Ask just about any Superior Spartans hockey fan and they will gladly tell you that they get the short end of the stick from referees whenever they venture south in Wisconsin. On Saturday, during the Consolation Game of the Memorial Meltdown in Eau Claire, the Spartans got called for six violations, while the Wausau West Warriors didn’t get flagged at all. The Spartans didn’t seem to mind this time as they scored three shorthanded goals on their way to a 6-2 win over the Warriors.

Chase Crass opened the scoring for Wausau West at 8:50 of the first period. He corralled the puck in the right corner and skated it out into the faceoff circle. From right around the dot, Crass fired a wrist shot over the left shoulder of Spartan Goalie Trent Peterson.

The Spartans tied the score on a short handed breakaway goal by Brayden Severin. Severin blocked a point shot just inside his own blue line and was off to the races, beating the West defenseman to the loose puck and beating West goalie Matt Leopold up top.

Superior took the lead less than two minutes later. Maverik Milroy won a faceoff in the left circle in the West end back to Jackson Marthaler. Marthaler fired a low knuckle puck through heavy traffic that Leopold didn’t see until it was bouncing back out of the net.

Despite spending most of the first period in the Superior end of the ice, with two power play opportunities, and out-shooting the Spartans 16-9, the Warriors found themselves down 2-1.

In the second period, Superior took two penalties just 20 seconds apart, handing West a 5 on 3 power play for a minute and forty seconds. But after frustrating the Warriors for the first minute, Marthaler picked up a loose puck along the right boards just above the hash marks in his own zone, even with a Warrior defenseman. Rather than icing the puck, Marthaler turned on the jets up the boards, leaving the West defender behind. Then Marthaler stick handled around the other defenseman and roofed a shot over Leopold for a 3-1 lead.

When the second penalty expired the Spartans got two forwards out in the neutral zone with only one Warrior defenseman back. Tyler Olson saw what was happening and fed a pass to Brady Haroldson for a two on one with Brayden Hurtig. A well-timed pass from Brady to Brayden made it 4-1 Superior.

West again out-shot Superior 14-9 in the second period, but again got out-scored, this time 2-0.

The Warrior power play continued their struggles in the third period. Hurtig stole the puck from a West defender at the blue line and skated into the Wausau zone one on one. The defenseman gave up too much ground and Hurtig fired a perfectly placed shot from the high slot over Leopold’s out-stretched glove.

A turnover at their own blue line cost the Warriors midway through the third. Lucas Williams stole the puck a fired from the same spot as Hurtig, and for the same corner. Leopold was able to get his glove on it, but not enough of it to keep the puck from entering the net.

With 2 minutes left in the game, Cooper Depuydt, standing alone on the right side, saw a lane through the crease and feathered a pass to Brody Brimacombe on the backdoor for an easy tap in goal, making the final score 6-2.

Superior did out-shoot West 17 to 12 in the third, bringing the game total to a more even-looking 42-35.