MADISON - Coming off their first loss of the season just over a week ago, there were a lot of questions about how the Fox Cities Stars (9-1) would respond in their first game since. Needless to say, their response was heard: West Salem (0-6) got the wrath of the response, as the Stars took command early and often and used it to propel themselves to a dominating 11-1 win over the Panthers.

This was the definition of a bounce-back game as the Stars took control early with five first-period goals and never looked back. It may have taken more than four minutes for Weston Beyer to put the Stars on top for good, 1-0, but with Cale Adamovich doubling the lead 25 seconds later, it was the Stars on top 2-0. The Adamovich goal opened the floodgates for the Stars as Jake Koller tallied the Stars' third goal in two minutes to make this a 3-0 game.

Throw in a pair of goals from Kellan Murphy and Xander Herron later in the period, and it was all Fox Cities after one as they opened up a commanding 5-0 lead. Looking to build on an already impressive showing, it was Herron again finding the back of the net as he beat Colin Devine for his second goal of the game to extend the Fox Cities lead to 6-0 less than three minutes into the second before Quinn Murphy added another goal to put Fox Cities on top 7-0 approaching the midway point of the second.

Despite West Salem struggling to get much of anything going on the offensive side of the ice, Coen Knutson did make the most of his opportunity as he struck for the Panthers' lone goal less than 30 seconds after the Murphy goal to pull West Salem within 7-1. Apart from that, Sam Dardis didn’t have to do much between the pipes as the Stars' defense held West Salem to just nine shots in the game, with Dardis coming away with eight saves.

Still holding that 7-1 lead in the closing minutes of the second period, Koller got back on the scoring sheet and took a Herron pass on the Power Play, resulting in his second goal of the game. Parker Janssen followed that with the Stars' night goal of the contest with just one second remaining in the period as Fox Cities was in front 9-1 after two. After facing 42 shots in two periods, West Salem elected to make a change in goal as Noah Johnsrude was called on to finish things off in the third.

Although Johnsrude did allow a Preston McGinnis goal less than a minute into the period, he did a phenomenal job settling in as he came away with 13 saves on 15 shots in the final frame. Blayke Adamovich added the 11th and final goal of the game just past the five-minute mark for Fox Cities as the Stars got back on track with an impressive 11-1 win. Fox Cities is back on the ice Sunday afternoon when they face off against Milton.