The fourth seed Tomahawk Hatchets were making their first trip to the state tournament since 1991 on Thursday at Bob Suter's Capitol Ice Arena in Middleton, their task was the defending division two champion New Richmond Tigers. 

It was all knotted up after one period but a dominant second period put the Tigers out of reach for the underdog Hatchets and the Tigers took an 8-4 win and will play to defend their title on Satuday.

Tomahawk's Jonah Dickens opened the scoring on a one-timer from the left faceoff dot on a feed from Landyn Seymour.

New Richmond came right back and scored on a fourth rebound. Bjorn Bahneman corralled it in front and put it in over the glove. 

At 7:30 mark of the first period New Richmond made it 2-1 on a 2-on-1. Gage Fox made a nice feed across to Brody Jackson to just snuck it past the outstretched leg of Trevor Seliskar. 

New Richmond made it 3-1 four minutes later on their second power play opportunity of the first. Jameson Unger put in a Zaylin Sweet rebound after a feed by Gage Fox.

Tomahawk answered back less than a minute later when Caleb Dickens slid it across the front to Logan Seymour and Seymour cut across the front and back-handed it in to cut the lead to 3-2.

Less than a minute after that Jonah Dickens tied the game at three after taking a feed at center ice and racing down the ice to wrist it in. The New Richmond defense just couldn't catch him.

After a few really nice chances where Tomahawk wasn't able to convert early in the second period New Richmond manage to spring Steven Chapman on a one-on-one, he beat his defenseman and put it over the outstretch leg of Seliskar to make it 4-3.

New Richmond made it 5-3 less than a minute later when Zaylin Sweet buried a shot from the slot. They added their sixth goal just a minute later on a shot from high by Brody Jackson through traffic in front.

With just more than a minute left in the second Caleb Dickens cut the lead to two on a short handed goal just off of a period of 4-on-4 play. He picked off an outlet pass by the New Richmond defense and beat goalie Ryan McGillis one-on-one.

Catcher Langeness scored a wrap around goal just 1:07 into the third period to make it 7-4 for New Richmond on a defensive lapse by Tomahawk. Langeness would make 8-4, 11 minutes later on a short handed breakaway.

Ryan McGillis had 14 saves in the win for New Richmond. Trevor Seliskar had 27 saves in the loss for Tomahawk.