Outside, a winter storm wrapped Madison in snow and ice Monday.

Inside the Hartmeyer Ice Arena, Nicole Unsworth’s wraparound goal late in the game gave the Wildcats of the University School co-op girls’ hockey team the final edge they needed to defeat the Superior Spartans 6-5 in the opening round of the annual Culver’s Cup Tournament.

The frightful weather kept all but a handful of fans from attending the match.  The few who did make it witnessed a tense battle between two of the state’s top teams.   Those lucky few saw a variety of goals as the play see-sawed back and forth.  They also saw two of the state’s top scorers tally most of those goals.  Junior Samantha Young scored four goals for the Spartans, while Unsworth, also a junior, scored four for the Wildcats.  Freshman Paige Lach added a goal for Superior.  Freshman Gaby Turer and senior Caitlin McBride scored USM’s other two goals.

Superior took a two-goal lead early in the first period.  The Spartans scored their first goal at 3:51.  Sophomore Addie Young sent a pass to Samantha Young high in the USM zone.  The junior fired the puck as she skated into the slot and followed her shot.  She got the rebound as it dropped away from the pads of the Wildcats’ freshman goaltender Marie Detert and shoveled the puck across the goal line for the score.

Young scored Superior’s second goal less than three minutes later.  She collected the puck inside her team’s zone and sped away, causing a Wildcat defenseman to fall.  Young raced down the right boards into the USM zone on a breakaway and fired a bullet from the top of the circle high into the far side of the goal at 6:12.

The Wildcats seemed stunned, but they have proved to be a resilient crew, and they moved closer with a power play goal at 13:10 of the first period.  Unsworth got the puck and skated into the Superior end on a two-on-one break with Turer.  She cut below a defenseman and closed in on freshman goalie, Autumn Siers.  Unsworth jammed the puck into Siers’ pads.  Turer came in and pushed the rebound through a small five-hole gap to make the score 2-1.

The Wildcats tied the game early in the second period.  At the Spartans’ blue line, senior defenseman Hannah Koniar picked off a clearing attempt and fired a low shot on net.  McBride was stationed there like a guard at an Alaskan NORAD post.  She coolly tipped it past Siers at 2:52.

The Wildcats took the lead at 7:37 of the second period.  On a breakout from the USM end, junior defenseman Delaney Weiss passed the puck to McBride who raced away like a prison escapee.  Inside the Superior zone, McBride dipped her shoulder to protect the puck as she curved around a defender. She cut in on Siers.  The goalie stopped the puck, but it slid away ike a car on black ice, to the side. Unsworth, who had joined the rush, moved in and tapped the rebound past the pads for the score.

The scored remained 3-2 for the remainder of the second period.  Then, in a wild third period, there was a blizzard of goals as the contending teams scored six different times.

Unsworth gave the Wildcats a two-goal lead in the first minute of the period.  Sophomore Hannah Gold got the puck on the right point and passed it to Koniar in the center of the Superior blue line.  Koniar lined a low shot on Siers.  As the puck came in, it looked all the skaters in front of the net were standing still, as if in line waiting to talk to Santa Claus.  The puck bounced off Siers to the side to McBride.  She touched it to Unsworth a few steps away on the goal line.  Unsworth took an off-angle shot and snuck the puck high inside the near goalpost at 16:00.

The Spartans made the score 4-3 on a bizarre play while they were killing a penalty.  In the center of the Superior zone, Lach got the puck and iced it.  The puck bounced into the Wildcats’ zone, and Detert went down to stop it.  The puck took a tricky bounce and skittered through the five hole at 4:36.  Junior Emma Peterson and senior Devyn Moss were awarded assists on the play.

Unsworth put the Wildcats back ahead by two at 11:41 when she skated the puck out of the Wildcats’ zone, and swerved to the right through center ice.  As she came in on the defenseman she used her body to protect the puck, pivoted past checker, swept across the top of the crease and deposited the puck in the net.

Samantha Young answered Unsworth’s goal with one of her own.  The Spartans got the puck in the Wildcats’ zone and forechecked.  Addie Young took a shot that clanged off a goal pipe. The rebound bounced in the crease to sophomore Alee Milinkovich-Gray who pushed another shot at the net.  Detert saved it.  This time the rebound went to the side to Young, and she put her shot in at 13:22.

It was Unsworth’s turn.  While short handed, the Wildcats iced the puck.  Unsworth took off after it.  A defenseman got it in the right corner.  Unsworth raced in, winning the battle for the puck along the back boards.  Unsworth pulled the puck away, whirled around the net, and stuffed the puck between Siers and the left post at 13:57.

Samantha Young ‘s turn.  She took a pass from Peterson in center ice, skated toward the left boards.  From the circle in the USM zone she bombed a shot that rang off the near goalpost and ricocheted into the net at 14:34.

With the score 6-5, the final two minutes were tense.  The Spartans pulled Siers in the final minute, but the added skater availed them nothing and the game drew to close with the Wildcats the victors.

USM is now 9-1-1 and Superior is 5-6.  The Wildcats play the St. Croix Valley Fusion in in the semi-finals of the Culver’s Cup Tournament on Tuesday, December 29th at Hartmeyer Ice Arena in Madison.  The game is scheduled to begin at 7:15 p.m.