The girls worked hard, got a body on her, stick-checked her and frustrated her.
“You need to know when she’s on the ice, and try and make sure she doesn’t get a shot off. That’s what we did last year,” Wimmer said. “The biggest thing is that we’re not going to take just one girl and put her on Knutson, this is a team effort. “We did lose a lot of upperclassmen, but we had a pretty solid group of freshmen and I don’t think our team has lost a lot in skill level and our upperclassmen really stepped it up this year, too,” junior forward Megan Marlowe said.įatigue played a part in last year’s title game - Onalaska was coming off a semifinal game which set a record as the longest contest in state tournament history at 3 hours, 25 minutes - but the Storm were able to slow down Knutson and the Hilltoppers, allowing just 21 shots on net and killing off all seven penalties they received. The Storm graduated nine seniors from that team, Wimmer moved up from assistant coach with Denny Drake’s retirement and with 16 players, the co-op program fielded one of its smallest squads ever.īut with the addition of three freshmen - forwards Teagen Tretter and Arielle Riedel and defenseman Michaela Zingler - the play of first-year starting goalie Lisa Fowle and an overall stingy team defense that is allowing an average of 15 shots on net per game, the Storm hardly missed a beat this season. The Storm are making their sixth straight state appearance, and have a different look than the team that beat Onalaska 6-2 last year. We want to make some history down in Madison.”
When we made our goal sheet at the beginning of the year, that was the biggest goal - to defend the title. It’s easy to look at a team like Onalaska and expect them to win, and I think our girls are really happy with where they’re sitting right now.”Īdded senior defenseman Claire Poirier, “We really like being the underdog, it makes us work a lot harder and we come together as a team. “(The players) take it personally if people don’t respect them, or the way they play and the things they’ve done this year. “I think when you can come in maybe a little under the radar and without all the pressure and expectations when you are the defending state champions is rare, but I think for our girls it’s good,” Wimmer added. I know there are people out there that don’t think we’re really that good, and that’s something our girls have played with all year. “You look at Onalaska and a lot of people thought they would win it last year - they’ve got the big studs up front and can put the puck in the net. 1 pick and currently ranked third in the state. “I think it’s nice when all the pressure is not on you,” said Storm coach Jana Wimmer, whose team was a preseason No. 1 ranking and expectations into Friday’s state semifinal rematch and is led by the top scorer in the state, junior Theresa Knutson, who has an eye-popping 74 goals this season and 150 in her stellar career so far. It’s Onalaska - which the Storm beat in the state title game last year - that carries the No. The Central Wisconsin Storm might be the defending champions, but are somewhat of an underdog in this weekend’s WIAA state girls hockey tournament at Veterans Memorial Coliseum in Madison.
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