There has been perhaps no better feeling for the St. Croix Valley Fusion this season than when they stormed the ice and dogpiled on junior Kendall Sundby moments after she flipped a shorthanded goal past the opposition’s goaltender less than 30 seconds into overtime, which secured the Fusion’s fourth Big Rivers Conference championship in as many years.

Sundby’s offensive brilliance culminated in the overtime goal that capped off the 5-4 victory at home over the Eau Claire Area Stars on Tuesday Jan. 31. Claiming another conference title was a bit sweeter on Tuesday as the game against the Stars was also senior night.

For St. Croix Valley Fusion head coach Matt Cranston, sending his well-decorated senior class out with four consecutive conference championships is a storybook ending to a regular season that very few hockey players ever get to experience.

“It’s really fun for the seniors especially,” Cranston said after the game. “One of the biggest goals for high school sports is to win a conference championship, so it’s awesome. We’ve been with (the seniors) for four years and we’re so close, it’s crazy how close we are.”

Perhaps the Fusion’s close-knit nature helped them mount a comeback in a game where they trailed by as many as two goals late in the second period and it appeared as if the Stars were going to play spoiler on senior night.

After a first period in which both teams scored two goals, the Eau Claire Area Stars broke the game open in the second period. It began when junior Mikaylen Liljander found the back of the net with an assist from senior teammate Morgan Ruppert, which made it 3-2 favoring the Stars.

Less than 30 seconds later, Eau Claire Area scored again. This time it was senior Kennedy Gruhlke who found the back of the net after receiving an excellent pass from sophomore Ava Hibbard to make it a 4-2 contest.

The back-to-back goals took the wind out of the Fusion’s sails, as they struggled to get any quality offensive looks throughout the next several minutes. However, with under a minute left in the second period, the Fusion got their chance. It started when junior Kraly Walker launched a pass to Sundby, who scored her second goal of the game after she created space and fired a shot past the Stars’ goaltender. Coach Cranston spoke about how that goal late in the second period, which made it a 4-3 game, completely changed the feeling in the locker room moments later.

“That was a giant difference,” Cranston said. “If we would have gone into that locker room down 4-2 instead of 4-3, it was a deal-breaker I think.”

The Fusion used that momentum in the opening minutes of the third period to tie the game 4-4 when sophomore forward Alexis Ralston scored with assists from senior Trinity Mittl and freshman Oaklie Holldorf.

Ralston’s goal helped the Fusion reach overtime, which is where Sundby secured her hat trick with a shorthanded goal less than 30 seconds into extended time. Coach Cranston spoke about his team overcoming the twogoal deficit and securing the hard-fought win.

“It was very, very stressful,” Cranston said with a little bit of a laugh. “Especially when we were down 4-2, but we outshot them like 41-12, so I knew that if we kept pounding shots like that, they would have to go in eventually and we were fortunate that it happened.”

Sundby finished with a game-high three points, all of which came via her hat trick goals. Mittl and Ralston each finished with two points and four other Fusion players had one point. Mittl and Sundby have become St. Croix Valley’s preeminent scoring duo by a wide margin.

Sundby has a team-high 48 points this season while Mittl holds the second-place spot with 33. The next closest player is freshman Morgan Kivel with 17 points. Cranston spoke about Sundby and Mittl’s ice awareness and chemistry, which makes them two of the best players in the Big Rivers Conference.

“They both have good hockey sense and they click,” Cranston said. “They both know where each other is going to be before they’re there. That’s the key to any good hockey player.”

With the win, the Fusion improved to 1110 overall and 6-1 in Big Rivers Conference action. For coach Cranston, having a record that is barely above .500 isn’t necessarily a bad thing. He spoke about having many of the best teams in the state on the schedule for non-conference games throughout the year.

“We’re the number one strength of schedule in our section,” Cranston said. “I don’t know if we’ve ever lost this many games, maybe not in our history, but they’re mostly one-goal games and they’re all top five or six teams in the state. I don’t care about our record. I just want to be as good as we can be.”

The Fusion certainly earned the respect of the seeding entity, as St. Croix Valley earned a #1 seed for their respective section of the upcoming playoff bracket. The Fusion will host the winner of Eau Claire North and Hudson on Tuesday, Feb. 21. Cranston spoke about what he wants to see from his girls the rest of the way.

“We’re going to work hard and try to win every game,” Cranston said. “The top 10 teams are all one goal difference. I’ve been doing this for 19 years and there have never been this many teams that could win. We all feel like we can make a run.”

St. Croix Valley is slated to compete in two more regular season games before making its postseason run. The first is on the road against Chippewa Falls/Menomonie on Tuesday, Feb. 7. That game is scheduled to begin at 7 p.m.