The Janesville Bluebirds and Madison West Regents met on Monday night in Janesville to make up a game lost to the recent weather ending conference play for both teams.
Ben Coulter was happy to make it up.
The Janesville senior scored a hat trick and assisted on Charlie DeGarmo's game winning goal to lift Janesville to a 4-3 win.
"It feels great after a loss against Middleton to bounce back against a team like Madison West with a 4-3 win," said DeGarmo.
Janesville did start the scoring out and Coulter finished off a rebound with a tap in by Regent goalie Ian Hedican for the 1-0 lead. However Madison West wasted no time and tied the game up on a goal by Eric Horein to finish off the first period scoring. West had an 8-5 shot edge.
The second period had Madison West taking the lead. A defensive turnover along the boards and Kaleb Kohn scored for a 2-1 Regent lead. Janesville however won a battle along the boards and tied it up, with Coulter scoring off an assist from Tyler Edwards.
With just over a minute to go in the second period, Coulter finished off his hat trick to give Janesville a 3-2 lead. However, after the goal they let up and the Regents Drake Baldwin got behind the defense and blew the puck past Janesville goalie Cody Kaas for a 3-3 game heading into the final period.
The third period was a very tightly played period but Janesville was able to get a power play. Charlie DeGarmo got a pass to him at the blue line and let off a low hard shot that made it thru for the 4-3 lead.
The game came down to 1:27 left. West pulled Hedican for the extra attacker and had quite a flurry in the offensive zone but could not get the the equalizer and Janesville had their fifth win in six games.
DeGarmo had praise for Coulter. "He's our go to guy; he makes the magic happen."
Ian Hedican finished the game with 20 saves for West, while Cody Kaas had 23 for Janesville. The Bluebirds start the playoffs on Thursday hosting Whitefish Bay while Madison West hosts the winner of the Eastside Lakers/Madison Memorial game.