The University School co-op girls’ hockey team lost to the Central Wisconsin Storm of Mosinee 3-1 in the opening game of the season for both teams Friday at USM.

All the scoring occurred in the first period. The Storm took an early lead. The Wildcats fought back and tied it late in the first period on a goal by freshman Nicole Unsworth. But the top-ranked Storm answered quickly to take a 2-1 lead. The Storm then added a power play goal as the period closed. USM played solid defense, keeping the Storm off the scoreboard in the remaining two periods, but the Wildcats were unable to muster another goal themselves.

USM’s head coach, Jason Woods commented on the game. “The Storm got off to a fast start. They’re a good team that doesn’t make a lot of mistakes, and that’s why we like to play them at the start of the season, to gauge ourselves. We have a lot of new players who were getting their first Varsity minutes and may not have been expecting the pace of this game. So I was impressed by the way we came back played in the second two periods. Our defense showed me a lot. We now know we can play with anybody. We were missing one of our top forwards, Rose Revolinski, in the last two periods, and still played the Storm even. We need to get more shots and protect the puck better, but overall I thought we played a good game. I am confident we will do well as the season goes on.”

Kelly Knetter scored the Storm’s first goal on an opportunistic shot from the left mid-boards at 5:10 of the first period.

USM tied the score at 13:02. Defenseman Katie Lamoreaux stopped a Storm charge at the USM blue line and sent the puck up the left boards to Unsworth. Unsworth sped past two Storm defenders deep into the Storm’s end. Like a fighter jet flying toward the target, Unsworth banked along the goal line and fired a quick blast that surprised Lisa Fowle, the Storm’s goalie.

The Storm went back ahead in less than a minute when Katelynn Schilling fired in her own rebound after skating unimpeded into the USM zone at 13:56.

The Storm added a power play goal on a shot from the slot by Knetter with just 9 seconds left in the first period.

The Storm out shot the Wildcats 22-8 in the final two periods. USM’s goalkeeper Jaime Hathaway stopped everything her opponents fired on her in those 34 minutes, and USM’s defenders, Greta Kobylinski, Rachel Hoge, Hannah Koniar, Delaney Weiss, and Lamoreaux tied up players in front and effectively cleared the puck away from further danger.

USM is now 0-1. The Wildcats have a set of scrimmages Monday in Fond du Lac. They then will travel to Mosinee for the Gobbler Cup Tournament sponsored by the Central Wisconsin Storm on Friday, November 29th and Saturday, November 30th. The Wildcats will open tournament play against Eau Claire at 1:00 p.m. Friday.