The University School co-op girls’ hockey team defeated the Central Wisconsin Storm in a shootout to win the Gobbler Cup Tournament in Mosinee Saturday afternoon.

The two teams tied 3-3 in regulation time. After an eight-minute overtime period, they took part in a shootout to decide the tournament winner. Senior Greta Kobylinski scored the deciding shootout goal for USM, and after the Wildcats’ senior goaltender Jaime Hathaway made another save, USM won the shootout 4-3 to secure the tournament championship.

After the game, Kobylinski said, “"I'm excited I got an opportunity to score in the shootout to clinch the win after a hard battle by our team.”

Hathaway added, "It was a fun, competitive game to play in. That was the first shootout I've had the opportunity to play in, and it was a great experience. Even though I was confident, that last save made me feel a rush of relief."

USM coach Jason Woods commented on the game, “We showed what we were made of today. It’s still early; we have things to work on, and we will improve. The Storm got two goals off of our mistakes but we can correct them. I’m really proud of the way our girls get to work. They came from behind twice today, and pressured the Storm all afternoon. The Storm is a one of the best teams in the state. I know we can play against teams like them.”

Andersen gave USM a 1-0 lead at the 1:00 mark of the first period. As she was about to change, the puck came to her in the high slot. She turned quickly, and using a Storm defender as a screen, she whipped a shot high on over the blocker of the Storm’s goalie Lisa Fowle. “I don’t think she expected it and I don’t think she saw it,” said Andersen.

The Storm tied the game at 10:37. As her team was changing, Katelyn Ramthun flipped the puck into the USM zone from outside the blue line. The puck eluded Hathaway and went into the net.

The Storm then took the lead on a second period power play. Maggie Plaza converted a pass from Marissa Matushak into a goal at 12:56.

Undeterred, the Wildcats kept at it and tied the score late in the second period. Junior Rose Revolinski got the puck in the USM zone and skated down the right boards into the Storm’s zone. As she neared the goal line, Revolinski snapped a pass past a Storm defender and right onto the stick of Andersen who was speeding toward the Storm net. Unsworth fired the puck past Fowle at 15:11.

The Storm took the lead again at 0:30 of the third period when Plaza snagged a loose puck in the USM end, skated in, and scored a short-handed goal. Woods said, “That one was on us. It was a coaching mistake. We just haven’t had much time to work on our power play breakout yet. We will solve that problem in practice soon.”

The Wildcats spoiled the tournament for the host team at 13:29 of the third period. Andersen got the puck along the left boards in the USM zone and sent it out to center ice to Unsworth. Like a Ducati motorcycle, Unsworth roared down the left side with the puck. Nearing the Storm’s goal line, she cut to the net, swept past Fowle, and jammed the puck underneath the falling goalie to tie the score at 3-3.

The game went to overtime. Each team had chances. The Storm took five shots on Hathaway, while the Wildcats took four at Fowle, but none made it past the two stalwart netminders in the overtime period.

The tournament officials then ruled that the tournament outcome would be decided by a shootout.

Three of the first five players for each team tallied goals. For USM Revolinski, junior Rachel Lowe, and Unsworth scored for USM while Plaza, Katelyn Schilling and Ashley Zacho scored for the Storm. The tie sent the shootout to extra rounds, with whichever team first scored and stopped the opponent declared the victor.

Kobylinski was USM’s seventh shooter. She moved in on Fowle, deked her, and fired the puck over her. That left it up to Hathaway. At the whistle, Hathaway coolly came out of her net, forced the incoming skater to take a bad angle and, therefore, miss the net. The play gave the Wildcats the victory.

According to WIAA rules, a tie after a single overtime is officially counted as a tie on a team’s record. As a result, USM is now 1-1-1. The Wildcats will attempt to give themselves a winning record when they take on he Brookfield Glacier in an Eastern Shores Conference game at The Ponds in Brookfield at 6:30 p.m. on Tuesday, December 3rd.