday’s game with a 4-3 win over Plainfield on Monday, getting three goals from Smagacz and a game-winning goal in overtime from John Galasso.

Both Wheaton West and Glenbard claim Center Ice as their home ice, so the large fan contingency present for Saturday’s game added a punch of adrenaline for both sides.

“I’ve played with some of those (Wheaton) kids throughout the years, so it’s sort of like seeing all your friends and buddies out there,” Pasdo said. “And all the fans definitely bring up the energy. We love the fans and they just made it even more fun to play in that game.”