On a cold Saturday evening in early January, the two top teams in the Eastern Shores conference met at the Cornerstone Community Center in an attempt to provide some clarity at the top of the standings list.

Home team Bay Area got an early first period goal and hung on for dear life as they defeated #2 University School 2-1 on Rink 1 at the CCC in DePere/Ashwaubenon.

The start of the game was delayed by the St. Norberts-University of St. Thomas game which ran slightly long. The quarter-hour delay allowed WiPH staff to get online after a very nice young lady reset the network router so we could get up and running prior to the opening faceoff.

In the early moments, the Ice Bears took control and earned the initial score on a great effort by Kelsey Rafferty. The senior forward grabbed a loose puck in the neutral zone and flew down the right boards. She beat one defenseman before deking past the second, and ripped a shot that bounced off USM goalie Jaime Hathaway and trickled across the goal line to make it 1-0 in favor of the hosts at the 6:54 mark of the first.

That score would hold up as the period ended, with Bay Area holding an 8-3 shot edge over USM.

The middle period began and it seemed like USM had shaken off their 'bus legs' and were ready to rumble. And just over three minutes into the stanza, the Wildcats tied the game as Rose Revolinski found some space in the slot and as she crossed from left to right, snapped a shot that found its way into the net between Audrie Murphy's left skate and the post at 3:27.

After a USM penalty in the middle of the period, the Ice Bears worked a give-and-go to perfection for their second score.

Rafferty and Courtney Wittig were cycling the puck near the left dot, and after Rafferty dropped a pass for Wittig, she screened a USM player and that space allowed Wittig to fire a shot from the dot that beat Hathaway at the 7:59 mark. Curiously, Morgan Zirbel and Nicole Niemi were given assists, while Rafferty had to be content knowing she did assist in the scoring effort.

With just two seconds left in the period and a faceoff in the Bay Area d-zone, Hathaway came off for an extra skater. USM won the draw and the puck got on Murphy in a hurry, but the Wildcats were unable to score before the horn sounded. Shots were 10-8 in favor of the home squad.

The third period saw no scoring even though there was a 4x4, 4x3, and four minutes of 5x3 in favor of Bay Area. The USM penalty kill did a wonderful job, and although it appeared that Hathaway was still shaking off some rust from her nearly two-week layoff due to a trip to Ireland, made all the stops and kept the deficit at one goal.

Hathaway came off for a sixth attacker with 1:20 left but USM was unable to put the puck in the net. Rafferty nearly sealed the deal with under 30 seconds left, but her over-exuberant shot from the left circle air-mailed the empty net.

Bay Area once again outshot the guests by a margin of 9-7 in the period.

The fourth-ranked Ice Bears improved to 11-1 (5-0 Eastern Shores) and grabbed a share of the overall conference lead with USM. Murphy stopped 17 shots in the game for the victory.

USM dropped to 11-2-1 (5-1 ES) with Hathaway making 25 saves in the contest.