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Power plays propel Storm past Bay Area

By Michael Trzinski, WiPH Staff, 01/31/15, 3:45PM CST

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Ice Bears 45 game unbeaten streak comes to an end


On November 29, 2013, the Bay Area Ice Bears and the Central Wisconsin Storm met in the Gobbler Cup, with the Storm taking a 4-1 victory that day.

Since then, Bay Area won 44 games and tied one. That's right, no losses during that span.

Until today, when the Ice Bears dropped a 3-1 decision on Senior Day at Cornerstone Community Center.

Bay Area seniors Lindsey Strainis, Tanya Niemi, Miranda Dreckschmidt, Courtney Wittig, Nicole Niemi, and Audrie Murphy were honored between the first and second periods.

The Wisconsin Prep Hockey Game of the Week was everything as advertised as Kelly Knetter scored two goals and Taylor Treu had three assists to lead the Storm to victory.

The first period was scoreless, with the Ice Bears failing to convert on a pair of power play chances early and late in the period. The guests held a 7-2 shot edge in the period.

Bay Area nearly got on the board four minutes into the middle period when a shot clanged off the crossbar and bounced in the crease to the left of Storm goalie Renee Hosler. As the puck hit the ice it was inadvertently kicked in by an Ice Bear player.

As Bay Area celebrated, the officials conferred and waved off the goal, much to the chagrin of the Ice Bears bench.

The game stayed knotted at zero for most of the period until the Storm went on their first power play with just under four minutes left.

Eleven seconds in, Maggie Plaza took the puck to the net form the low left side and jammed it past Bay Area goalie Strainis for the 1-0 lead. Elizabeth Bauer and Treu got helpers on the play.

The Ice Bears went on another power play with just over two minutes left and although they didn't score as quickly as the visitors did, they were 100% successful.

Wittig fired a shot from the top of the right circle, beating Hosler high on the glove side, with an assist to Nicole Niemi to tie the game with 1:14 left.

The period ended with the Storm outshooting the Ice Bears 11-6.

WiPH Game Summaries

Bay Area nearly took the lead a couple minutes into the final period, but Tanya Niemi's shot from the right point bounced off the right post and went behind the net.

With just over four minutes to go, the Storm went on a power play and based on how well their unit was working today, that was a bad idea for the Ice Bears.

Knetter scored from the slot a minute in to give the Storm a 2-1 lead, with Treu getting another helper on the play.

Twenty-six seconds later, Bay Area took another penalty and the Storm finished off its perfect day on the PP, scoring when Knetter re-directed Izzy Uhi-Chmiel's point shot past Strainis for the 3-1 lead. Treu earned her playmaker on the score

Bay Area called a timeout and pulled Strainis off for an extra skater with over a minute left, but couldn't cut into the lead as the horn sounded on a 3-1 Storm win. The Storm held a 15-6 shot advantage in the period.

Hosler stopped 13 shots for Central Wisconsin, who improved to 11-6-1, bouncing back nicely from last night's 7-1 loss to USM.

Strainis had 30 saves in the game for Bay Area, now 18-1-1 after their first loss of the 2014-15 season.