Thursday evening found the final two undefeated WIAA Girl’s hockey teams facing off in Menomonie at Dunn County Ice Arena.  Onalaska traveled to Menomonie being led in scoring and assists by sophomore Theresa Knutson and a 9-0-0 record.  The Cardinals entered the game at 7-0-0 with Shauna Bollinger leading the team in goals and Taylor Rudiger in assists.

The game started at a fast pace with both teams moving the puck in the neutral zone and putting deep into their offensive zone.    Once either team moved the puck into the offensive area their opponent did an excellent job at forechecking and putting defensive pressure on the puck.  Shauna Bollinger gave the Cardinals the early lead at the 1:59 mark of the first period, after she took the puck in neutral ice and scored top shelf glove side on Onalaska’s Schindler.   This completed the scoring in the first period as both teams had to kill off penalties.  There were four penalties for eight minutes on the Cardinals, while the Hilltoppers had two penalties.  Onalaska’s Jeanalyn Schindler finished the period with 7 saves, while Lauren Scobie had 7 saves for the Cardinals.

Theresa Knutson scored with an assist from Baylee Darling 1 minute  into the second period as she shot the puck between a Cardinal defender legs and the puck beat Scobie to tie the game at 1.  Sixteen seconds later Rhiannon Coen-Johnson put the Cardinals back in the lead with Sage Paletta and Kennedy Kerg assisting on the play.  The game remained 2-1 until Lucy Anderholm took a shot from three feet inside the blue line and scoring on a screened Scobie with Melinda Kunes and Jamie Weilandt assisting on the goal.  The Hilltoppers had to kill of three penalties over the last 5:21 of the second period to keep the score tied at 2 at the end of 2.  Scobie accumulated 16 saves in the period giving her a total of 23, while Schindler collect 3 saves for a total of 10.

Both teams kept placing skaters into the sin bin in the third period.  The Cardinals were finally able to capitalize on a 5-on-3 advantage, when Kayla Bow scored at the 12 minute mark of the third period.  The lead did not last long as the Hilltoppers’ Jacyn Reeves scored six seconds later with Baylee Darling assisting on the goal.  Onalaska took their first lead of the evening, when Jamie Weilandt scored an unassisted goal with 2:16 remaining.  Chippewa Falls took a timeout to discuss the situation.  The Cardinals took a penalty with 1:21 remaining in the game.  Jacyn Reeves collected her second goal of the evening with Baylee Darling and Theresa Knutson assisting on the play to ice the game with 43 seconds remaining.  Schindler added 8 saves to her total and finished with 18, while the Cardinals’ Scobie picked up 7 to finish with 30 saves.

The Hilltoppers improved to 10-0-0 and will be going to Rochester, MN to participate in the Sertoma/Home Federal Shootout.  There will be two other Wisconsin teams playing in the same tournament, Central Wisconsin Storm and New Richmond Tigers.

Chippewa Falls fall to 7-1-0 and will travel to Blaine, MN to participate in the Schwan Cup which features 32 teams in four eight team brackets.  There are eleven Wisconsin teams participating in the tournament.