The St. Mary's Springs hockey team improved to 4-1 with a victory over Appleton on Tuesday at the Blue Line Family Ice Center and evened its Badgerland Conference record to 1-1.

"It was a pretty good game," said Springs coach Ty Steffes. "They're a fast, good, physical team. We played them even in the first period. Andrew (Riehl) had to stop 10 shots in the first period, and we put 10 on them but nobody could seem to score."

Springs got on top with a Conner Blanck goal at 3 minutes, 23 seconds in the second period. Appleton came back to score about 30 seconds later on a goal by Cooper Watson, but Blanck converted on a power play at 10:35 to give Springs the lead for good.

Springs stretched the lead to two goals early in the third when Tyler Grebe converted on assists from Tyler Berndt and Conner Blank at the 4:43 mark. The Ledgers then scored additional insurance goals 17 seconds apart when Matt Austin hammered the puck home at 10:31 on assists from Trevor Ebertz and Brendon Gysbers and then Sean Ahern scored at 10:48 on assists from Austin and Ebertz.

Springs travels to the Ponds of Brookfield to take on the Brookfield Stars Friday night, puck drops at 5:30 pm