One hour before game-time at the Cornerstone Community Center between Appleton United and Neenah/Hortonville/Menasha, nearly 3/4 of the seats were already spoken for by fans of both teams.
When the puck dropped at 7:45, an estimated 1500 were either in place or finding a patch of concrete to stand on and the intensity level ratcheted up another notch in anticipation of the Sectional 5 finale.
And in a battle that saw back-and-forth action in a six-goal opening stanza, top-seeded Appleton United scored 'trips' in the third to advance to the 2016 State Tournament on the basis of its 6-4 win over NHM.
The game's first goal was scored before many in attendance had even gotten comfortable.
A pass came out to right defenseman Kieran Brosnan, who launched a shot through traffic that found the back of the net just 14 seconds into the contest. Michael Alfaro and Trenton Bliss earned helpers on the play.
The Rockets got warmed up when a shot from Jack Kraus ricocheted off the goalie mask of AU netminder Dylan Phinney. Soon came the real thing.
After NHM went on the power play, Alec Elkin grabbed a rebound and stuffed it past the goalie to tie the game at one at the 4:57 mark, with assists to Tyler Hafeman and Travis Treml.
Bliss put AU up by a count of 2-1 with his rebound goal just 87 seconds later, with an assist to Keegan Gallup.
In keeping with the alternating score pattern, the Rockets would put one up on their side less than a minute later.
Elkin won a faceoff to the right of the AU goalie back to Carter Grishaber, and the senior smoked it into the net to knot the contest at two apiece.
Then it was United's turn and they didn't disappoint.
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Bliss sent a pass across to Erik Bargholtz and the freshman snuck the puck between the left post and the right pad of NHM goalie Preston Long with just over five minutes left in the period.
The Rockets flew high, scoring their second power goal 90 seconds later. Elkin banged home another rebound (assist to Kraus) to tie the game at three and end the scoring in the period.
Phinney had 14 saves in the period, while Long stopped nine shots.
There was no scoring in the middle period, but it included a power play for each team, a nice save by Phinney on an Elkin snipe, and a non-call when Long got steamrolled by a United player in the crease.
Phinney stopped 10 shots, while Long kept four pucks out of the net.
The final period started with an AU penalty and for the third time, the Rockets connected.
Grishaber took care of another rebound to give NHM a 4-3 lead with over 15 minutes remaining in the period. Hafeman earned an assist on the play.
'Grish' celebrates NHM's fourth goal
Three minutes later the score was tied again, compliments of Matthew Gruber. The junior found the puck on his stick and some free space in front of the net, so he decided to sneak the biscuit past the glove hand of Long to make it even-steven with 12:16 left.
The score remained tied for most of the rest of the period.
NHM had another power play and called time-out in the middle of it to give the boys a rest and talk strategy. They were unsuccessful on the man-advantage for only the second time in the game, but almost scored when a shot on Phinney rolled slowly across the crease before an alert defenseman knocked the puck out of harm's way.
As the penalty time was nearing its end, Bargholtz snapped up the loose biscuit in the NZ, set sail down the right side, and went five-hole on the goalie to give United a 5-4 lead with his short-handed goal with 2:31 left.
After an AU timeout, Long came off for an extra NHM skater with just under a minute left, but that didn't work out so well as Brosnan added an empty-netter with 18 seconds left to account for the 6-4 final.
Phinney stopped seven shots in the period for a game total of 31, while Long made 10 saves in the period and finished with 23 total.
Neenah/Hortonville/Menasha finishes its fine season with a mark of 24-2-1.
Appleton United improves to 24-2 and will take on the winner of Sectional 8 (USM or Waupun) in the second game of the day (approximately 1pm) on Quarterfinal Thursday.
