Prior to tonight's action, the WiPH top-ranked team had stepped on the ice 11 times to defend their number one ranking in the state high school hockey poll.
The record in those games for the number one team?
Six wins, four losses, and one tie.
That trend of uncertainty continued tonight at the South Wood County Rec Center as top-ranked Wausau West got smacked down by Wisconsin Valley Conference rival Wisconsin Rapids by a score of 6-1.
The game was sponsored by Jose's Mexican Restaurant, with locations in Baraboo and Adams. Jose's donated $25 per goal for a total of $175 in the contest going to fight a worthwhile cause of 'Stick it to Cancer.'
In the Warriors' defense, they came into the WVC battle for first place having not played a single game since December 19. In addition, West was able to practice only four times in that span, so excuse them for being a tad rusty.
West looked pretty good early as they took a 1-0 lead just over a minute into the game.
Senior captain Sam Radenz got the puck low and pitchforked a shot past Rapids goalie Tyler Werne, with an assist to Cale Bowman.
The hosts answered three minutes later on a nice play by Luc Kreuser.
The senior somehow loitered on the opposing blueline and grabbed a lead feed (thanks, Mike Sullivan!) from Jacob Morman. Kreuser did a double-deke that enabled him to slide the puck past West goalie Quinn Coyle to tie the game, with the other helper going to Casey Esselman.
Coyle would make a nice pad save on Cody Kohls a couple minutes later, but that would turn out to be his last hurrah.
Kreuser made it 2-1 during a wild scramble that saw the puck go in the net despite Coyle's contention that the puck had been covered by the netminder. Grant Scharmer was given an assist on the scoring play at 7:22 of the first.
Just 24 seconds later, Esselman sent a blast from the left point that tickled the twine and ended the night for Coyle. Scharmer and Isaac Gilbert were penciled in for assists.
Paul Weise came in to play goalie.
Proving they were on a mission, the Red Raiders scored a minute later on a nice power play goal.
WiPH Game Summaries
WEHL 16U Southwest Skate All The Way To USA Hockey Semi-Finals
- By Coach Hoehn, WEHL 04/16/2024, 5:45pm CDT
WEHL 18U South East Girls at USA Hockey Nationals, March 20-24
- By Bill Berg Jr, WiPH Staff 03/20/2024, 7:45pm CDT
TW, Wisc Selects, and WEHL at Central Districts
- By Bill Berg Jr, WiPH Staff 03/16/2024, 9:45am CDT
19U Girls, 18U Boys Lead Six Team Wisconsin Teams to Central Districts
- By Bill Berg Jr, WiPH Staff 03/11/2024, 11:30am CDT
Tritons Stifle Stars to Go Back-to-Back
- By Bill Berg Jr, WiPH Staff 03/02/2024, 9:00pm CST
Storm Win Battle of Last Two State Champions
- By Bill Berg Jr, WiPH Staff 03/02/2024, 4:30pm CST
Gaertig and Two Minutes of Dominance Lead Springs to Division 2 Championship
- By Bill Berg Jr, WiPH Staff 03/02/2024, 11:45am CST
Tritons Ride Big First Period to Semi-Final Win
- By Bill Berg Jr, WiPH Staff 03/01/2024, 4:30pm CST
Stars Shine With Extra Attacker To Head to D1 Title Game
- By Bill Berg Jr, WiPH Staff 03/01/2024, 12:00pm CST
Ice Bears Get the Chance to Defend Their Title
- By Bill Berg Jr, WiPH Staff 02/29/2024, 10:30pm CST
Kohls had the puck to the left of the goalie below the goal line and stepped up, sliding a pass across the crease to Erik Prochnow, who then deftly pushed the puck between the goalie's pads to make it 4-1 home team with over half the period remaining.
Logan Conkey also earned an assist on a score that sent the Rapids fans into near-delirium.
Rapids had a pair of power play chances and West had one to finish out the period, but neither squad could convince the scorekeeper to change the scoreboard as Rapids skated off with a three-goal lead.
Shots were 16-4 in favor of Rapids in the stanza.
The middle period was a penalty-fest as the teams were whistled for a combined 17 minutes, but only two goals were scored--both by Rapids.
Just as a West penalty was expiring, Esselman grabbed a drop-pass from Sam Storlie and rifled a shot past the goalie from the high slot to bump the lead to 5-1.
After two penalties on each team in the next few minutes, Esselman found some free space in a 4-on-3 and fired a laser from the top of the left circle past the goalie's blocker to account for the final tally (and a hat trick for the d-man) to make the score 6-1. Conkey was credited with an assist.
West held an 8-7 shot edge in the period.
The Warriors worked hard early in the final period, but Werne denied a trio of shots during a goalmouth scramble three minutes in and Alex Gessler sent a shot off the crossbar four minutes later to keep the score at 6-1.
West outshot Rapids 10-1 in the period but couldn't get the puck in the net.
Werne stopped 21 shots in the game for Rapids, who improved to 10-3-1, while Coyle (7) and Weise (11) combined for 18 saves for West, who dropped to 8-2.
The Wisconsin Valley Conference now sees both teams deadlocked at the top with identical 4-1 records.
