It's only been two years of annual meetings, but the hockey games between Fond du Lac High School and St. Mary's Springs are quickly becoming the most entertaining games the area has to offer.

Saturday night's game was another display of what has made this rivalry so much fun, and why it has a bright future.

Because of the nature of youth hockey most of the players on the two teams play with each other on junior club teams before reaching high school. There's a level of familiarity and friendship that actually breeds contempt.

"When you played with them your whole life then you split up teams by school it just feels so great (to win)," Springs senior Trevor Ebertz said. "Old rivalries come back. It's just intense on the ice, but off the ice we're all still good friends."

It doesn't always look like that during the game. Twice Saturday there were coincidental penalties called when players on the two teams came as close as high school players can get to dropping gloves, including one moment just 26 seconds into the game.

A 3-2 game is always going to lead to very disparate emotions, but with the way the Springs players celebrated, and the dejected appearance of the Fondy players there's no denying how much this game means.

And just for good measure, the size and energy of the crowds and the student sections for the city battle can only be topped by a sectional final game.

"It's the best. The big crowds add that much more energy," Fondy senior Keegan Acheson said. "You really feed off the crowd."

It's also a game the players think about all year.

"It's the most fun game of the entire year," Acheson said. "Everyone looks forward to it. When you see it on the calendar at the start of the year, everyone's ready to go. There's no other game like it."

Springs had played an independent schedule until last season when it joined the Badgerland Conference that Fond du Lac already resided in. So this is still a relatively new rivalry, and one that should only get better.