In a wild and wooly consolation match, Eau Claire Memorial and New Richmond stood like two prizefighters that just pummelled each other. Both team landed haymakers (goals), but in the end, with just a minute to go before the two squads would go to the dreaded shoot-out, ECM's Jake Bresser knocked in the puck from the low right side to give the Old Abes a 7-6 win over the Tigers in the Red Flint River City Meltdown Saturday morning/afternoon at Eau Claire Hobbs Ice Arena. 

The Tigers opened the scoring 3:55 into the game when Jeremy Leavens took a cross-ice pass and fired the puck into a mostly-open net for a 1-0 Tiger lead, with assists from Dylan Cox and Tyler Lagerstrom.

The Abes would tie the game at the 7:20 mark with a score from Brady Burzynski. The senior tallied a power play goal with helpers from Michael Kapla and Matthew Knapp.

Just 76 ticks later, Hayden Bowe scored from the back door on the power play on a pass from Kapla to make it 2-1. "Burzy" also got an assist on the score.

Burzynski scored his second goal at 12:31 when he punched in a rebound from the low left side to increase the lead to 3-1. Knapp earned an assist on the play.

SHOTS: ECM 19, NR 10

(There was a 15 minute delay for the start of the second, as the Zamboni crew had to re-surface the ice a second time as there was a piece of metal stuck in one of the tires, causing damage to the ice as the machine made its turns.)

New Richmond cut the lead to 3-2 at 5:51 of the second when Michael Bodsberg slammed a rebound past ECM goalie Killy Kitzmann, with an assist from Tanner Wisemiller.

It took over seven minutes, but the Abes answered to make the score 4-2. Chuck Bennis scored from the slot at 12:47 with help from Brady Bollinger and Tye (T-Mac) McLaughlin to go up by a pair of goals.

With just 1:02 left in the period, the Tigers's Parker Olson scored on a semi-breakaway to make it 4-3, and that's how the period would end.

SHOTS: ECM 17, NR 9

The Tigers tied the game early in the third. At 3:05, Nate Jones scored when he split the defense on a rush, beating Kitzmann low on the stick side. Olson and Adam Giannini earner helpers on the play. (There was some discussion in the pressbox as to whether Olson or Jones scored this goal, as it might have been reported incorrectly to the scorer's table...)

Knapp untied the score for ECM when he scored from the back door on the right side on a pass from Kapla at 4:28 to make it 5-4, with another assist going to Bowe.

The score stayed that way for another six minutes until ECM's Jake Sparger walked in from the right point and rifled the puck into the net for an unassisted goal at 10:25 to change the score to 6-4, the dreaded two-goal lead.

The Tigers cut the lead to 6-5 when Kaleb Kier put the puck in the net from the top of the left circle at the 14:02 mark, with an assist to Jake Singerhouse.

Hilby came off for an extra attacker with 1:15 left in the contest.

That set up a frenzied finish, and the game was sent to an extra period when Jones picked up the puck in a goal-crease scrum and deposited the puck into the net to tie the game with just 1:08 remaining. Wisemiller and Olson got helpers on the play.

SHOTS: NR 14, ECM 9

It took exactly seven minutes to determine the outcome of the game. Bresser grabbed a pass/missed shot on the back door and banged in a no-doubter to give ECM the consolation title. Bowe and Bollinger got assist on the game-winning play.

SHOTS: ECM 7, NR 1

Kitzmann stopped 28 shots in the win for the Abes, while Hilby showed his mettle by keeping 45 of 52 shots outside the cage for the Tigers.