Five girls scored goals and Emily Bubla provided solid goaltending for the Point-Rapids Red Panthers as they scored four times in the first stanza en route to a 5-2 victory over the Waupaca Comets at the Waupaca Expo on a chilly Monday evening.

The visitors started early, scoring just over two minutes into the first period. After Waupaca freshman goalie Cassie Rasmussen stopped a Rachel Nolan shot from the point, the Red Panthers' Nicole Krueger snapped the rebound into the net from the low right side for a 1-0 lead.

After Molly Guyer went off for a double minor, the guests went back to work. Amanda Milanowski scored from the left point, with an assist to Hannah Beilke, to make it 2-0 on the power play goal.

Just 38 seconds later, Nolan's shot from the right side was re-directed by Rachel Metz for another power play score, and after less than six minutes, Point-Rapids held a 3-0 advantage. Sarah Peplinski also received an assist.

Peplinski scored a goal of her own on a nice move while on a semi-breakout. She skated in on the goalie, make a deke and flipped a back-hander over the prone netminder to complete the first period scoring at the 15:28 mark. Rachel McNamara earned an assist.

The visitors held a 10-6 shot edge in the period.

The second period was scoreless for more than 10 minutes, but the Red Panthers got another goal to make it a 5-0 game. Katrina Hassig got the puck on the left wing, skated near the left dot, and snapped the puck high on the glove side and into the net for the unassisted goal.

The period would end with the home team having an 8-5 shot margin.

The final period saw the Comets take advantage of a couple turnovers deep in the Red Panthers d-zone and turn them into scores.

On the first, a Point-Rapids defender tried to skate through traffic in the middle and lost the puck, which found its way onto the stick of Mandy Tomlinson, and the high-scoring sophomore sent the puck into the net to cut the lead to 5-1 at 8:54.

Just under four minutes later, an ill-advised pass across the slot was intercepted by McKenna Orr, and she sent a bouncer that evaded Bubla and made the score 5-2. Brianne Huettner got the helper at 12:38.

The Red Panthers appeared to have scored with under a minute left, but the goal was waved off due to the refs calling the play dead on a goalie cover.

Thirty-six seconds later, the horn sounded on a 5-2 victory for Point-Rapids. Shots were 12-6 in favor of the hosts in the period.

Bubla made 24 saves, including several nice stops of point-blank shots by Tomlinson and star defenseman Tasha Smith. On the other end, Rasmussen played very well and stopped 16 shots for Waupaca.

The Red Panthers improved to 7-9 (6-2 GNC) and will travel to play the Badger Thunder on Saturday. The Comets fell to 2-10 (1-5 GNC) and will play at Black River Falls on Tuesday.