The #3 Bay Area Ice Bears took to the ice Saturday afternoon at Bob Suter's Capitol Ice Arena to defend their girls state title against the #1 Central Wisconsin Storm who won the 2022 title.

The two teams already met twice this season. On Dec. 21, the Storm skated to a 2-1 overtime win where both the Storm's Claire Clames and Ice Bears' Parker Bartholomaus stopped 20 shots.

They played again on Feb. 9, and this time the Ice Bears took the overtime win, 1-0 in a game where the Ice Bears out shot the Storm 44-10.

The start of the championship game looked more like their second matchup of the season as the Ice Bears controlled most of the first period as the teams traded power play chances, out shooting the Storm 11-2 and making sure that the Storm couldn't get anything set up in the Ice Bear zone.

The first two and half minutes and four shots of the second period belonged to the Storm but a slashing penalty put them on the penalty kill where Addison Dahl stopped a Storm clearing attempt, stepped up and wristed it in. 

The Storm followed with a power play goal of their own just a minute later. Sophie Bohlin fired a shot low from the point and Tristun Wicklund made a perfect tip into the top corner to tie the game at one. 

The Storm started turning things around in the second period, out shooting the Ice Bears 8-6 and looking a lot more confident, setting up for a thriller of a third period.

A minute into the third period Bartholomaus stopped Gabi Heuser on a wrap around and Ava Whitmore on a one-timer, but on the next shift Whitmore managed to score on a dump in from across the blue line. The puck was tumbling end-over-end and bounced over Bartholomaus as she was down to make sure it didn't get past her on the ice. 

Tristan Wicklund extended the lead to 3-1 on a rebound of a Sophie Bohlin shot at 4:13 of the third.

The Ice Bears found themselves up 5-on-3 shortly thereafter after some sloppy stick work by the Storm led to slashing and tripping penalties. The Ice Bears thought they scored on a shot from the point that went of Storm defender Ave Rode's skate and in, but the goal was disallowed as two Ice Bears players in the crease interfered with goalie Claire Calmes's ability to play her position.

They did manage to add a power play goal at 7:47 of the third period on the same power play. They pushed the draw toward Calmes and Faye Brunke managed to poke it in before Calmes could make the cover.

At 15:00 Sophie Bohlin stopped a Bay Area outlet pass in the corner and flipped it toward the front of the net where a Bay Area defender reached up to glove it out of the air and mishandled it into the net to make it 4-2 for the Storm. 

With the goalie pulled Bay Area added one on a scramble in front; Hannah VonHaden managed to push in a rebound in front of a sprawling Calmes to make it 4-3.

After a Storm penalty the Ice Bears had a 6-on-4 chance against with the goalie pulled but Kristina Kruse ran Calmes hard and received a five minute major and game disqualification ending the power play, and ultimately the game.

Parker Batholomaus had 15 saves in the loss for the Ice Bears. Claire Calmes had 28 saves in the win for the Storm.

The Storm won the battle of the last two state champions and will have another banner to raise.