Two weeks remain in the regular season and teams are jockeying into position as they prepare to hit the home stretch. If your team got out of the gate slow and struggled through the front stretch, that can be put aside with a strong finish.
The Cap City Cougars know a thing or two about a strong finish. Last season they struggled through a 7-16-1 regular season, then sprinted through the playoffs with three nail-biting wins, two in overtime, to hit the finish line first in Section Four and qualify for the state tournament.
The Cougars push may be starting earlier this year as they have quietly won six of their last seven games. With two wins last week, 4-1 over Rock County and 7-2 over the crosstown Lynx, they have pushed their season record to 12-10. Penelope Loeffelholz had a hat trick against the Lynx and Sophie Martinelli turned away forty-two shots in net. During the seven-game stretch Martinelli has only allowed seven goals with a save percentage of 96%.
Head Coach Brenna Weber credits her players and their focus on the teams growing success. “The girls have been building and focusing on the continued growth and strength of our systems and their execution,” said Weber. “Every game provides its ups and downs, but the team is working to stay composed and focused on the next shift. All the physical and mental work has contributed to the success seen recently.”
Tuesday night Weber’s Cougars will travel to Beaver Dam to clash with the streaking Beavers. Holding down first place in the Badger Conference, Beaver Dam has reeled off thirteen wins in their last fifteen games. It could very well be a preview of the Section Four Sectional Final in four weeks. Beaver Dam won the first meeting between the two teams, 3-2. Both teams have top ten offenses Cap City (3.36 GPG) and Beaver Dam (3.35GPG).
“Tuesday is going to be a battle,” Weber predicted. “Beaver Dam has had a lot of success this season and our first matchup was tough. We expect a close game.”
Back on January 7th, Hayward lost a 3-1 decision to North Shore, Minnesota. It was their fourth loss in six games and their season record dipped to 7-5-1. Despite the loss the team’s consensus was that they had played one of their best games of the season. Since that night the Hurricanes have ripped off nine straight wins. They opened the week with a convincing 5-0 win over ECA and followed it with a 3-1 win in Fond du Lac.
On Saturday afternoon they played their sixteenth road game of the season in Appleton. The Hurricanes built a 3-0 lead over Fox Cities, after two periods on a pair of goals by Olivia Webster and a goal by Reese Sheehan. The Stars, roared back on two Margaret Thomas goals and goal by Ella Merritt to tie the game and send it to overtime.
Junior Makenna Hutchison made twenty saves in the third period and overtime to keep the Stars from grabbing the win. She finished with thirty-eight total saves. In the second overtime, Captain Reese Sheehan rolled the counter to nine wins when she stepped in front a pass in the neutral zone and went in alone, deked to her forehand lifted the puck past Addison Grasse for the win. It was the dynamic seniors, twenty-ninth goal of the season.
Oh, and by the way, the Bay Area Ice Bears marched to their fifteenth straight win, 4-1 over Arrowhead paced by Faye Brunke’s 22nd and 23rd goals. Bay Area holds strong to the state’s top ranking with a record of 19-1.
The Sabers of CFM continue to be a thorn that could be a problem come playoff time. They have won seven of nine including wins over Hudson and Eau Claire Area last week. Avery Lindstrom scored a hat trick in a 6-4 win over Hudson. Addisyn Buesgen chipped in three assists. The Senior Captain then went out and scored the game winning overtime goal to beat ECA 2-1.
Elsewhere, third ranked Superior (18-3) lost 7-0 to Proctor/Hermantown (18-6), who are ranked 5th Class 1A-Minnesota. The Spartans followed that loss with three wins. Makaela Reinke netted a hat trick, the third goal on a penalty shot as Superior downed Duluth 5-2. Friday and Saturday the Spartans cruised to 10-0 and 9-0 wins over Coulee Region and Rock County respectively.
The Central Wisconsin Storm beat the Wisconsin Valley Union 7-1 on Senior Night and then traveled to Madison where they defeated the Metro Lynx 6-0. The state’s leading scorer, Gabi Heuser broke the Storm career goals record with her 85th on Tuesday and then set the single season goals record on Saturday with her 32nd and 33rd of the year. The previous single season mark was held Katelyn Ramthun and Sami Federici at thirty-one.
It was a four-game week for the St. Croix Valley Fusion. After three strong wins, 2-1 over Western Wisconsin, 4-1 over Hudson and 2-1 win over Fox Cities, they ran into Kennedy Kohlman who made 37 saves as the Warbirds slowed the Fusion with a 4-2 defeat. Fusion Head Coach Matt Cranston had one word to describe Kohlman’s performance, “terrific”. Kohlman won her 15th game of the year. Callie Rottman scored her 15th and 16th goals for Fondy. Earlier in the week the Warbirds (17-5) skated past Lakeshore 4-1 and dropped a 3-1 decision to Hayward.
On the injury front, Senior Anna Woolley, who led the Fusion to the state tournament a year ago with a 16-7 record, may be lost for the season with a major concussion. The team has also been without Alexis Ralston and Sophie DeLong who have been out with illness.
Western Wisconsin jumped into ratings last week at number six, then suffered two losses, 2-1 to the Fusion and 5-1 to Cottage Grove, MN (12-11-2). The losses ended the Stars six game winning streak.
Northland Pines ended their seven-game losing streak with a 4-2 win over Houghton/Hancock.
Metro Lynx beat Stoughton 2-1 on Scout Elmer’s overtime game winner, her second goal of the season.
WVU’s Jenna Jones celebrated Senior Night with the game winning goal in a 2-1 win over Brookfield.
Ryleigh Bychinski has led Badger Lightning to three wins in four games with four goals.
Congratulations to Macy Blooming on compiling two-thousand career saves in her high school career. The Oak Creek Senior has a 29-31-2 career record with eight shutouts, compiling 2,223 saves, with a career 2.48 GAA and 93.5% save percentage.
Seniors…
Senior Nights are on display across the state as the regular season comes to a close. Always an emotional night for everybody from parents to coaches, to teammates, to the seniors. I have witnessed many different ways to handle this special evening over the years. When is the right time to do it? Before the game, between periods, it is emotional and often I think coaches feel it creates a bit of unnecessary chaos for their team.
I was on hand for Medford’s Senior Night last Friday. It was conducted between the second and third period and was one of the nicest ceremonies I have seen. Head Coach Tasha Schmidtfranz delivered very personal and emotional accounts of each of her seniors. One of those, her daughter Grace, made the delivery even more difficult. When your son or daughter goes through a high school career with the same class, you unknowingly seem to adopt all their classmates as your own. The end of the senior year is an emotional time.
A special congratulations to those seniors whose high school hockey careers maybe didn’t go exactly as planned. Those who never made it on the first line or top defensive pair or as the number one goalie. The players who understood that the team comes first, that being a great teammate is just as important as being a great player. The ones that accepted and excelled at their role no matter how small it seemed to be. You are the heart and soul of every team, the core that is essential to any successful program. You truly enjoyed the journey, not just for the wins and the accolades, but for the experience, the camaraderie and the lessons you learned. A salute to all of you and your parents who understood the big picture, supported you and were always just happy to see you play, no matter the circumstances.
Key Sectional Games this Week
Mon: Western Wisconsin at CFM
Tue: ECA at Fusion
Cap City at Beaver Dam
Thur: BR Falls at ECA
Sat: Superior at CW Storm
