Northland Pines scored first, but it was all Wausau West after that as the Warriors cruised to a 6-1 sectional final win at Greenheck Fieldhouse on Saturday afternoon. A pair of goals just 14 seconds apart by freshman Kevin Conley started the onslaught.

Matthew Kaitchuck put the Eagles up just three minutes into the game. He took a fluttering wrist shot from just inside the blue line that seemed to handcuff  West goalie Sam Wiegert, as the puck cleared his left shoulder.

Conley responded for West at 7:51 when he intercepted a pass in the neutral zone and fired a shot from the top of the slot that just grazed the bottom of the cross bar. 14 second later Kyle Lee passed the puck from behind the net to Conley, who was perched at the top of the crease. Conley flipped the puck over sprawling Pines goalie Jacob Stephan.

Tom Kilgore got into the action for the Warriors at 13:19. He caught a pass in the slot from Marshall Oja and also went top shelf on Stephan. Lee would finish the scoring in the first for West with a shorthanded goal. John Metzinger looked up in the West zone and saw Lee streaking up ice through the neutral zone. Metzinger hit Lee with a long pass and Kyle came in on Stephan all alone, beating him up high for a 4-1 Warriors lead.

The Eagles actually out-shot West 14-13 in the period, but Wausau made four of their shots count.

The ice began to tilt more in the Warriors favor in the second period and Pines was not able to get any offensive pressure. When Alex Halbrook took a slashing penalty for West at 6:37, Pines coach Charlie DePuydt called their time out. Pines needed to score on this power play to get back in the game. Instead they got scored on. Kyle Lee stole the puck from a Pines defenseman on the West blue line and raced up the right boards. John Tanner Gould saw him and took off up the middle of the rink. With Kaitchuck giving chase and not allowing Lee to cut toward the middle, Kyle made a final pass to Gould in the slot. Tanner shot over a sliding Stephan for a short-handed goal that stuck a dagger into Pines hopes for a comeback.

At 12:22 in the second Conley took a pass from Thomas Brown and weaved his way through the Pines defenders and fired a shot to complete his hattrick and finish the scoring at 6-1.

Wausau West doesn’t give up a 5 goal lead in the third period. They don’t really try to score any more, and they make sure that you don’t get any good chances to score on them. That stayed true to form and the game ended rather quietly.