Thursday, March 5
Bay Area 5, Cap City 1
The Bay Area Ice Bears advanced to the state girls hockey championship game with a 5-1 win over the Cap City Cougars.
The girls will try to earn back-to-back titles when they face the St. Croix Valley Fusion at 3 p.m. March 7.
Against the Cougars, the Ice Bears had a 3-0 lead in the second period before Cap City scored its only goal. Bay Area responded with two more goals in the third period to seal the win.
Piper Losey scored first at 1:44 in the first period with a Jordyn Clarke assist. Aisling Buchan scored at 15:41 with Addison Dahl assisting.
In the second period, Faye Brunke scored unassisted at 3:15.
Leading 3-1 at 16:13 in the third period, Buchan scored her second goal with assists from Lily Lyons and Ava McDonald. Brunke scored her second goal of the game, again unassisted, at 16:51.
Bay Area goalie Reese Spiering made 11 saves, while Cap City’s Sofia Martinelli had 35.
Each team had two penalties for four minutes.
The fourth-seeded Cougars include girls from Sun Prairie West, DeForest, Madison East, Madison La Follette, Sun Prairie East and Waunakee. The co-op qualified for the third straight year, and essentially, for the seventh time with the only difference being the split of Sun Prairie into two schools.
The Cap City Cougars’ most notable experience in the former co-op arrangement was a runner-up finish in 2018.
After placing second in the Badger Conference this season, they make their return to state by virtue of a 2-0 shutout over the Beaver Dam co-op in the sectional final hosted at Beaver Dam.
