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Second Period Onslaught Puts West over New Richmond

By WiPH Staff, 03/03/11, 8:30PM CST

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Ryan Condon scored a hat trick and Austin Priebe made 27 saves in a 5-0 victory over New Richmond in the final quarterfinal game Thursday at the Alliant Energy Center.

West opened the scoring midway through the first period when Condon grabbed a rebound in the slot and buried it past Tiger goalie Patrick Hailey with an assist going to Garret Clemment.

The Warriors held a slight 11-9 shot edge in the period.

In the second, West scored twice in a 20 second span to extend the lead to three goals.

Kyle Lee skated from the left corner into the slot and slipped the puck past the goalie at the 9:26 mark for an unassisted goal.

Less than a half-minute later, Robbie Poirier scored from the left circle as his shot beat Hailey high on the stick side, with an assist to Lee.

West held a huge edge in shots in the second, outshooting the Tigers by a margin of 21-9.

Condon made the score 4-0 just over two minutes into the third. Cody Hahner and Clemment earned assists.

With just over five minutes left, Condon notched his hat trick, with an assist to Clemment for his playmaker. The shots were almost even, as the Tigers edged West 9-8 in the stanza.

Hailey stopped 35 shots for New Richmond.

 

Preview by Michael Trzinski

The final game of “Quarterfinal Thursday” will pit second-ranked Wausau West against red-hot New Richmond. The Warriors come in with a record of 24-3, including wins in each of the last five contests. The Tigers sport a 21-5 mark, and they have earned victories in their last 15 games.

West has been ranked at or near the top of the WiPH polls all year and rightfully so. They have plenty of firepower, including goal scorers Garret Clemment (25g-31a) and Kyle Lee (27g-27a). If that’s not enough, Robbie Poirier (17g-27a), Tom Kilgore (15g-7a), Ryan Condon (14g-18a) and Cody Hahner (12g-13a) have all popped in more than ten goals.

For the sixth-ranked Tigers, forward Josh Leavens (23g-13a) is the team’s “pure” goal scorer. He gets lots of help from Nate Jones (16g-29a), Parker Olson (16g-19a), Max Skatrud (15g-19a) and Dom Peterson (11g-16a). New Richmond has five that have lit the lamp in double-digits, so they are equally adept.

On defense, West is led by Seth Wage (8g-15a), Brett Ziegel (2g-14a), John Feemster (9g-14a) and Steve Leonhard (3g-4a). Nick Hovda doesn't score much, but plays a physical defense for West. Defensively this is a solid group, and Wage recently even showed a little offensive prowess, scoring four times in the three playoff games.

For New Richmond, Tyler Montgomery (11g-23a) plays defense well and can score, including two in the trio of playoff games. Austin Zywiec (10g-14a) is a solid performer on the blueline, as are Zack Kier (6g-9a) and Kaleb Kier (0g-9a).

In net for West will be Austin Priebe. He has been perfect in all of his five playoff periods, stopping 42 shots. For the year his numbers read as 1.20 GAA and .948 save %. David Knetter will play a back-up role and has stopped 87% of shots fired on him.

The Tigers will trust their tournament fortunes to Patrick Hailey (2.42 GAA, .902 save %). He has played well in his last seven games, allowing only eight goals. Kyle Frey is a capable back-up.

On special teams, New Richmond holds a slight edge in both the PP and PK. The Tigers convert 23.7% of their man-advantage chances, while the Warriors lag a little behind that at 17.7%.

On the PK, New Richmond kills off 88%, while West is successful on the kill 85% of the time.

West scores about one goal per game more than the Tigers, and allow a half-goal less per game. The Warriors tend to come alive in the second period, when they score 50% more than they do in the first or third periods, so it might be here that New Richmond has to weather the storm.

It looks to be a close game, and one goal should decide it. 

West's scoring ability and edge in net should be enough for them to pull out a win, but if Hailey stands on his head and keeps up his solid play and the Tiger defenseman rattle the West forwards, it could go the other way.

Either way, should be a good one.