Mission accomplished.
The University School co-op girls’ hockey team traveled to Madison this past week with one goal in mind: win the Culver’s Cup Tournament. The Wildcats were successful. They won the 9th annual tournament by defeating Superior 6-2 in the championship game, played Friday, December 29th at the Madison Ice Arena in Madison.
Lexie Epperson, one of the Wildcats’ captains, put it succinctly, “Teamwork and discipline were the two tenets we live by this weekend. They led us to our success.”
The Wildcats confidently played by their tenets in Friday’s non-conference contest. They outshot Superior 42-20 in the game. Five different players scored for the victors. Senior Hannah Gold scored twice, while senior Megan McPike, and juniors Michaela Fritz, Jenna Klenz, and Epperson each score once.
The Wildcats fired 22 shots on Superior’s starting goalie, junior Autumn Siers, in the first period. They scored on one of those shots early in the frame. McPike picked up a loose puck in center ice and took off like she was driving at the Indianapolis 500. She raced past the Superior defense and headed towards Siers on a breakaway. The goalie stopped her shot, but the rebound bounced to the side of the net. McPike got it, turned, and put a pass on Fritz’s stick as Fritz skated into the near circle. Fritz fired the puck through a mass of players screening Siers to score at 2:05.
The Wildcats scored their next three goals on power plays. They scored the first of these at 6:47. Junior center Karly Lamoreaux took a face off in the Spartans’ left corner. She drew the puck back to Klenz at the left point. Klenz quickly fired a shot past Siers at 6:47.
It wasn’t long before the Wildcats tallied their second power play goal. As they worked the puck around the Superior end, Epperson got it at the right point. She skated into the slot and took a shot. The rebound caromed below the goal line to Gold. She skated into the lower right circle and fired a shot. The puck bounced off Siers to Epperson, who batted it into the net at 9:05.
The Wildcats scored their third straight power play goal in the opening minute of the second period. Klenz got the puck and skated it behind the Superior net and passed it to senior Abby Hentzen on the left boards. Hentzen passed it back to the point to Fritz. Fritz skated down the boards and cut through the circle toward the net. She took a shot. The puck hit the goalie pads of freshman Katrina Casper who had replaced Siers. The rebound popped out front to McPike who blazed a low wrist shot into the net at 0:35.
WiPH Game Summaries
WEHL 16U Southwest Skate All The Way To USA Hockey Semi-Finals
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WEHL 18U South East Girls at USA Hockey Nationals, March 20-24
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TW, Wisc Selects, and WEHL at Central Districts
- By Bill Berg Jr, WiPH Staff 03/16/2024, 9:45am CDT
19U Girls, 18U Boys Lead Six Team Wisconsin Teams to Central Districts
- By Bill Berg Jr, WiPH Staff 03/11/2024, 11:30am CDT
Tritons Stifle Stars to Go Back-to-Back
- By Bill Berg Jr, WiPH Staff 03/02/2024, 9:00pm CST
Storm Win Battle of Last Two State Champions
- By Bill Berg Jr, WiPH Staff 03/02/2024, 4:30pm CST
Gaertig and Two Minutes of Dominance Lead Springs to Division 2 Championship
- By Bill Berg Jr, WiPH Staff 03/02/2024, 11:45am CST
Tritons Ride Big First Period to Semi-Final Win
- By Bill Berg Jr, WiPH Staff 03/01/2024, 4:30pm CST
Stars Shine With Extra Attacker To Head to D1 Title Game
- By Bill Berg Jr, WiPH Staff 03/01/2024, 12:00pm CST
Ice Bears Get the Chance to Defend Their Title
- By Bill Berg Jr, WiPH Staff 02/29/2024, 10:30pm CST
Gold scored two goals for USM in less than a minute later in the period. Her first goal of the game came at 11:51. Like it was wallpaper, Gold stripped the puck away from a Superior player’s stick in center ice and headed into the Spartans’ zone. From the top of the right circle, she whipped a wrist shot past Casper to make the score 5-0.
Gold scored again just a few seconds later. From the center ice faceoff, the Wildcats moved the puck into the Superior zone and forechecked with intense intent. Eventually they forced the Spartans to try to ice it. A defenseman fired the puck up the left boards. It hit McPike’s stick and bounced to Gold at the blue line. Gold fired and scored at 12:18.
The Wildcats’ sixth goal lead put the clock on running time. It dashed through the final minutes of the second period and the first few minutes of the third. But the Spartans stopped it with a goal at 2:39. Senior Addie Young snagged a loose puck at the Superior blue line and raced off on a breakaway. As she neared the Wildcats’ senior netminder Julian Strother, a backchecker caught her. As Young fell, the puck flopped in the crease like a flapjack sizzling in a pan. Alee Milinkovich-Gray scooped it and popped it into the net.
The Spartans scored again a few minutes later. A puck bounced off a Wildcat stick in center ice and slid to Young near the USM blue line. She skated into the zone and fired a shot from the slot. Strother saved it. As a defenseman tried to clear the rebound, Milinkovich-Gray knocked it away from her stick. It popped loose into the slot. Young skated to it and lofted a backhander into the net at 5:54.
The Wildcats tightened their defense after that, preventing the Spartans from scoring another goal and making sure that they would take the Culver’s Cup home to Milwaukee.
After the game, Dan Carey, USM’s head coach, was asked about the week, “It was a great weekend,” he replied.
Superior is now 3-8. The Spartans take on St, Croix Valley in a 2:00 p.m. game on Saturday, January 6th at the Wildcat Centre rink in River Falls.
USM’s overall record is 10-2. The Wildcats are 3-0 in the Eastern Shores Conference. They play Appleton United in an Eastern Shores Conference game at 7:00 p.m. on Tuesday, January 2nd at USM.
