In a battle between the top two girls teams in Wisconsin Friday, the second-ranked University School co-op girls’ hockey team played the first-ranked Green Bay Area Ice Bears co-op in an Eastern Shores Conference game at the Cornerstone Ice Arena in Green Bay. The Ice Bears maintained their unbeaten streak, winning the game by a score of 4-1.

The Wildcats outshot the Ice Bears 45-11 but only put one of their shots past Lindsey Strainis, Green Bay’s goalie, who played her A game.  Nicole Unsworth scored the Wildcats' goal.  The Wildcats have lost only six games in the past two seasons; five of them have been to the Ice Bears

Jason Woods, USM's head coach said, "I certainly cannot complain about the way we played.  Clearly the Hockey Gods were not on our side tonight.  Give Green Bay credit, they took advantage of the two maybe three chances they had in the game and worked hard to keep it out of their net.  45-11 in shots. I think moving forward if we can keep that pressure up, we will be just fine."

The Wildcats scored their only goal while killing a penalty. They sent the puck deep into the Green Bay zone.  Unsworth raced after it. She pulled it away from a defender in the left corner, wheeled toward the net, and stuffed it under Strainis at 7:21 of the first period.

The Ice Bears were still on the power play when they re-tied the score seconds later.  Megan Call sent the puck to Megan Saari in the left circle. Saari fired a crossing pass to Johanna Cano near the right post, out of the reach of Liz Ostermeyer, the Wildcats' goaltender. Cano one-timed it into the net at 7:37.

The Ice Bears went ahead at 14:11 of the first period. Courtney Wittig intercepted a pass at the Wildcats' blue line. She showed her thanks for the gratuity by skating in on a breakaway and ripping a shot into the net.

The Wildcats flooded shots on the Ice Bears' goal in the second period, out shooting the Bay Area team, 17-2. Strainis was as firm as the Hoover Dam; she stopped them all.

Green Bay added two goals in the final period.  The first was at 1:17. As she was heading into the USM end, Saari received a pass from Call and drove toward the net.  From the left circle Saari snapped a shot that beat Ostermeyer on the short side.  Nicole Niemi had an assist on the play.

Saari also scored Green Bay's final goal on a shot into an empty net from just inside the red line at 15:09. Call received another assist on the empty netter.

USM is 12-2 and 3-1 in the Eastern Shores Conference.  The Wildcats play the Fond du Lac co-op in an Eastern Shores Conference game on Saturday, January 10th at USM.  Game time is 6:00 p.m.