After 13 minutes of play, it looked like the Fox Cities Stars were headed to an easy victory in the Wisconsin River Classic tournament championship game held at the South Wood County Rec Center in Wisconsin Rapids.

Ally Fox scored twice in a span of five minutes late in the period to give FC a 2-0 lead over the Western Wisconsin Stars.

One thing was for certain: the Stars were going to win this game.

In the end, WW scored twice in the final period but fell victim to a new rule change and a bit of bad luck on a shot as they dropped a heartbreaking 3-2 decision to Fox Cities Saturday evening.

Fox opened the scoring with a goal from the left circle at 8:53. Just under five minutes later, her slapper from the high slot eluded WW goalie Tina Montpetit to give FC a two-goal lead. Liz Steinmetz got credit for an assist on the play.

The 2-0 score held through the rest of the period. Morgan Talbot had four saves for FC, while Montpetit stopped seven shots in the stanza.

The middle period was scoreless, with FC holding an 11-4 shot advantage.

Western Wisconsin scored just one minute into the final period to cut the margin in half. Alli Wielinski beat Talbot from the right circle on the blocker side to make it 2-1. Kaylee Bebeau earned a helper on the play.

About two minutes later, Fox Cities took advantage of a power play chance to increase the lead to 3-1. Steinmetz scored from the slot on a dish from Fox at the 1:54 mark to move the lead back to two goals.

WW played their best 17 minutes of the game in the last period and worked hard to cut into the lead. Bailey Erickson scored her fourth goal of the day with her rebound putback at 6:10 to make it 3-2. Ashley Dusek and Shawnee Gremore had assists on the play.

It looked like WW tied the game on a power play goal with about seven minutes left, but the officials waived off the score because the goalie's glove had come off before the puck crossed the goal line. Despite protests from the WW bench, the call stood as Fox Cities clung to its 3-2 lead.

With about three minutes left, a WW shot from the right circle clanged off the right post, just that close to tying the contest.

The horn sounded on a 3-2 Fox Cities win.

Talbot stopped 11 shots in the final period for a total of 19, while Montpetit steered aside seven shots in the period for a final tally of 25.