Superior defenders could hardly blink as River Falls senior Jenna Bergmanis buried the puck for three goals in less than four minutes on Jan. 9 in a 10-2 for the St. Croix Valley Fusion.

Bergmanis, a junior defender for the girls hockey co-op, netted three of her four goals between 11:35 and 14:45 into the second period, all even strength. Fusion forward Juneau Paulsen, a Baldwin-Woodville senior, also scored four goals, including a short-handed one to open the game.

“They just both worked really hard, and their teammates work really hard to get the puck to them,” Fusion coach Matt Cranston said.

Bergmanis added her fourth goal late in the third period to make it 10-2. Paulsen scored twice in the first four minutes of the second period to break open the game at 4-1, and she added another in the third for a 9-1 advantage. She scored twice on short-handed goals.

“Junaeau hit a couple of pipes, too, she could have even scored more,” Cranston said. “She was so aggressive.”

Paulsen and Bergmanis’ intensity against Superior (0-3) characterized this season’s Fusion team. The No. 6-ranked team in the state, St. Croix Valley (4-4) pushed other top teams to the brink thus far in a quest to win back-toback Big Rivers Conference titles.

“I call them lunch-bucket type players,” Cranston said of his team. “They’re not the most talented team I've ever had, but they come out and just want to work hard.”

St. Croix Valley’s only losses through Jan. 9 came against top-ranked Fox Cities (12-0) and fifth-ranked Hudson (6-1). Cranston said those are “the two best teams in the state.”

The Fusion out-shot Fox Cities 24-19 but lost 6-3 their first meeting on Dec. 18. St. Croix Valley stayed within two goals most of the third period in their second meeting, a 4-2 loss on Dec. 19.

Fusion skaters out-shot Hudson in both of their meetings, a 6-4 loss on Dec. 29 and 5-3 loss on Jan. 5. River Falls senior and Fusion forward Jaden Woiwode pulled her team within a goal of Hudson in the third period of their Dec. 29 contest before the Raiders held on with an empty-netter. St. Croix Valley and Hudson went into the third period tied 3-3 before the Raiders pulled away with two unanswered goals in their Jan. 5 meeting.

“We outplayed them,” Cranston said of the Hudson games. “They just beat us.”

St. Croix Valley faces a grueling schedule this week with No. 2 Eau Claire Area (4-0-1) on Thursday at 7 p.m. and No. 4 Chippewa Falls-Menomonie (4-2-1) on Friday at 7 p.m.. It started with No. 3 Western Wisconsin (8-3) in Somerset on Monday and a home game with Chippewa Falls-Menomonie on Tuesday.

“This week is going to be insane,” Cranston said on Monday.

Big Rivers Conference play won’t ease up ever this season with Hudson, Eau Claire Area and Chippewa Falls-Menomonie all ranking in the top six.

“This is probably the hardest schedule we’ve ever had,” Cranston said. “There’s no gimmies.”

St. Croix Valley didn’t treat teams with losing records such as Hayward (3-8) or Superior like gimmies last week.The Fusion jumped on Hayward early with first-period goals from Woiwode and freshman defender Kendall Sundby for a 3-1 win on Jan. 7. Superior came into the Jan. 9 game winless and haven’t beaten the Fusion in the past two seasons, a recipe for a trap game.

“Usually when we go to Superior we’re flat because of the long bus ride,” Cranston said.

He added that an empty, college-sized rink in Superior made it different for the girls, too.

St. Croix Valley responded to its first penalty of the game with Paulsen’s first shorthanded goal, and the Fusion took the lead for good on senior forward Tayan Mittl’s power play goal. The Fusion pulled away with six goals in the second period.

St. Croix Valley’s schedule has only two more games with opponents that have losing records. Winning a second-straight Big Rivers title will require facing ranked teams another five times before the regular season wraps up in February.

“We’re all so close, it’s pretty crazy,” Cranston said. “It’s fun to see this part of the state dominate.”