The River Falls Wildcats and the Somerset Spartans traded goals in each of the first two periods, then had to go into overtime before the Spartans came away with a 3-2 victory and the Division 2 Section 3 Championship on Saturday afternoon at the somerset Ice Arena. The Spartans will make their third trip of the 2020s to the WIAA State Tournament on Thursday.

River River Falls was the aggressor in the first period and used the speed of their forwards to get behind the Somerset defense, forcing Somerset goalie Carson Belisle to bail them out more than once. The Wildcats frenzied early pace also forced the Spartans take penalties to slow them down.

On the Wildcats second power play Cal Usgaard took a shot-pass from the point across the crease to Lars Briese on the back door. Briese redirected it but the puck missed and hit the side of the net. The two early power plays for River Falls tested Belisle and gave River Falls an 11 to 1 shot advantage halfway through the first period.

The Wildcats finally got one past Belisle at 13:17 during four on four action with each team having a player in the penalty box. The Wildcats again got behind the Spartans defense and Anthony McPherson put a shot on goal from the left side of the crease. Belisle stopped it but the puck went right back to McPherson, who shot again. Another stop, but this time the rebound went across the crease to Jaxon Flanagan for an easy tap in goal.

Somerset tied the game at one goal each just two minutes later. Broden Theil took a shot from the right point into heavy traffic in front of the net. Marshall Haukom got a stick on the shot and deflected it past Wildcat goalie Daniel Linn.

The first period ended with a 19-7 shot advantage for River Falls.

After the game Spartan coach Dan Gilkerson said, “The first period we were just super excited to play. We have a super young team and I think they were just really excited, and Falls through the kitchen sink at us. I mean they're pinching their D and sending their forwards hard. So it was a little bit of a struggle, but Carson kept us in it. But we just kept fighting through it and we got that goal off the face off late in the period to tie at one to one and just kind of salvaged that period.”

River Falls regained the lead halfway through the second period. Chase Rudoph took a shot from the point through very heavy traffic.

The Spartans tied it back up again about two minutes later when Ryland Lathe made a hard pass across the top of the crease to Devin Richardson who was wide open on the back door. Richardson did not miss with his one-timer.

That would end the scoring in the second period. The Wildcats maintained their shot advantage with the count being 34 to 15, but score still tied at two each.

River Falls got another glorious chance to regain the lead in the third period. A shot-pass from the point found Rudolph at the side of the net. Chase deflected the shot toward the net, but Belisle got across in time to stop it. Rudolph took another shot, but hit the side of the net.

The Wildcats got one more chance to end it in regulation when Jake Lien dropped in from the point, sidestepped a Somerset defender and rang a wrist shot off the crossbar with 4 minutes to go in the third period.

Somerset turned the tide in that third period, out-shooting River Falls 9 to 8.

The overtime didn’t last long, less than two minutes. Micaiah Schuld put a hard shot on Linn. The rebound kicked out to Linn’s right where Wyatt Olson fired it back. The puck hit Linn in the side and bounced into the net.

“For the overtime we just told the guys just keep doing simple better. That's kind of our thing, I think that's an old Nick Saban thing, but you know we just kept going,” Said Gilkerson. “I mean we kept playing our third line and they kind of shortened their bench a little bit, and I thought they got a little tired. and you know we kind of wore them down there in the third and the overtime.”