The Fox Cities Stars and the Central Wisconsin Storm met at Greenheck Fieldhouse Thursday evening, a full day ahead of their originally scheduled date due to the 'Great Expected Monster Snowstorm of February 2017.'
Whether or not the weather will be as severe as the prognosticators predict remains to be seen, but the hockey version of the Storm was pretty devastating, laying waste to the Stars by a tally of 7-1.
It didn't take long for the home girls to get on the scoreboard and set the tone for the contest. It only took them ten seconds.
Emelia Edmondson pounced on a rebound and put it past FCS goalie Annaliese Mauel for the very early 1-0 lead. Sami Brown and Katelyn (K-Ram) Ramthun earned helpers on the play.
The Storm scored twice more in the period, with Kassidy Oliva scoring from the low left side in the middle of the period and Kenna Bailey adding an unassisted goal with four minutes left. Emma Kysely had an assist on the first goal.
The period ended with the Storm holding a 9-2 shot edge.
Maggie Plaza came in like a lion on a rebound early in the period to give the hosts a 4-0 lead with just over 12 minutes left in the middle period. Eden Gruber earned a helper on the play.
Two minutes later, Mauel made a nice stop on Edmondson to prevent a goal. The freshman netminder is in her first full year of playing the position, so kudos to her for standing up to the vaunted Storm whirlwind.
Then just a short while later it was Storm goalie Chloe Westberg's turn to shine, as she made a nice stick save on a shot from the left dot by Karly Kalies to keep the score at zero for FC.
Central Wisconsin (20-4-1) kept up the high pressure as they earned another score on a power play, this time by Ramthun, with assists to Plaza and Edmondson with just over seven minutes left in the period.
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The balance of the period saw two penalties by each team, but zero results on the scoreboard, as the period ended with the Storm up, 5-0. Fox Cities held a slight 8-6 shot edge in the 17 minutes of play.
The Storm struck again with lightning quickness to start the third, tickling the twine less than two minutes in.
Bailey notched her second goal from the right circle on a pass from Taylor Treu to increase the lead to 6-0 and send the contest into run time.
A pair of Storm misdemeanors less than a minute later gave the Stars a 5-on-3 chance for 102 seconds, but the hosts battened down the hatches against the foul weather and kept the guests off the scoreboard.
Finally, the Stars were able to score in the middle of the period on a shot from the top of the left circle by Victoria Nelson that snuck past the Storm goalie to change the scoreboard to 6-1.
Three minutes later, Teagan Dickman had a semi-breakaway for the Stars, but a Storm defender caught up and stripped the puck away, sending it harmlessly into the corner, negating the threat.
Trinity Foster put the finishing touches on the scoring for CWS, notching her second goal of the season with five minutes left in the game. Sarah Croker and Angie Stroik added assists on the play.
Once again shots were at a premium, with the Storm holding a slight 6-5 edge in the period. For the game, each goalie ended with 14 saves.
The Star finished the year with a fine mark of 15-10-2 and lofted the team's first sectional runner-up trophy. Nicely done, Stars!
The Storm will head to Madison and will take on the winner of the Cap City-Rock County match-up in Sectional 3. That state game will begin at approximately 1pm next Friday.
