The Wausau West Warriors rebounded from a tough Friday night loss to Marquette with a hard-fought 2-1 win over the visiting University School of Milwaukee Wildcats on Saturday afternoon at Marathon Park. USM beat DC Everest on 2-0 on Friday night, while West was falling to Marquette 6-2.

Wausau West showed off a new and improved power play which was able to control the puck and generate a lot of shots. Warriors coach Pete Susens said, “Considering we drew it up this morning, and didn't have a chance to practice it, the played well. We changed a couple things around and moved the puck well, just didn't get it in the net, but (USM goalie Bryan) Botcher's a big part of that.”

West got on the board first, with 2:08 left in the first period. Kevin Conley made some nifty stick moves at the blue line to keep the puck in the zone, then whirled around a fired a shot wide of the USM net toward team mate Patrick Bailey. Bailey is a right-hand shot who was stationed just below the hash-marks on the left side, and he turned to face Conley, then redirected the puck behind Botcher with a quick one-timer.

The Wildcats answered just 26 seconds later when the puck came in on Wiegert, and he went down to cover it up. But the puck was not where he thought it was, and Duncan Brown spotted it loose and poked it into the net to tie the score.

West out-shot USM 15-6 in the period.

There was no scoring in the second period, although the Wildcat's Ben Walker had two good chances. First he stole puck from West defenseman at the blue line and came in alone on Wiegert. Walker made a move to his backhand but a spread-eagle Wiegert was able to get his right leg pad out to stop it. Later in the period Walker again got by the West defense and came in on Wiegert, this time deking to his forehand, but again Wiegert got the out-stretched leg pad in front of the puck.

West scored the deciding goal at 6:01 in the third period. Zach Peterson got dumped in the corner and USM moved up the ice. West held the blue line and got the puck back down to Peterson in the corner. He looked to the slot and fired a puck across, but missed his man. Everybody went to the puck side, again leaving Peterson alone on the right, where Sheldon Oja spotted him and sent him the puck. Peterson had a wide-open net in front of him and plenty of time to pick his spot.

The shots were even in the third period at 12 each.

Coach Susens said, “We had more energy tonight, and a big part of that was that we weren't behind. Wiegert didn't have as many saves as Botcher, but both goalies played really well. We've had great games with them. I think they are a really well-coached team, and I think they are going to be a force to be reckoned with this season. We moved the puck a lot better. We weren't able to get it in the net, but we played better today both offensively and defensively.”