The St. Croix Valley Fusion lost to the Bay Area Ice Bears in the semifinal round of the state tournament in Madison on Thursday by a score of 5-4. It was a tough loss for the Fusion who have been on the cusp of a state championship for the last three years running.

Star player and D1 commit, Kendall Sundby, got the scoring started early for the Fusion on a break away towards the net and took the 1-0 lead with an unassisted goal. Unfortunately, the Ice Bears managed to punch them in the mouth a couple times in a row and they scored twice in the next 64 seconds to take the lead away from the Fusion. St. Croix Valley kept pushing though, and just 2:30 later they tied it up with a Sundby assisted goal by Lily Mittl.

Surprisingly, in a period where there were three penalties and four goals, none of them were of the power play variety and the teams would go into the first break tied at 2-all. The Ice Bears outshot the Fusion over this stretch at 9-5, a trend that would unfortunately continue for the rest of the night.

The second period was more or less the same. Sundby scored seemingly at will, completing the hat trick before the mid-point in the game.

Her first goal came on a power play as she was assisted by Morgan Kivel in the effort after just over a minute into the period. Just a handful of minutes later, the Fusion found themselves in penalty trouble with two of their shooters doing time in the box and the rest of the skaters facing a 5-3 disadvantage. Despite this, Sundby skated past the Ice Bears and flipped a puck in behind the goaltender while severely shorthanded with the assistance of Jane Volgren.

The Fusion held onto this 4-2 lead for about 4:00 until they got themselves back in foul trouble. This time, however, Sundby didn’t get them out of it with her heroics. Instead, Bay Area got one back, and the period came to an end with the Fusion clinging to a 4-3 lead after being outshot 15-4.

While the penalties were the real killer for St. Croix Valley in the second period, the only infraction in the third was by the Ice Bears. What ultimately killed them was the near complete lack of putting pucks on the Bay Area goaltender as the Fusion were outshot 9-1 over the final frame. Of those nine, two of them got to the net in the first 4:22 of the period.

Thus, the Fusion found themselves down 5-4 after the Ice Bears’ third unanswered goal, albeit with nearly an entire period left to tie it up or hopefully take the lead. The Bay Area skaters managed to nearly completely shut them down, however, and they were able to successfully run out the clock on St. Croix Valley’s bid for their first state championship since 2009.

The game came to an end at 5-4 with the final shots on goal tally at 33-10.

With the insane efficiency that the Fusion were enjoying with four goals on just 10 shots, it’s a shame they couldn’t get a few more looks at the Ice Bears’ goaltender. That said, it was a fantastic season for a program that has enjoyed so much success over the years, and although they’re losing a generational talent in Sundby after this season, young stars like Volgren, who was second on the team in goals as a freshman, are rarely in short supply for this team.

Head Coach Matt Cranston says that although they’re disappointed they lost, he feels like the girls battled hard and was okay with the individual performances.

“Obviously Kendall was the superstar of the entire tournament. The players played the way they wanted, but got tired in the last period due to the large amount of penalty minutes that we had to kill taking its toll,” Cranston said.

As good as this team was this year, the Fusion only had two seniors on the team. They will be losing Kraly Walker and the aforementioned superstar of the tournament and leading scorer for the Fusion, Sundby.

Coach Cranston says that despite the low amount of turnover, replacing Kendall and Walker will be very difficult, and that the returning players will have to work hard to fill such big shoes.

“Kraly’s defensive style of hockey will surely be missed. She competed as much as anyone I’ve ever coached. Blocking shots, stick on puck, etcetera. Obviously, Kendall will not be replaced. She was crazy good with her skills and scoring goals. Also tremendously gifted defensively,” Cranston said. “The returners will all have to get better. All the forwards on the varsity tent team will return. They will all play summer hockey at some level and become better for next season.”

With how successful this program has been, and as much upcoming talent as the Fusion have with players like Volgren only getting better with time, it will not be a surprise to see St. Croix Valley’s skaters back at the state tournament again next year.

In the words of coach Cranston, “It was a great season and a great experience for all involved.”