Saturday, March 5th, marked the tenth WIAA girls’ hockey championship and what a statement game it was for girl’s high school hockey. The two teams which were ranked in the top two spots all season, Central Wisconsin Storm and St. Croix Valley Fusion, made it to the title game. The Storm won the 2008 state championship with a little known freshman goalie, Hillary Drake, in net. The Fusion won the 2009 and 2010 state championships. The two teams met twice during the regular season and both games were decided in overtime with the teams winning on their home ice. The rubber game was expected to be exciting and more than matched everyone’s expectations.
The battle for the 2011 WIAA Girls’ State Championship features the two team that have been ranked #1 and #2 throughout the entire season. They spent a couple of weeks were the roles were reversed, but this “storm” has been brewing the entire season. They have won the last three state titles between them. They played twice during the regular season with each team holding serve on their home ice, even though it took overtime in each game.
The Fusion enter the game ranked #2 in the state. They are back-to-back defending state champs and looking to become the first WIAA Girls’ hockey team to 3-peat and the first WIAA Hockey team to do it since the boys’ Superior hockey team did it in 1994, 95 & 96. The Fusion come into the game with an overall record of 24-3-1.
The Storm are the #1 team in the state. The seniors on the team won the state title in 2008, when they were freshmen. They would love to bookend their high school careers with State Championships. They have an impressive 26-1-0 overall record with the only loss being an overtime loss to the Fusion.
The Central Wisconsin Storm are led in scoring by Kylie Gazzolo (19 goals, 23 assists). They have four other players with double digits in both goals and assists: Miranda Hayes (18 goals, 19 assists); Tiffany Hladovak (18 goals, 14 assists); Morgan Pearson (18 goals, 13 assists) and Sarah Poirier (11 goals, 15 assists). However, even more impressive may be their defense, which limited their opponents to less than 15 shots on goal per game during the regular season. Paige Sedlar is the leader on defense and helps quarterback a penalty killing unit that did not give up a power play goal during the regular season by killing off all 62 power play opportunities. Then after seeing the strength of their offense and defense, you look at their net and see the two-time Jessie Vetter Award winner, Hillary Drake. Drake has been nothing less than spectacular this season with a 0.39 GAA and a 0.975 save percentage.
When you look at the other bench, you find another solid team in the Fusion. St. Croix Valley is led by senior, Alice Cranston (winner of the inaugural Jinelle Siergiej Award). Alice Cranston had 57 points during the regular season, which included 41 goals and 16 assists. However, a team can’t concentrate all of their efforts on stopping Alice and expect to win. The Fusion sported four other players with 15 or more assists: Hailey Rock (21 goals, 16 assists); Tara Frey (9 goals, 19 assists); Nikki Plunkett (9 goals, 15 assists) and Heather Shew (1 goal, 18 assists). Three other players were just on the outside looking in of having double digit assists: Sally Cranston (9 goals, 8 assists); Tori Klingler (3 goals, 8 assists) and Sig Dangeur (2 goals, 8 assists). Kalli Armagost minds the net for the Fusion. As a freshman last season, she manned the net in route to the Fusion winning their back-to-back titles.
Today, we will see two programs in which the players and coaches have nothing but mutual respect and admiration for each other. As was stated earlier, each team won an overtime against the other on their home ice. This afternoon they meet on neutral ice and for the highest award, the 2011 WIAA Girls’ State Hockey Championship. We may have to tell the boys “Sorry your game is delayed as 51 minutes is not enough, the Girls have the ice.”