RWD worked extremely hard all season and it showed with an 18-5-0 regular season record.  They earned themselves the #2 seed in Sectional Four for the playoffs.  Onalaska earned the #1 seed with an identical record.

 

RWD won their opening game of the playoffs with a 6-2 victory against Wisconsin Rapids at Poppy Waterman Ice Arena in Lake Delton.  This had been the second meeting between the two in less than three weeks.  RWD won the first meeting 4-2.

 

RWD hosted Tomah on Tuesday.  They faced each other in the Tomah Invitational over Thanksgiving and RWD won that game in overtime 2-1.  This game proved to be just as exciting and even more rewarding in the end.

 

RWD took it to the Timberwolves from the opening face-off.  They practically spent the first eight minutes of the period firing shots at Tomah's Derek Moser without leaving the offensive zone.  Unfortunately, Moser was up to the task at stonewalling shot after shot.  RWD was called for a penalty for high sticking.

 

Tomah took advantage of the opportunity and scored the first goal of the game with 8:20 remaining.  The goal was scored by Jordy Pierce with Brett Sweeny and Mitch Szeflinski assisting on the powerplay goal.  RWD continued to battle and it paid off as Jacob Clisch found Ryan Theiler along the boards with a pass.  Theiler took it in and scored 11:45 into the period to tie the game at one.

 

The second period started out with both team taking turns at attacking the offensive zones.  The defense for RWD kept turning the offensive attacks aside, but finally Pierce found the back of the net for a second time with Mitch Weiland and Coty Gular assisting at the 9:55 mark of the period.  Once again RWD battled from behind, this time it was a goal by defenseman Nick Christensen with Jacob Clisch and Tyson Borchert assisting on the powerplay goal with 1:35 remaining in the period.  Both teams went to their locker rooms with the game knotted at two.

 

As you started watching the third period, your mind couldn't help but wonder if this was another overtime game in the making.  Alex Yacko scored at 8:35 of the third with Ryan Theiler and Luke Bjorlund assisting on the goal to give RWD their first lead of the game.  Tomah was not about to give up on their dream to move on.  They continued to attack and ended up on the powerplay with less than two minutes remaining.  The Timberwolves kept the attack in their offensive zone and pulled their goalie to get another attacker.

 

RWD was in a penalty kill situation and battling an extra attacker.  RWD managed to break the puck loose and were taking the puck down the ice.  Tomah was called for two penalties on the play.  The first was a check from behind and the second was an interference call (in order to keep RWD from scoring an empty net goal and salting the game away) with 19 seconds remaining in the game.

 

Shane Moilanen finished the game with 28 saves for RWD, while Moser had 47 saves for Tomah.

 

The seeds held true in sectional four as the top seeded Onalaska Hilltoppers will host #2 RWD in the sectional final at South Wood County Rec Center in Wisconsin Rapids.  The puck will drop at 7:00 PM on Friday, February 25th.