skip navigation

Early surge carries Wausau West over Mosinee

By Bill Berg, 02/22/12, 7:55AM CST

Share

Three goals in the first period stand up for Warriors



The Wausau West Warriors jumped out to a quick start with three goals in the first period, and made it stand up for a 4-2 win over the Mosinee Indians in sectional semi-final action on Tuesday night at Marathon Park.

“I thought we came out with good jump in the first period,” said West head coach Pete Susens. “We wanted to keep it simple, and just get the puck to the net.”

That plan paid dividends early as Kyle Lee moved the puck from the corner to the front of the net, where it got banged around a couple times before Kevin Conley fired it past AJ Fuls to open the scoring just 2:24 into the game.

It worked again at 5:57 when Seth Wage got the puck high in the slot and just threw a wrist shot toward the net. Fuls was either screened or distracted as he reacted too late and West had a 2-0 lead. Zach Peterson and Thomas Brown assisted on the play. Twenty seconds later, the Warriors struck again. This time it was Kyle Lee scoring off a pass from Conley.

The Warriors out-shot the Indians 17-6 in the first period.

Things slowed down in the second period, “I thought we sat back a little bit in the second,” said Susens. “Penalties took us out of our rhythm, and we never really got any flow going.”

West did score again, about half-way through the period. Seth Wage took a slapshot from the Blue Line, and he had Zach Peterson parked just in front of Fuls. Peterson was able to deflect the puck enough to get it by Fuls and give West a 4-0 lead. Fuls was replaced in net by Jimmy Rogers at that point.

Mosinee was able to crack the net with a power play goal 11:43. Bryce Hladovcak carried the puck into the West zone and dropped a pass back to Jared Sprink who fired it past Warriors goalie Sam Wiegert. Jacob Hrebik also assisted on the play.

Shots on goal were more even in the second period, with West holding an 11-10 advantage.

With a 4-1 lead heading into the final period, Wausau could afford to sit back and protect their lead. They kept Mosinee away from the front of the net and kept the scoring opportunities to a minimum. The Indians were able to score a late power play goal on a spin-around shot from the left circle by Hrebik to make the score 4-2. But that’s as close as they would get.

WiPH Game Summaries