Robbie Poirier scored five minutes into the final period and Wausau West hung on for a 6-5 win over Madison Edgewood Saturday in the Showdown in Titletown at Green Bay's Resch Center.
A wild and wooly first period featured six combined goals, including three power play scores.
Second-ranked West scored twice in the first 3:05 to take a 2-0 lead before many fans had settled into the Resch Center seats in sections 207-210.
Anthony Caroselli made it 1-0 when he put back a rebound at 2:29 with assists to Poirier and Kyle Lee.
Just thirty-six seconds later, Ryan Condon took a pass from Garret Clemment and beat Edgewood goalie Alex Witz from the bottom of the left circle to give the Warriors a two-goal margin.
Penalties would then allow Edgewood to get back into the game.
With two Warriors in the sin bin, the Crusaders had 1:07 of 5-on-3 and took advantage of it.
Blake Jorenby took a cross-ice pass at the top at the right circle and whipped a wrister past West goalie David Knetter to make it 2-1 at the 4:39 mark. Taylor Brown earned the first of his three assists on the two-man advantage.
Less than one minute later, Chris Beglinger tied the contest when his shot from the top of the left circle snuck through traffic and ended up in the back of the net. Brown and Zach Zanoya got helpers on the play.
West answered just 29 seconds later when Clemment motored down the left side, made a deke, and beat Witz on the stick side to give West a 3-2 lead at the 5:54 mark. Condon and Brett Ziegel were awarded assists on the goal.
The Warriors took advantage of an Edgewood penalty to grab back a two-goal edge. Clemment took a pass at the point and ripped a shot through a crowd in the slot that made it 4-2 at the 10:50 mark of the period. Seth Wage and John Feemster earned helpers on the play.
Each team took penalties late in the period, but neither squad was able to capitalize. West held an 11-3 shot advantage in the period.
Crusader coach Pete Rothering must have challenged his team during the intermission, because they came out firing on all cylinders, scoring a goal in the first minute of play.
Gage Maurer tallied just 20 seconds in with an assist to Brown to cut the lead to 4-3.
The Crusaders would then take a lead when they scored twice in a 33 second span.
Tom Richards buried a rebound from the low left side while on a power play to tie the game, and then Kody Parman made a nice move, skating down the right side before slicing to the middle and then ripping a shot past the handle of Knetter's Vaughn to make it 5-4 and seemingly take the life out of the Warriors.
Not so fast...
With about seven minutes remaining in the period, Lee grabbed the puck in the left corner, skated out to the high slot and slid a pass to the tape of Feemster's stick. The sophomore defenseman launched a shot from the top of the right circle past the glove of Witz to tie the game at five, which is how the period ended.
West took nine shots to five for Edgewood, but the Crusaders were able to score on three of them.
On the scoresheet, the third period was pretty quiet, but Poirier made the loudest noise with his goal at the 5:00 mark which would be the game-winner. Wage and Lee got assists on the play.
West had 50 seconds of 5-on-3 midway through, but the Crusaders did a nice job to kill off the penalties.
Edgewood took a time-out with just under a minute left and pulled Witz for the extra attacker, but was unable to score. West outshot Edgewood 7-4 in the period.
In the game, Knetter had seven saves for West, while Witz stopped 21 pucks for Edgewood.
West faces Eau Claire Memorial, a 4-1 winner over Fond du Lac, for the Showdown in Titletown championship at 4:15 Sunday afternoon at the Resch Center.
