DAY ONE

Hayward 6  Coulee Region 0: The Hurricanes scored three goals in the second and third periods to runaway from the Cyclones 6-0. Hayward got two each from Olivia Webster and Savanah Harris. Makenna Hutchison halted all 13 shots she faced.

Black River Falls 4  Arrowhead 0: The Tigers used a smothering defensive effort to limit the Warhawks to nine shots on goal for the game and came away with a 4-0 win. Cam Steele had three assists for the Tigers and Jordyn King and Brogan Baird each scored twice.

Bay Area 8  Chippewa Fall/Menomonie 0: The Ice Bears netted two goals in the first 1:27 of the game on their way to an 8-0 blowout of the Sabers. CFM had major transportation issues, and the game had to be moved back later in the day to accommodate their late arrival. Bridget Welsing and Malin Jewitt each scored their first high school goals for the Bears. Aubrie Dowd saw 44 shots for the Sabers.

Eau Claire/Altoona 8  Beaver Dam 6: The Hayward Hockey Arena turned into a temporary shooting gallery on Monday as the ECA Stars out-lasted Beaver Dam in an 8-6 shootout. In period two, the shooting Stars scored four goals in three minutes and forty-one seconds to turn a 4-3 deficit into a 7-4 lead. Addie Smedema and Lillian Mansueto had two goals each for the Beavers and Jillian Stephenson two for ECA. The Stars powerplay went 5 for 6 in the game. Shots were 43-31 ECA.

Black River Falls 2  Hayward 1: Black River fired 39 shots on Hurricane goaltender Makenna Hutchison finally getting two past her in the games final seven minutes to earn a 2-1 win. Ally Ritter’s aggressive forecheck turned over a puck behind the Hurricane goal. Ritter got the puck out to Chloe Noth between the hash marks, and a shot and three rebound saves later, Noth got the puck past Hutchison. Brogan Baird got the game winner on a quick release shot from the high slot that hit off the top of Hutchison’s glove and into the net.

Arrowhead 2  Coulee Region 0: Elizabeth Robinson helped set up both Cyclone goals in a 2-0 shutout over Coulee Region. Paxtyn Showers, her fifth and Julia Miller, her second, scored for Arrowhead. Grace Johnsrude turned in a solid 44 save performance for the Cyclones.

Bay Area 3  Eau Claire/Altoona 2: It is difficult to say if the Ice Bears ever panic because they have yet to trail in a game this year. ECA is the first team to take them into the third period tied. First period goals by the Stars Makayla Thiele and the Bears Hannah Von Haden sent the game to the final frame tied 1-1. Aisling Buchan banged home her 11th goal of the season on a nice pass from Lily Lyons to break the tie at 9:57 of the third. Ava McDonald added a goal 26 seconds later and it was 3-1 Bay Area. Exciting ECA freshman Kjessia Lahner pounced on a powerplay rebound and closed the gap to 3-2 with one minute to play, but it would be too little too late. The Stars Evie Pritzl battled her way to 39 saves, while Bear’s goalie Reese Spiering stopped 16. The Bears tied the state record with their 34 straight game without a loss.  

Chippewa Falls/Menomonie 6  Beaver Dam 6 (OT): Deuces were wild as each team scored two goals in each period of regulation. Freshman Libby Wiensch scored her first two high school goals for the Sabers. Brenna Rhodes had the hat trick for the Beavers. Dot Baker had a big game in the net for the Beavers with 44 saves. The game goes on record as a tie, but went into a 20 player shoot out to determine a winner for the tournament bracket. Avery Lindstrom and Emerson Damon each scored as the first shooters for their teams, but the next 14 attempts failed. Sabers Brooke Brovold and Beaver Dam’s Olivia Bates then each scored before Londyn Baier ended it for the Sabers.

7th Place Game

Beaver Dam 3  Coulee Region 2: There was no scoresheet available for this game. After opening the season at 6-0, the Beavers have gone 0-3-1 until the win over Coulee. The Cyclones have dropped seven straight since their first game of the season win over Badger Lightning.

