In a battle between two ranked teams that featured crisp, up-and-down action and plenty of hard checking, the Fond du Lac Cardinals narrowly defeated the Wausau West Warriors by the score of 3-2 on Saturday at Marathon Park.

West struck first at 13:35 of the first period when Zach Peterson flew into the Fondy zone along the right boards, beating the Fondy defender. Peterson turned toward the goal and beat Fondy senior goalie Charlie Blagoue just inside the near post. Justin Zahn and Thomas Brown were awarded assists on the play. Fondy answered back less than two minutes later, at 15:27, when senior Ty Rebedew used a pass from junior Jack Nejedlo to get into the slot to beat West goalie Sam Wiegert upstairs.

West regained the lead at 3:06 of the second period when Adam Literski, working in the left side of the Fondy zone, slid a pass to Marshall Oja, who found the right side of the net. But Fondy tied the score less than a minute later when senior defenseman Nate Martin sent a stretch pass from deep in the Fondy end out to Rebedew near the West blue line. Rebedew skated into the zone unchallenged and sniped a short shot into the net on the blocker side. Fondy took the lead at 7:28 when diminutive, 125-pound freshman Caylen Dyni got the puck in the slot and fired a shot that bounced off Wiegert and then trickled into the net off of the back of Nejedlo. Nejedlo was credited with the goal and Dyni the assist on the play.

In the third period, with their home crowd lining the rink, West put Fondy on their heels, mounting a furious attack that kept the Cardinals bottled up in their own end. Despite numerous quality chances and several pileups in front of the net, the Warriors were unable to put a shot past Blagoue, who made 18 saves in the third period.

Wiegert made 26 saves and Blagoue stopped 31 in the contest.