The Wausau West Warriors captured another Marathon Cup championship on Saturday at D.C. Everest's Greenheck Fieldhouse with a 4-1 win over Mosinee.

"The Marathon cup is a goal every season for our players and I am excited this group was able to earn the cup this season," said coach Brian Brandt Jr. "It provides an early season test and they did well with the two games."

It wasn't all roses though for the Warriors, as Mosinee dominated play for the first eight minutes of the game. Just 20 seconds in Grant Kuklinski took a Warrior turnover and fired a shot from the point, and Cooper Zastrow picked up the rebound in front and had time to go across the net, but Warrior goalie Parks Guenther tracked it the whole time and made a blocker save to keep Mosinee out of the net.

The Mosinee forecheck kept the puck in the Warrior defensive zone but the Warriors finally developed some pressure they capitalized. Grant Halmstad, Cooper Depuydt, and Judah Leder came in on a three-on-two. Halmstad streaked down the right side, and centered it to Depuydt in the middle who quickly redirected it to Judah Leder who end up alone in the high slot, and a nifty wrister beat Mosinee goaltender Aiden Karst to give the Warriors a surprising 1-0 lead.

"This was the first game we started a bit flat and part of it was what Mosinee was doing on the forecheck. We struggled breaking the puck out and had a lot of D zone time," said Brandt.

Mosinee tied the game 3:10 later. Caden Schmirler went end-to-end, and weave through the Warriors before beating Guenther to tie the game at one. 

With just under two minutes left in the frame the Warriors capitalized on a Mosinee penalty to take a 2-1 lead. After working the puck around, Halstad fired a shot on the ice through heavy traffic and into the net. With four players between Halstead and Karst, it didn't appear that Karst ever saw the shot come in.

It stayed 2-1 for another 10 minutes as both Karst and Guenther were playing well and turning aside quality opportunities. Depuydt came in on an 2-on-0 with Chase Crass while the defense backchecked hard. Depuydt cut to the front of the net and took a shot which Karst turned away, but Crass was there to put in the rebound to make it 3-1 West.

West picked up their final goal with less than a minute left in the second period. The Warriors came in the zone on a 3-on-2 and  Brody Brimacombe kept it himself and first a writer past the outstretched arm of Karst to make it 4-1 Warriors.

With the win the Warriors take home another Marathon Cup championship. Karst had 37 saves for Mosinee, and Guenther had 34 for the Warriors. 

Guenther, a junior, is seeing his first varsity action this season with former Team Wisconsin goalie Adam Prokop eating up the Warriors' minutes for the last two seasons. 

"Parks has been able to get some time to get comfortable with the varsity level," said Brandt. "He is a big strong goalie that has played well in the chances he has had so far. He has shown some growth in his game opportunities and will continue to grow as the season goes on."