The Notre Dame Academy Tritons earned a shot for three consecutive state championships on Friday at Bob Suters Legacy20 Arena in Middleton with a thrilling 8-4 win over the Wausau West Warriors.

The Warriors got on the board first after several minutes of back-and-forth action when at 7:09 Teigan Rasmus passed along the blue line to Drake Kuharske who stepped in and roofed one to make it 1-0.

Notre Dame would tie it up just a few minutes later as time expired on a power play opportunity. Jake Molaski corralled the puck behind the net and hit Jack O'Brien out front for the one-timer goal to tie the game.

Notre Dame would take the lead just 1:10 later when Andrew Osterman scored a wraparound goal on Julianne Scalcucci after Scalcucci made two huge saves and the Warriors defense couldn't help him out.

It only took the Tritons another 1:03 to extend the lead to 3-1 on a wrister by Nathan Antti, on a feed from Carson Schroeder as the Warrior defense continued to give the Tritons time and space.

Ryker Thomas made it 4-1 Tritons when he made an outlet pass from behind the Warrior net and it hit off the skate of a Warrior defenseman and bounced into the net at the 15:25 mark of the period. Mercifully for the Warriors the period ended with no further damage.

At the mid-way point of the first period, Wausau West lead in shots 12-5 but then Notre Dame took over and the period finished with the Tritons holding a 17-13 shot advantage. 

Three minutes into the second period Notre Dame extended the lead to four goals when Ryker Thomas knocked in a rebound on a Dominick Mader shot.

The Warriors got one back just under two minutes later when Caden Bohlin scored from the slot on a feed from Hendrix Damrow to make it 5-2. The Warriors scored twice more a the 10:48 and 12:03 marks of the second period to cut the lead to 5-4. Chase Crass has both goals for the Warriors.

The Tritons would add number 6 on at the 12:33 mark when Thomas picked up the puck in the corner, and carried it across the front of the crease and around the tender to score.

Notre Dame made it 7-4 at 3:57 of the third period on a wrister by Carson Schroeder.

Wausau West pulled their goalie with 3:13 left in the third period after long period of good play, but Notre Dame's Nathan Antti added an empty netter to make it 8-4.

Scalcucci had 26 saves in the loss for the Warriors. Anton Widas had 32 saves in the win for the Tritons.