It was a packed house Tuesday night in the O’Brien Rink at Hobbs Ice Arena in Eau Claire. Where the number 8 seed Chippewa Falls Cardinals looked to continue their cinderella run against the 5 seeded Eau Claire Memorial Old Abes in front of a sold out crowd.

Ultimately, it was the Old Abes who showed up poised and well conditioned against the feisty Cardinals, taking the game 2-1 and advancing to a sectional final showdown against Wausau West.

The 1st period started off chippy, with big collisions from both teams on each others opposing forechecks. Both teams had their respective fans cheering early.

It was a great start for Chippewa Falls, as they were able to keep the majority of the play in Old Abe territory.

4:11 into the game, an electrifying play broke the ice for the Cardinals. Austin Frenette fired a stretch pass from below his own goal line to Jackson LeMay, who sped through the neutral zone and let go a wicked wrister in stride from the top of the left circle.

The pass, the shot, and the celebration into the Memorial crowd had the building buzzing early.

Despite Eau Claire Memorial creating some good scoring chances toward the end of the period, the back and forth first period concluded with Chippewa Falls on top 1-0. Freshman goaltender Andrew Brovold shut the door with some tremendous play for Chi Hi.

A 2nd period full of special teams, physicality, and great goaltending for both squads had “playoff style hockey” written all over it.

Some big kills from Chippewa Falls throughout the period were thanks to their dedication to blocking shots and sacrificing their body. Along with their goaltender Brovold playing lights out.

The period was tremendously better for the Old Abes. They generated consistent, quality chances shift by shift and didn’t give the Cardinals any time or space in their own zone. All while drawing multiple power play opportunities, including a few shorthanded.

But keeping the Memorial big guns off the score sheet was bound to only last so long. A penalty inside a minute to go in the 2nd led to a catch, walk, and snipe from the left circle by Gabe Pankratz. The tally from Pankratz tied things up 1-1 with 22.7 seconds remaining in a hard fought period by both teams.

In a win or go home 3rd period, both teams came out very conservatively. Neither team seemed to have lacked discipline, in other words, no one was going to make the mistake of taking a “bad” penalty and costing their team.

The wheels were slowly falling off the tracks for the Cardinals in the third. The pressure from the Old Abes offensively and their ability to roll their conditioned lines led to numerous grade-A scoring chances. Leading to Chippewa Falls icing the puck several times in a span of just a couple minutes.

Memorial was letting everything go to the net, the calm, cool and collective Brovold responded with secular saves. Including rebound swallows, wrap around post to post stops, and flashing the leather with the glove.

With just under 5 and a half to play in the third, Memorial thought they had taken the lead. A give and go between Memorial forwards Mack Diggins and Gabe Pankratz led to a shot and save, and a late rebound by Mack Diggins was shot into the net. The whistle had blown and the goal was not counted.

In what had to have been 10+ blocked shots by the Cardinals in the last 5 minutes, Memorial was controlling the play and buzzing in crunch time.

A faceoff with just under 40 seconds to go in the 3rd inside the Cardinal zone was won by the Old Abes. A broken up centering pass bounced to Gabe Pankratz in the slot, the shot was stopped by Andrew Brovold, but was poked in by Mack Diggins, who started the play, for the Memorial lead 2-1!

The late tally with 30.7 seconds remaining in the third was enough for a Memorial win. The late season cinderella magic runs out for the Chippewa Falls Cardinals, and the Eau Claire Memorial Old Abes clinch a spot in the sectional Championship against Wausau West. The game to advance to the state tournament will be played in Chippewa Falls at 7:00pm on Friday.