The Central Wisconsin Storm had ended the Northland Pines Eagles' season in each of the two previous seasons, and that trend continued on Wednesday night at Marathon Park in Wausau as the Storm cruised to an 8-1 win over the visiting Eagles.

Samantha Federici opened the scoring for the Storm at 4:26 of the first period with assists from Hannah Baumann and Michaela Gerum.

They added their second five minutes later on a shot by Baumann, with assists from Gabrielle duVair, and Federici.

"Pines came out with great effort and spirit in the first period," said Storm coach Jacques duVair. "They created some really good scoring chances and had us on our heels a bit.  In spite of only having 24 girls in the program currently, our depth was still able to wear them down and allow us to get the game back to our pace and style."

Northland Pines would get one back less than a minute later. While Tristan Wicklund was in the box for hooking, Julia Nesbitt got Pines on the board with assists to Mallory Schmidt, and Madison Stebbeds.

Baumann added her second goal just more than a minute into the second period, with assists from Federici and Dru Sabatke.

Three minutes later Federici added her second goal with assists from Baumann and duVair to make it 4-1 Storm.

Unfortunately for the Eagles it snowballed from their and the Storm tacked on four more goals over the remainder of the game, including finishing the hat trick for Baumann.

"Pines has some quality players and played well.  I give them a lot of credit for how hard they competed," said duVair.

Claire Calmes had 11 saves on 12 shots in the win for the Storm, and Chloe Lemke added 4 saves of her own. Ashlynn Boxrucker had 29 saves in the loss for Pines.

The Storm will move on to face the Hayward Hurricanes in the sectional final on Friday at Greenheck Fieldhouse in Schofield.

The Storm and Hurricanes have played twice this season. In their first meeting (the Storm's second game of the season and Hayward's first) the Storm's aggressive play and the young core of the Hurricanes lead the Storm to a 5-1 victory on a 44-26 shot advantage.

Their second meeting, on Feb. 8, was another story. This time the Storm's shot advantage shrunk to 30-18 as both teams tightened up defensively and the Storm won the game 1-0 in overtime. 

"We're excited to see Hayward again," said duVair. "They are a super quality team that has grown and improved a ton over the course of the season.  We played them early and won 5-1.  Our veteran players were able to overwhelm the youth on their roster the first time around.  In our second game, it was much tighter.  They played great defense and really limited our opportunities.  We found a way in OT to score for the 1-0 win, but it could have gone either way."

duVair added, "Their young offensive players have grown into dynamic presences for them.  They skate well.  They move the puck quickly and crisply.  Defensively they've improved as well.  They don't take a lot of chances.  They make simple plays and clear the puck when they are struggling in their own end.  They made it difficult for us to create a lot of second chances."