Late in a game, when one play can make all the difference, a team usually looks to its best player to step up and make that play.

With the score 2-2 and less than six minutes remaining in the third period, Hudson's Anna Wilgren had the puck and an open look at the net from the top of the left circle. 

One second later, the puck hit the twine and fell gently to the ice in the goal, and just like that, the top-ranked Raiders took a one-goal lead in the WiPH Girls Game of the Week at the John Gornick Arena.

Wilgren, who stewed angrily in the penalty box five minutes prior, got her redemption with the game-winner as the Raiders held on for a 3-2 victory on a snowy Thursday evening in Hudson over second-ranked Eau Claire-Altoona.

From start to finish, the game lived up to its billing and kept fans from both teams on the edge of their seats, alternately moaning and cheering as the play went back and forth like the ball in a tennis match.

Both squads played their hearts out, and it was shame that one team had to skate off with their heads down.

The first period was scoreless, with three penalties killed off in the first 12 minutes of play. The Stars PK unit killed off two, while Hudson kept the puck out of the net its only time in the period.

With about four minutes left in the stanza, a shot by a Hudson forward caromed around behind ECA goalie Naomi Stow and somehow miraculously (for the Stars) stayed out of the net.

And just to show that turnabout is fair play, Abigail Stow and Madison Schwengler went in on a 2-on-1 rush with just under two minutes left, only to see Hudson netminder Cassie Schultz reach down and to her left with her glove to keep the puck out of the net and the game scoreless.

Both Schultz and Stow repelled eight pucks in the period.

"They (ECA) outworked us in that first period," said Hudson coach Matt Szypura. "They came out hard, beating us to pucks and winning battles. We had to go back and re-group."

Hudson figured out how to make its power play unit work, scoring their first of three man-advantage goals in the middle period.

As the clock was ticking down on an ECA infraction, Nikki Olund punched in a rebound in front of the goal to give the home girls a 1-0 lead. Sydney Hendricks and Dani Robson earned helpers on the play.

With just over six minutes left in the period, a Hudson shot from the left side clanged off the crossbar and went 'bar-wide,' keeping the score at 1-0.

Two minutes later, Schultz made a lunging, grabbing stop of an ECA shot to keep the guests off the tallysheet.