The 2016-17 WIAA Girls hockey season will see the puck drop on Friday, November18th, with 3 games on the schedule. Six of the WiPH Preseason Top Ten teams will be in action. There will be a Lightning battle taking place at 6:00 PM at the Ozaukee Ice Center when the Lakeshore Lightning host the Badger Lightning (formerly Badger Thunder). The #8 Fond du Lac Co-op Warbirds will host the Early Bird Invitational to kick off the season at the Waupun Community Ice Center and have two games on Friday evening. The Stoughton Co-op Icebergs will take on the Fond du Lac Co-op Warbirds at 5:00 PM. The second game in Waupun will feature Appleton United playing the Northland Pines Eagles at 7:45 PM.
The second day of the season finds 10 games on the slate.
Northland Pines will play Fond du Lac Co-op at 9:45 AM in Waupun followed by Appleton and Stoughton Co-op at noon. Arrowhead will be traveling to Baraboo to play the Badger Lightning at noon. #6 ECA Stars will host the Superior Spartans at 2:00 PM. #2 Central Wisconsin Storm will travel to Ozaukee and take on the Lakeshore Lightning at 2:30 PM. #7 Hudson Raiders will host Minnesota’s Rochester John Marshall/Lourdes at 3:00 PM. The Metro Lynx will play #5 USM Co-op Wildcats at 5:00 PM on the Wildcats’ Uihlein Ice Arena. Northland Pines and the Stoughton Co-op Icebergs will play at 5:00 PM in Waupun. The final game of the Early Bird Invitational will feature Appleton and Fond du Lac at 7:15 PM. The final girls game of the weekend will find the #4 St. Croix Valley Fusion on the road to St. Paul, MN to take on the St. Paul Blades.
The WIAA Boys hockey season features one game on Friday evening as Whitefish Bay will play Greendale at Wilson Park in a 6:30 PM game. There will be 5 games on Saturday. Whitefish Bay will play their second road game to start this season as they travel to Sun Prairie for a 2:00 PM game. Another 2:00 PM game will feature Marquette at Homestead at the Ozaukee Ice Center. Saturday night will find Bay Port taking the ice at The Ice Pond at Waunakee to play Waunakee at 7:00 PM. Monroe and Sparta will be dropping the puck in Sparta at 7:00 PM. The final game of the weekend will see Germantown playing Kenosha at the Ice Plex with the puck scheduled to drop at 7:10 PM.
The opening weekend finds 19 games total to kick off the season. Eleven boy’s teams will have played their first games of the season with one getting two games in. Fourteen of the thirty-two girl’s teams will have played with two teams playing two games and four playing three games.
The fun is underway as all teams take the ice and prepare to entertain us over the next four months. It’s time to get out and cheer for your teams as they grow throughout the season. There will be fun times and a few rough patches along the way, but the memories will be there for a lifetime.
