skip navigation

Beavers Stay Hot with 4-1 Win Over Lightning

By Dan Bauer, WiPH Staff, 01/16/25, 10:15AM CST

Share

The temperatures outside the Lake Delton Ice Arena struggled to escape single digits, but inside the red-hot Beaver Dam girl’s hockey team was cookin’ and the Wisconsin Dells High School band was rocking. Having won eight of their last nine games, the Golden Beavers rolled into town to face the Badger Lightning. With two key forwards out with injuries, Beaver Dam leaned on their leading scorer, freshman Brenna Rhodes, and she responded with three points as the Beavers downed the Lightning 4-1.

Beaver Dam opened the season with a 1-4 record, but since then has wrapped a six and a three-game winning streak around a loss to number one ranked Bay Area. With their win on Tuesday they’ve improved their season record to 10-5.

“Good team win tonight,” said Head Coach Mike Pogorelec. Skating without two of the teams top six forwards, Addie Smedema and Addy Damon, both out with concussions, Pogorelec was proud of his team’s performance. “It was a good opportunity for some of our younger girls to play.”

Beaver Dam struck first when crafty forward Brenna Rhodes fed a pass to Kamryn Albert near the left hash mark where she quickly wristed a shot past Olivia Renneberg. Only a minute and nineteen seconds in and the Beavers had taken a 1-0 lead.

The Lightning got their first high danger chance midway through the period when Cassidy Putz fired wide from the right dot.

Neither goalie was particularly busy in the opening period, but Renneberg stopped a two-on-one rush with about three minutes to play to prevent the Beavers from adding to their lead. With four seconds remaining Renneberg stoned Olivia Bates from her doorstep ending the period with Beaver Dam leading 1-0. Renneberg made five saves in the period, while Beavers netminder Emily Smedema was called on to make just two.

Beaver Dam just missed scoring early in the second frame when smooth skating forward Lil Mansueto slipped the puck past a Lightning defenseman inside the blue line and bore down alone on Renneberg. The sophomore from Mayfield rang her wrist shot off the crossbar. Shortly thereafter, Rhodes took a breakout pass from wing Makenna Bartholomew cut to the middle and attacked the Lightning defensemen.  She split the Lightning defense going to her backhand, then firing back across the grain as she cut past Renneberg. For the impressive freshman Rhodes, it was her team leading nineteenth goal of the season, giving the Beavers a 2-0 lead.

The Lightning took advantage of Beaver penalty at 7:58 spending nearly the entire powerplay in the offensive zone. The Beavers turned to their best penalty killer Smedema, who stood tall and denied the Lightning to keep her shutout intact.

As the clock ticked under five minutes in period two, Emerson Damon, another sophomore for the young Beavers, showed great patience walking out from below the goal line and then dragging Renneberg from post to post before squeezing the puck past the sophomore netminder for a 3-0 Beaver Dam advantage.

The Badger Lightning would not go quietly storming into period three and pushing the pace as they worked for that first goal. Senior Ryleigh Bychinski pumped life into a comeback when she took an unselfish feed from Paige Othmer and scored to get the Lightning on the scoreboard at 3-1. Othmer, the hard-working junior defenseman, passed up an excellent shooting opportunity, and calmly fed Bychinski who one-touched the puck past Smedema from the front door of the “house”.

As the Lightning continued to push, Othmer fired wide on a grade-A scoring chance and Reese Olson dropped a perfect pass for Dayana Wade, but her point blank bullet sailed over the crossbar.

Beaver Dam ended the Lightning comeback at 2:30 when Rhodes carried across the blue line, faking, then cutting across the top of the left circle and beating Renneberg over the glove. It was Rhodes second of the night sealing a 4-1 win for the Beavers. Rhodes, a Beaver Dam student, shows unusual patience and awareness for a freshman. “She is a great kid,” offered Pogorelec, “works extremely hard on and off the ice.”

Renneberg finished the evening with thirteen saves, while Smedema stopped fourteen of fifteen for Beaver Dam.

Rhodes now has twenty goals on the season, the fourth highest in the state, even drew praise from Lightning Head Coach Nate Breunig. “She is a tremendous stickhandler and has a great shot,” he admitted. “She is a fun player to watch.”

“I thought we played a great game,” Breunig said. “The minor mistakes we make in our skill work tend to put us behind other teams.”

The Beavers (10-5) will get a gargantuan test on Friday when the third ranked Storm will hit the ice at the Beaver Dam Family Center.  The Lightning (4-10) will try to avenge an earlier season loss to Cap City on Thursday, then host Northland Pines on Saturday.

Three Stars of the Game

1-BD-Rhodes, 2-BD-Mansueto, 3-LGT-Othmer

Blue Collar: BD-Mylrea, LGT-Wade

Games of the Week