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Wausau West over-powers Antigo for return trip to State

By Bill Berg - WiPH Staff, 03/01/15, 8:30AM CST

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Warriors score five times in first period and cruise to victory

The Wausau West Warriors scored five goals in the latter part of the first period on their way to claiming the Section Three title, downing the Antigo Red Robins 7-2 in a game eerily similar to last season's title game.

Last year, after the Robins tied the game 2-2 in the second period, the Warriors scored four times in the second half of the period to put the game away. This time, after Alex Nagel put Antigo on top with a wrist shot off a face off midway through the first period, West answered with five goals before the horn sounded to end the first.

Immediately after the Robins' goal, Nick Techel got the puck off the face off and charged up the left side boards into the Antigo zone. His wrist shot shot from the hash marks beat Antigo goalie Ryan Schmidt on the far side.

Shortly after that goal tied the game, West dumped the puck into the Robins zone and Andrew Lee won the race to the loose puck. Lee passed to Alex Gessler at the top of the crease, and Gessler put the Warriors on top for good. Wausau added a power play goal by Gessler, and even strength goals by Lee and Cale Bowman to finish the period with a 5-1 lead.

Schmidt recorded 12 saves in the period, while Wausau goalie Paul Weise stopped 6 shots.

Not much happened in the second period. Schmidt stopped all 13 shots he faced, while Weise stopped all 4 put on his net.

Antigo came to life briefly in the third period after Nagel stepped out from behind the West net with the puck and put it behind Weise. But Sam Radenz answered a couple minutes later to put Wausau up 7-2 and douse whatever hopes the Robins had left.

Wausau West out-shot Antigo 34 to 19 on the day, and will face off against Appleton United on Thursday in Madison.

WiPH Game Summaries