Consolation Game

Chippewa Falls/Menomonie 4  Arrowhead 3: The Sabers rallied with two third period goals to snatch a 4-3 win over Arrowhead. Freshman Libby Wiensch, who had been scoreless in CFM’s first six games, scored her 3rd and 4th goals of the season to lead the Sabers to victory. The Warhawks took a 2-0 first period lead on goals by Rowan Smith and another by Emma Hantke with only 15 seconds left in the period. Wiensch scored back-to-back goals, a minute and 21 seconds apart in the second to tie it. Arrowhead found the net late again with an Emily Van Saun goal at 16:25.

Londyn Baier tied it for CFM in the third period and Avery Lindstrom won it with her 5th of the season. Arrowhead’s Kennedy Bostrom stopped 36 shots and CFM’s Aubrie Dowd 22.  

3rd Place Game

Hayward 2  Eau Claire/Altoona 0: Hayward bounced back from a disappointing 2-1 loss on Monday with a solid performance beating ECA 2-0. Senior Makenna Hutchison turned in a solid 30 save effort and the Hurricanes got second period goals from Colby Sprenger and Cynthia Hart. The Canes killed off two late penalties at the end of the second period. ECA missed connecting on several backdoor feeds and the game stayed at 2-0. Hayward is 6-4-2 on the season, while the Stars lost for the third time in their last four games and fell to 8-5-1.

Championship Game

Bay Area 4  Black River Falls 1: This was a much-anticipated showdown between the Tigers and the Ice Bears. They had met back on November 28th with Bay Area coming away with a hard-fought 2-0 win. Shots in that game were 26-24 Ice Bears.

This Bay Area team seems different than most, they don’t seem satisfied with just winning, but with winning convincingly. It is as if head coach Mike Buchan and his group have adopted the infamous mantra of Coach Reilly from District Five of Mighty Ducks lore, “It’s not worth winning if you can’t win big”. Only these Bears would substitute “convincingly” for big. I will dive into the metrics of that in the next week or two.

Those who braved the outside weather on this Tuesday in northern Wisconsin were still settling under the heaters at the Hayward Ice Arena when the Bears Aisling Buchan redirected Mya Sheppard’s point shot past Tiger’s goalie Lexi Moore. It took just 62 seconds for Bay Area to jump on top. But they weren’t done. Thirty-eight seconds later two Tigers collided high in the slot and the loose puck went to Madeline Engles who immediately found Jordyn Clarke alone. Clarke attacked the net, shifted to her backhand and lifted the puck past Moore for a 2-0 lead. Sixty-three seconds later it became 3-0. It started with a potential icing that got waived as the Ice Bears retreated for the puck. Hannah Von Haden let the BRF defensemen slide past her and stayed near the red line. Elizabeth Zunker retrieved the puck and went quickly cross-ice to Faye Brunke in the neutral zone. Brunke laid a pass on the stick of Von Haden breaking across the Tiger’s blue line alone. Von Haden, froze Moore with a hesitation as if to shoot and then crossed to her backhand and slipped her team leading 14th goal of the season into the net. It is the kind of structured-planned play you will see from Bay Area throughout the game.

To the Tiger’s credit they did not fold in the face of what was now a task of monumental proportions. The Bears continued their relentless attack outshooting the Tigers 25-6 through two periods, but the score remained at 3-0.

Faye Brunke took the opening third period face-off and scampered down the right-wing into the Black River zone. Sixteen seconds in, the Bear’s Lily Lyons pounced on a rebound and beat Moore giving Bay Area 4-0 lead. Midway through the final period, with the Tigers on a powerplay, Alexa Lowe took a pass from Cam Steele and beat Reese Spiering to get BRF on the scoreboard.

The win for Bay Area was their 12th of the season and their 35th consecutive win establishing a new state record. Buchan is very proud of this accomplishment and credits his team’s leadership for much of the success. “I think the culture of the team is the most important,” he said. “When you look at our leadership, starting with Dahl, and what she expects from herself and the rest of the team, as a group it is hard not to follow that and want to do the same.  When you watch Brunke and McDonald they are the hardest working players on the ice every night.  They are skilled players, but when you work hard you get results and the rest of the team follows those types of players.”