St. Croix Valley Fusion (22-3-1) – The Fusion earned the top seed in the regional.  They lost their last regular season game to the Central Wisconsin Storm in overtime.  St. Croix Valley has not allowed a goal in the playoffs.  Kalli Armagost has collected a total of 32 saves in her two playoff games (15 against Superior and 17 against Chippewa Falls/Menomonie).  During the playoffs, Alice Cranston and Tara Frey lead the team in points with 4 each.  Alice has 3 goals and 1 assist, while Tara has 2 goals and 2 assists.  Two players have three points, Tori Klingler has 2 goals and 1 assist, while Hailey Rock has three assists.

Hayward/Spooner Hurricanes (15-7-1) – Hayward/Spooner was the second seed in the regional.  They compiled a 13-7-1 regular season record, which included signature wins over the USM Wildcats and Northland Pines Eagles.  In order to make it to the sectional final, they defeated the New Richmond Tigers 6-3 in their first game and then coming from behind by scoring 2 goals in the third period to defeat the ECA Stars 2-1 in the sectional semi-final.  The Hurricanes have limited the opponents to 26 shots on Sarah Miley.  Kelly and Alyssa Ahlgren lead the team in points during the post-season.  Kelly has 4 goals and 2 assists, while Alyssa has the reverse (2 goals, 4 assists).  Meredith Ingbretson has 5 assists in the playoffs.

This will be the third game between the Hurricanes and Fusion this season.  The Fusion won both games (5-0 on Nov 26 and 4-1 on Feb 10).  St. Croix Valley outshot Hayward/Spooner 34-23 in November and 33-24 in their last meeting.

Central Wisconsin Storm (24-1-0) – The Storm earned the top seed by pounding their opponents this season.  They outscored their opponent 137-8 during the regular season and 15-1 during the playoffs.  Their lone loss this season was to the Fusion in overtime, which they avenged with an overtime victory on February 12th.  Hillary Drake has faced a total of 15 shots in the five periods she has played during the playoffs.  Morgan Pearson leads the team in points during the playoffs with 4 goals and 3 assists.  Tiffany Hladovak is second with 4 goals and 2 assists.

Marshfield Tigers (19-5-0) – Marshfield had a very successful season, which enabled them to get the #2 seed in the sectional.  They opened the playoffs with a 7-2 victory over Tomahawk.  In the sectional semi-final, they defeated Northland Pines 4-2 (a team they split their regular season games with).  Paige Johnson leads Marshfield with 3 goals and 4 assists in the post-season.  Nicole Karl is second with 2 goals and 2 assists.  After a rough game against Tomahawk, Marshfield goalie Ashley Bauer rebounded with a very good outing against Northland Pines stopping 22 of 24 shots.

  The Tigers are hoping the old cliché is true, “It is hard to bear a team three times in one season.”  This will be their third meeting with the Storm winning the first two games 5-0 on Dec 20 and 9-1 on Jan 31.  One of their toughest tasks will be trying to get the puck to find the back of the net against Drake.

Bay Area Ice Bears (13-10-2) – The Bay Area Ice Bears are looking to make their second straight trip to Madison.  They opened the playoffs with a 2-1 overtime victory against Viroqua.  They traveled to Onalaska and defeated the Hilltoppers 3-1 in their sectional semi-final.  Lauren Roethlisberger leads the team with 4goals.  Sarah Block has made 24 saves in their two playoff games ( 14 against Viroqua and 10 against Onalaska).

Appleton United (14-11-1) – Appleton is looking to make their first trip to Madison, since winning it all in 2007.  They defeated the Badger Thunder 5-3 to start the playoffs.  They advanced to the sectional final by scoring the winning goal with less than two minutes remaining in regulation to knock off the top seeded Fond du lac Co-op 3-2.  Anna Westmark leads the team in points with 3 goals and 2 assists.  Elisabeth Breaker had been solid in the net stopping 35 of 40 shots.

This is the third meeting of the season for Appleton and Bay Area.  The teams split their first two meetings with each of the teams having won on the opponents’ home ice.  Bay Area won 4-3 at Appleton in December.  Appleton won 3-1 in January.

Sun Prairie Co-op Cougars (21-3-2) – Sun Prairie has lost to one Wisconsin team this season, St. Croix Valley Fusion.  They tied Fond du Lac Co-op on February 8th.  Their other two losses and tie came against teams from Minnesota (Benilde-St. Margaret’s 3-1, Eveleth-Gilbert 5-3 and Silver Bay 4-4).  During the regular season, Josie Johnson led the team in points.  However, during the playoffs Morgan Sefzik (3 goals, 4 assists); Jamie Henderson (6 goals) and Kaitlyn Knuteson (4 goals, 1 assist) are leading the team.  Janna Bielke-Skoug has stopped 36 shots in the post-season and posting two shutouts.

USM Wildcats (16-10-0) – The Wildcats went 6-4-0 in the last ten regular season games.  They defeated the Stoughton Co-op Icebergs 3-1 in their opening playoff game.  In their second game, they traveled to Hartland and took on #2 seeded Arrowhead.  The Warhawks fired 22 shots at Emily Wigdale, but could not find the back of the net and fell to USM 2-0.  Wigdale has stopped 44 of 45 shots during the playoffs.  Megan Bailey leads the Wildcats with 4 points (2 goals, 2 assists) in the post-season.

This will be the second time USM and Sun Prairie have played this season.  Sun Prairie won the first game 4-1 on January 8th at USM.  Sun Prairie outshot USM by the slimmest of margins 26-24.