It was a night of firsts for the Stow family as new head coach Bob Stow secured his first win and daughter Ava scored her first varsity goal in a 3-0 win over Hudson at Hobbs Ice Arena in Eau Claire.  

The Stars opened the season against three strong opponents dropping tight games to Superior 2-1, USM 2-1 and Hayward 2-0. Facing another tough test on Tuesday against conference rival Hudson, the Stars were looking to get some timely scoring to go with their stingy defense.

Stars goaltender, junior, Evi Pritzl was the games early star handling Hudson’s fourteen shot first period barrage. Midway through the period she took a shot from Hudson defenseman Erin Madigan off her mask and then recovered to stop the rebound attempt. Late in the period she deftly poke-checked Juliana Cahoon as she cut across the crease. The Stars best chance came on just their second shot of the period with under a minute to play, when Addison Gruhlke set up Lauryn Eckloff for a one-timer from the high slot. Hudson goalie Sophia Thompson made a pad save to keep the game scoreless.

Hudson head coach Matt Szypura lamented his team’s inability to capitalize on a strong opening period, “I thought we played our best in the first period, unfortunately we could not keep our same energy throughout the entire game.”

Gruhlke started the second period with a point-blank chance right off the opening face-off. With just over ten minutes to play, it was Gruhlke who would set up the game’s first goal. Coming down the right wing, the Fall Creek senior fired a shot that Thompson stopped, but the rebound bounced around until Eckloff would corral it near the left post and slide it home. Just moments prior to the goal, Hudson’s Laura Johnson got in alone, but Pritzl shut her down with a blocker save.

The Stars increased their lead to 2-0 when Stow held in a Raiders clearing attempt at the left point and quickly released a shot on net that appeared to deflect off a Hudson defenseman and past Thompson. It was Stow’s first goal and the kind of bounce that the Stars had not been getting in their first three games. Late in the period Hudson’s Marley Larson fed a pass sending Brook Monicken in alone on Pritzl who made the save with the help of great backcheck by Gruhlke. Raiders defenseman Lauren Kowalsky kept the game at 2-0 when she ran down Stars winger Molly Wright on a breakaway.

Hudson’s Madigan made a bid to get the Raiders on the board early in the third period, but Pritzl stood tall with a shoulder save on a shot headed for the corner. At 10:25 the Stars would push their lead to 3-0. It was Gruhlke again, back pressuring and stealing a puck in the neutral zone and then attacking down the left wing. The Stars captain used the defenseman as a screen and zipped a wrist shot over Thompson’s short-side shoulder.

Despite continued pressure by the Raiders they could not get that first goal. Cahoon twice got in close on the ECA net as the period drained down, but Pritzl was calm and composed in keeping the door closed. Szypura praised the ECA junior netminder, “I thought we had more scoring chances throughout the game but could not capitalize as Pritzl played a great game.”  

Hudson outshot the Stars 36-19.

First year head coach Bob Stow was pleased with the step forward for his team, “I am very happy to see how we are progressing as we continue to put the pieces together and build more consistent play during our games.”

The Stars (1-3) will travel to Black River Falls (1-2-1) on Thursday and Hudson (1-1-1) will cross the border to play Red Wing, Minnesota (0-6) on Saturday.

Three Stars of the game:

1-ECA-Pritzl, 2-ECA-Gruhlke, 3-HUD-Madigan