The overall speed and depth of the Central Wisconsin Storm was too much for the Bay Area Ice Bears in the girls’ Game of the Week at Cornerstone Community Center on Saturday afternoon. The Storm outshot the Ice Bears 30-12 and came away with a 5-3 victory.

The Ice Bears came out strong and controlled play in the Storm end of the ice for the first few minutes of the game, but couldn’t get the puck to the net. The Storm used their speed to wrest control of the action midway through the period, and kept it most of the rest of the game.

Central Wisconsin scored first at 12:27 in the first period. Paige Sedlar fired a shot from the point that was knocked down by a Bay Area defender, but right to the stick of  Kylie Gazzolo. Ice Bear goalie Sarah Block had moved to her left to make the save on Sedlar’s shot, leaving the other side of the net open when the puck went to Gazzolo.       

The Storm scored again two minutes later. Rachel Babiarz had the puck below the goal line and off to the side of the net. She passed the puck toward the front of the net and Block tried to stop the pass with her stick. She missed the puck, and before she could get her stick back in place, Jordyn Mroczenski banged it between her pads.

First period shots were 10-3 in favor of the Storm. Ice Bears got two on the 5-3 power play at the end of the period.

Miranda Hayes wasted little time in the second period, scoring a power play goal just 45 second in. She took a slap shot through traffic from the faceoff dot that sailed over Block's shoulder, giving the Storm a 3-0 lead.

Lauren Roethlisberger scored the next two goals in the period to bring the Ice Bears within a goal. On her first goal, she used a Storm defender as a screen and fired a wrist shot through the defender’s legs and past Fonti low on the stick side. At 11:07 she went coast-to-coast with the puck, leaning around the last defender and fired a wicked backhand shot from the faceoff circle that beat Fonti over her shoulder on the short side.

Two minutes later, the Storm would increase their lead back to two. Claire Porrier scored for the Storm on the back end of a 3 on 2 rush with Emilee Mytinger and Mroczenski.

Shots in the second period were 9 for the Storm and 3 for the Ice Bears.

Lindsey Strainis relieved Block in net to start the third period for Bay Area.

The Storm took advantage of an ice Bears penalty late in the third period. Crisply moving the puck around the zone on the power play, Sedlar fired from the faceoff dot on the left and scored at 10:00 even. Assist to Kelly Knetter.

Four minutes later the Ice Bears scored on a 2 on 1, as Courtney Wittig used Allie Brunner as a decoy, faked a pass and then roofed a shot over Fonti.

The Ice Bears briefly pulled their goalie late in the period, but a penalty moved the faceoff to their zone, so Strainis came back.