Twenty-one goals scored, zero goals allowed.

The Bay Area Ice Bears continued their impressive season with a 4-0 shutout of the ECA Stars in the championship game of the WIPH Holiday Classic. They rolled to three victories outscoring their opponents 21-0 for the tournament (10-0 over Viroqua, 7-0 over Warbirds) and for the season have only allowed five goals scored against them. Their only loss was a 2-1 defeat at the hands of 5th ranked Blake, Minnesota. They improved their season record to 10-1, including seven shutouts.

The Ice Bears demonstrated their depth on Saturday at Cornerstone in Ashwaubenon. Their top line of Faye Brunke, Julianne Bradford and Emily Bill were held without a goal. Sophomore Abby Mommaerts netted a pair of goals with freshman Aisling Buchan and Hannah Von Haden also scoring.

Surprisingly the Bears don’t have a double-digit goal scorer, relying on their air-tight defense to lead the way. Their blue line is led by juniors Ava McDonald, a physical force and classmate Addison Dahl. But there is more, three seniors Tiana Stindt, Briana Anundsen, Olympia Simons and impressive freshman Elizabeth Zunker.

The rising ECA Stars earned their way into the championship with a pair of nail-biting wins on Friday. They opened the tournament with a 2-1 win over 4th ranked Hayward. Goaltender Amy Thul’s 33 saves led the way. Later on Friday, the Stars worked overtime to defeat Fox Cities 3-2 on Makayla Thiele’s game winner. For ECA it was their sixth win in their last seven games.

“I'm very proud of the way we played this weekend at the holiday tourney as well as the first half of the season,” said ECA Head Coach Bob Stow. “We have had a very challenging schedule for the first half. The players are energized and confident and are working hard in practice,” he added. “It’s showing as they played three consistent games at a high level against some of the top teams in the state this past weekend.”

Bay Area established themselves early controlling most of the play in the ECA defensive zone. Faye Brunke got the first grade A scoring chance at 14:20 from the top of the paint, but Amy Thul was there for the save. ECA defended well keeping most of the Bay Area possession on the perimeter. The Stars nearly grabbed a 1-0 lead at the ten-minute mark when Molly Wright’s shot from the right dot bounced to the backdoor where Addison Knaack couldn’t get a stick on it. Kate Roberts, following the play, got a clean shot at Ice Bears goalie Reese Spierling who made the save. Bay Area got a late powerplay opportunity, but the period ended scoreless.

A pair of Ice Bear freshmen set up the game’s first goal. Defenseman Elizabeth Zunker won a puck race to retrieve a loose puck just inside her blue line and fed it up the wall to Aisling Buchan who gathered it in, protected it, then delivered it to linemate Abby Mommaerts. Crossing the blue line Mommaerts used the Stars defenseman as screen snapping a shot just over the pad of Thul for a 1-0 Bears lead. On her next shift out, Mommaerts would tally her second of the game converting a rebound from the left dot. Hannah Von Haden danced her way from the blue line to get the shot on Thul to create the rebound.

Leading 2-0 the Ice Bears momentum took a hit as they were called for three straight penalties. Bay Areas aggressive penalty kill mostly corralled the Stars powerplay. Tiana Stindt engineered a long bounce pass to send Emily Bill on a shorthanded breakaway. A great backcheck by the Stars April Vocke limited Bill to bad angle shot. With the last penalty winding down, Stars forward Molly Wright created a couple of good scoring chances with her speed and quickness.

The Star’s man advantage had kept the Bears off the scoreboard and it looked like the period would end at 2-0. Faye Brunke carried down the right wing into the Stars zone where she tried to feed a pass to Bill driving the net. The puck hit traffic and bounced into the high slot where Buchan was waiting. She knocked home the loose puck for a backbreaking 3-0 Bears lead.

The final period featured a crossbar ringing goal by the Bears Von Hadden and a 5 on 3 powerplay for the Stars. Spiering completed her fifth shutout of the season and lowered her GAA to 0.54 and raised her save percentage to a lofty .948, second only to Taylor Simonson of the Storm who leads the state in both categories at 0.50 and .965.

The Stars can take a small moral victory in registering a season high 18 shots on the Bay Area net. The previous high had been 14 shots by Blake. Thul, playing in her third straight game due to an injury to Evi Pritzl, had 27 saves.

ECA will get some time to re-group as their next game will be January 7th vs the Fusion at Hobbs Ice Arena. “I don't think they have reached their peak yet,” predicted Stow, “and it’s going to be very exciting watching them play as we get ready to head into the second half of the season.”

For the Bears, they will host Gentry Academy (4-13) at Cornerstone, Friday, January 3rd.

Three Stars of the game:

1-BA-Mommaerts, 2-BA-McDonald, 3-ECA-Thul

Blue Collar-ECA-Wright