The University School co-op girls’ ice hockey team defeated the Waupaca Area co-op 9-1 in the second round of the USM Girls Hockey Classic tournament at USM Friday evening.

USM’s head coach Jason Woods said, “We played a complete game tonight, three periods of good hockey. It’s the best we’ve played all year. It just seemed like fate kept us from gaining a shutout. But the girls were focused throughout. We skated fast all night and moved the puck well. We made a few changes after last night’s loss and the girls did the job. They did what we asked them to do. We finally showed what we were capable of. We have got to build on this.”

After scoring only one goal in the tournament’s opening round game against Brookfield, the Wildcats definitely displayed their scoring capabilities Friday as six different players put the puck in the net.

The Wildcats’ scoring got started midway through the first period. Senior defenseman Meredith Behm gained control of the puck near the Waupaca blue line and skated in. As she did, senior Abby Leitschuh headed to the net and got between a defender and Waupaca’s goalie, Cassie Rasmussen. From the top of the circle, Behm took a shot. The well-positioned Leitschuh rapped in the rebound at 8:12.

USM added another first period goal while on the power play. Freshman Caitlin McBride got the puck behind the Waupaca net and passed it to sophomore Nina Andersen in the left corner. Andersen furthered it to sophomore Rose Revolinski along the sideboards. Revolinski then passed it to senior defenseman Laine Tomesch at the center of the blue line, and Tomesch one-timed a low wrist shot into the net at 10:22.

The Wildcats continued their onslaught in the second period. Forechecking aggressively in the slot, McBride pick-pocketed the puck from a Waupaca defender’s stick and tapped it ahead to Andersen. Andersen immediately dashed a shot past Rasmussen to make it 3-0 at 5:21 of the second period.

USM scored again at 12:40 when Behm passed the puck into the right corner to Revolinski. She passed it to Leitschuh behind the Waupaca net. Leitschuh whirled out, and, like she was cramming books into her backpack, she jammed the puck inside the right post.

The Wildcats made it 5-0 less than a minute later when once again Tomesch took a pass from Revolinski at the Waupaca blue line and once again gunned a low wrist shot past Rasmussen at 13:36.

The Wildcats were hungry for goals and far from satiated. They added four goals to their total in the game’s final period. The first came at 2:17. Tomesch began the play by sending a clearing pass out of the USM zone to Andersen, who took off like a re-fueled rocket. McBride sped into the play, giving USM a three-on-one. As Andersen moved to the top of the Waupaca left circle, she fed a pass across the slot to McBride who captured it on her backhand, shifted, and fired a low wrist shot inside the pipe to give USM a commanding 6-0 lead.

That put the clock on running time, but the Wildcats were able to score three more goals in the final six minutes of the game. They made it 7-0 at 11:42. Behm sent the puck out of the USM zone to Andersen, who skated into the Waupaca zone on a breakaway. Rasmussen stopped her shot, but hustling to join the play, McBride arrived to blast the rebound into the net. “That was great secondary scoring,” exclaimed Woods after witnessing the play. “That’s the kind of hockey I like to see us play.”

Tomesch gained her hat trick when she took a pass from her freshman defense partner, Hannah Koniar, on the Waupaca blue line and blew a wrist shot past Rasmussen at 12:12.

USM lost the shutout when Waupaca’s Tosha Smith skated into the USM slot and took a shot. USM’s goaltender Annie Ertz stopped it, but as the puck rolled away and crept toward the goal line, Waupaca’s Mandy Tomlinson tapped it across at 13:42.

Tomesch scored USM’s final goal on another wrist shot from the point off a pass from Revolinski at 14:50. Andersen also had an assist on the play.

USM is now 2-4. The Wildcats play the final game of the USM Classic Girls Hockey Tournament against the Icebergs of Stoughton at 3:00 p.m. on Saturday at USM.