On Tuesday, January 13, the Northland Pines Eagles and the Wausau West Warriors faced off in a long standing rivalry game. The home team fans had organized a “black-out” for the event to add to the intensity of the game, and they succeeded with their mission.

The outcome of the game would have an impact on the seeding ranking for Pines later in the season, and the confidence in the team. Coach Charlie DePuydt made the comment before the game, “every game in the second half of the season is important, especially this one. West is a good team and they’re very quick, something our boys will have to try and stop.”

Wausau West certainly lived up to the the hype that they have created, dominating the control of the game early on. Two of their players took shots at Gabe Hartwig but managed to hit the cross bar and the puck bounced back out early in the game.

Brandon Tharaldson made a shot from the middle of the circles just over four minutes into the game to put his team up on the scoreboard. Three minutes later, Cale Bowman broke away from the cluster of players fighting for the puck and was followed closely by one of Pines’ defenseman, Connor Cox. Cox was unable to stop Bowman, who shot head on against Hartwig to bring the score to 2-0 in favor of the Warriors.

A slashing penalty against Colton Raymond finished up the first period of the game. The Warriors made 16 shots against Pines’ netminder in the first period, while the Eagles were unable to get a shot registered against Paul Weise.

It only took 61 seconds for another goal to be recorded on the scoresheet. Andrew Lee received the puck from Bowman and went one on one versus Hartwig to put a third goal up on the board for the Warriors early in the second period.  

Pines’ penalty kill unit was sent out with an elbowing call against Jake Jantzen. They were successful with killing off the initial penalty, but weren’t as lucky on a second penalty that was assessed to Kory Droes. Kellen Thoraldson used the one man advantage to add a fourth goal for the Warriors.

Ryon Ritzer attempted to get a rebound off of a shot but got too close for comfort, causing a  scuffle to break out between both teams that resulted in Ritzer and Sheldon Oja sitting two minutes for coincidental roughing minors. Cale Bowman served his first of two hooking penalties a minute into the coincidentals that gave Pines a power play advantage but they were unable to capitalize on the opportunity. Pines made five shots in the period, while the Warriors’ once again made sixteen.

In a repeat of the previous period, Wausau West once again scored a goal quickly after the initial faceoff. Kellen Thoraldson managed to get the puck through the screen of Pines players and past Hartwig’s shoulder. The goal was West’s fifth and final goal of the night.

Only three penalties were called in the last period of the contest; a bench minor against West for too many men on the ice, a tripping penalty against Jake Jantzen, and a cross checking penalty given to Sheldon Oja.

Pines held the upper hand in the second period, outshooting West 11-4. The Warriors effectively held the Eagles scoreless with a final score of 0-5. After the game, team captain Carson Cox remarked, “You can’t score a goal without taking a shot. There’s a lot of stuff we need to work on as a team, and that’s one of them.”  Northland Pines will host Tomahawk on Thursday in their barn for a Great Northern Conference game.