On a historic day where an underdog candidate was inaugurated as President of the United States, an 'underdog' hockey team upset a higher ranked squad in a rink a couple miles east of the Minnesota/Wisconsin border.
After traveling nearly 250 miles across the breadth of the Badger State, the second-ranked Bay Area Ice Bears suffered a 6-0 shutout loss to the Hudson Raiders, who were positioned one spot below the Ice Bears on the WiPH Top Ten poll.
Those rankings might change next week.
The game began after all Hudson players took a microphone and announced who they were playing for in Hudson's 'Skating to Shut Out Cancer' weekend. The boys team would do the same on Saturday's game against Superior.
While Hudson coach Greg Gamache showed nothing but the utmost respect for his worthy opponents, he had a couple things in mind.
He wanted to score more than two goals against Bay Area, something nobody has managed to do this year, and to score a power play goal against a team that had a 100% penalty kill rating.
Mission accomplished on both counts, as the Raiders notched a pair of man advantage goals in three tries against the vaunted PK units of Bay Area.
It took half a period for Hudson to get on the scoreboard and it came from an unlikely hero. Freshman Mallory Thompson skated down the right side before cutting to the bottom of the right circle. Her shot bounced off the skate of a defender and past BA goalie Ana Holzbach for the 1-0 lead at the 9:44 mark. It was Thompson's second goal of the year.
Less than one minute later, Hudson appeared to have extended the lead to 2-0 when the puck ended up in the goal, but the officials had blown their whistles a fraction of a second earlier, negating the tally, much to the chagrin of the Hudson team.
Each team had a power play chance as the period wound down, but neither could find the back of the net as the period closed with the home girls having a 1-0 lead. Shots were 10-4 in the stanza, Hudson.
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Greg Gamache Interview
Hudson used the power play early in the middle period to stretch the lead to 2-0.
With less than 30 seconds left with Bay Area one skater down, Sydney Hendricks scored from the low left side, with help from Katie Meierotto, to give Hudson a two-goal lead.
A couple minutes later, the scrappy Meierotto found herself with the puck on her stick ahead of the pack, but her shot ended up in the chest of Holzbach while Meierotto crashed into the endboards.
Anna Wilgren stepped on the stage a bit later to give the hosts a 3-0 lead.
The junior defenseman grabbed the biscuit and set sail down the left side shortly after a Bay Area power play expired, scoring from the bottom of the left circle at the 6:45 mark.
The balance of the period looked quiet on the scoresheet, but not so much on the ice as both teams fought for every inch. With less than a minute remaining, Bay Area proved Murphy's Law, as their 2-on-1 was broken up without so much as a shot on goal.
Shot margin echoed the first period (10-4).
As the teams readied for the third period faceoff, the Hudson band serenaded goalie Cassie Schultz by playing 'Happy Birthday,' as the junior's special day is tomorrow.
The Raiders made it 4-0 on a Wilgren goal as she went coast-to-coast, skating through and past at least three defenders before putting the puck in the back of the net at 8:38. Bailee Dierks earned a helper on the play.
Less than two minutes later, Lexie Nelson punched in a rebound from the low left side to boost the lead to 5-0, with assists from Molly Schuett and Wilgren for the power play goal.
Hendricks would exert her presence once more with just under two minutes left, scoring from the low right side, with an assist to Wilgren, to account for the final score.
Hudson (12-5) had a 7-1 shot edge in the final period. The Raiders have now won eight straight games.
Schultz turned aside nine shots in earning her fifth shutout of the year, while Holzbach made 21 saves for Bay Area, who dropped to 14-2-2.
