Eau Claire Memorial and West Salem got to square off in the first evening quarterfinal on Thursday. The Abes were making their 18th trip to State looking for their third State title, while the Panthers their second trip in two years. The two teams met earlier in the season, with Memorial winning decisively.

Ben Zacho and Brenden Olson had multi point games each, and the Abes move on with a 6-2 victory. 

Memorial opened up the scoring in the first period when Ben Zacho got off a wrist shot that made it thru traffic and gave the Abes the 1-0 lead on the power play. The Abes scored again at the 3:40 mark. Brendan Olson was able to tap in a rebound off a shot by Kaden Kohlhepp. Both teams did have good chances to score in the period but both net minders were able to make big stops.

Memorial scored the only goal in the second period and it was one to marvel. The Abes Max Savaloja beat a defender along the wall, cut toward the middle and put on a toe drag on the next defender and scored 5 hole for a 3-0 lead after 2 periods.

The third period saw the Abes start to put the game away. Austin Karnitz was able to find a spot in near the crease and got a feed the put the Abes up 4-0.

West Salem was able to get on the board by their leading scorer Jack Gorniak, who was able to gather the puck mid slot and got alone on Hudecek and deked him for 4-1 deficit.

The Abes would strike again with Brenden Olson being credited with a goal with 5:15 left. After that goal both starting goalies gave way to their backups. 

West Salem got to within 5-2 when they got a power play goal by Matt Bigley. The Panthers kept up the effort looking for possibly a chance to get even closer, but with 28 seconds left Memorial sealed the deal with a goal by Ben Zacho.

The Abes move on to a Friday quarterfinal game, while West Salem sees their season end for a second straight year at the State.

Both Abes goalies combined for 20 saves, while the tandem for the Panthers finished with 23 saves.