Balance is the key to life. In order to have a successful life, we are told we need to balance work and family. In many sports you hear coaches say, we need to have balance in the way we do things. The Metro Lynx have used a balanced attack throughout the season and continued to do so in the sectional final.
The Metro Lynx capitalized early in the first period on a power play opportunity. Rachel Mirwald fed the puck to Ally Jacobsen to give the Lynx the lead at 3:12 of the first. Metro bumped the lead to two, when Rachel Mirwald scored with an assist from Grace Bonnell at the 7:20 mark. The Lynx continued to use their speed to advance the puck quickly. Mirwald fed the puck to Kaya Byce in the neutral zone. Byce came in and fired quickly from top of the face-off circle and scored top shelf just past the halfway point of the first. The Lynx increased the lead to four with 21.8 seconds remaining in the period. The puck was loose just to the left of the net. Viroqua was attempting to cover the puck, but Maddy Ahlborn was able to get the puck into the net and you could just see the white between the puck and the red of the goal line.
Viroqua scored at 2:12 of the second period, when Leonie Boettcher scored with an assist from Rachel Simonson. Metro answered back at 3:51 on a goal by Hannah Kasdorf with an assist from Kaya Byce. Viroqua kept attacking and it paid off on a goal by Gabby Olson assisted by Simonson and Boettcher at 5:42. Kaya Byce picked up her second goal of the night at 14:59, when Byce and Kasdorf reversed roles of the Metro's earlier goal of the period. The Lynx led 6-2 at the end of two.
Grace Bonnell capped the scoring for both teams at 6:01 of the third period with an assist from Kaya Byce. The Lynx won the game 7-2 and was the final team to make it to Madison for the WIAA Girl's State Hockey Tournament this season.
The four semi-finalists are:
Central Wisconsin Storm
Fox Cities Stars
Metro Lynx
Onalaska Hilltoppers