After a four-plus hour bus ride on a Minnesota Coaches bus--one which caused the usually dapper Superior coach Jason Kalin to dress in jeans--the Spartans showed no sign of 'bus legs' and held off a scrappy and hungry Wisconsin Rapids team by a score of 4-2 Saturday.

This week's version of the boys' Wisconsin Prep Hockey Game of the Week took place at the South Wood County Rec Center on a damp, rainy mid-December afternoon in Wisconsin Rapids.

The first half of the opening period was scoreless, although both teams had power play chances. Rapids had a 2-on-1 in the middle of the stanza, but Superior goalie Paxton Paine made the stop on the odd-man foray initiated by the home squad.

Sophomore Tyler Nystrom scored first in the contest when his shot from the low left side snuck past Rapids keeper Tyler Gilbert at 9:08 of the first. Aaron Miller and Aaron Wakefield-Zubiate earned helpers on the score.

That would complete the scoring in the first, despite each team having man advantages late in the period. Shots were 11-5 in favor of the guests.

Each team scored once in the second, although both squads were flying up and down the ice and had numerous opportunities that were repelled by the opposing team's defenders.

Wakefield-Zubiate had a breakaway and tried to sneak the puck past Gilbert, but the Rapids netminder made a nice pad slide to his left and kicked the puck away at the last moment, just before Rapids would get on the board for the first time.

Rapids tied the score at the 10:50 mark with a tap-in goal by Dan Overfelt, with assists to Luc Kreuser and Logan Zimmerman.

The score would stay at 1-1 for four minutes, and then Daniel Mikel grabbed a puck that bounced off his shin pads and roofed one past the Rapids goalie at the 14:53 mark. Dane Sislo earned an assist.

The second period ended with the visitors holding a narrow 2-1 lead, even though they were outshot 12-9 in the period.

As if it were illegal to score in the first nine minutes of a period, both teams stayed off the board again until Superior built its lead to 3-1 just over the magic nine minute mark.

The line of Nystrom, Miller, and Wakefield-Zubiate struck once again when Nystrom converted from the back-door on a nice cross-ice pass from Miller, with Wakefield-Zubiate also earning an assist.

The lead was cut to 3-2 just over three minutes later when Kreuser punched in a rebound from the slot at 12:55 to set up a fantastic finish.

With a bit over two minutes left in the period, a shot from a Superior forward clanked off the right post, eliciting groans from the crowd as 3/4 of the fans thought it went in and 1/4 realized that it didn't.

Rapids took a time-out with 1:28 left and came back out on the ice with six attackers, only to see Nystrom earn his hattie with an empty-netter with 56 seconds left in the now mostly-decided contest. His linemates (Miller and Wakefield-Zubiate) also earned assists, giving both of them playmakers.

Superior held the third period shot margin, 12-8.

Paine stopped 23 pucks in earning the victory, while Gilbert had 28 saves on the other end for Rapids.