The Saint Croix Valley Fusion lost in double overtime to the University School of Milwaukee Wildcats by a score of 2-1 on Saturday in Baldwin. It was a tough loss for the Fusion who dominated all facets of gameplay for most of the afternoon.

Saint Croix Valley won the opening faceoff, but the puck stayed in their D-zone for a good portion of the opening minutes, albeit with just a single shot on goal.

In a very clean period of play, an early interference penalty by Saint Croix Valley gave the Wildcats an opportunity to capitalize while the home team was shorthanded. The stalwart Fusion penalty kill defense executed flawlessly, and 2:00 later, they were at full strength.

With the clock running under 14:00, Kendall Sundby found a seam and skated past defenders enroute to a backhand shot towards the corner of the net. It went wide of the mark, but the Fusion appeared to be gaining some momentum.

As mid period came and went, Saint Croix Valley had a flurry of shots on goal after putting up zero thus far. However, two of the four didn’t have much on them and were easily swallowed up by Milwaukee’s goalie, and none of them went in.

The Wildcats kept pressing, but with less than 6:00 left to play in the opening frame, the notoriously stingy Fusion defense kept them to just two shots on goal for the entire period. The bad news is, they were stuck on four as well.

This changed rapidly as the tempo of the game went up dramatically in the final 4:00 of play. The Saint Croix Valley defense did their job, but they couldn’t stop the Wildcats from getting multiple looks at their goaltender including one on a hotly contested breakaway. Their offense was still owning the game as they put shot after shot on goal with the clock ticking down towards 1:00.

Unfortunately, none would go in, and the first period would end in a stalemate, albeit with the Fusion owning the SOG margin at 8-6.

The second period was the opposite of the first in relation to who seemed to be controlling the tempo throughout the first 9:00 of play. With midperiod approaching, the only shots on goal were by Milwaukee, who had taken the lead in this category at 10-8.

This proved to be irrelevant as freshman phenom Jane Volgren skated into the face of the Wildcats goalie and deposited the puck in the net for the game’s first goal. She was assisted in this effort by Morgan Kivel and Oaklie Holldorf.

Seconds later Saint Croix Valley nearly put another one in after two more quick shots. The Fusion were relentless as the Wildcats could not seem to get them out of their D-zone, visibly scrambling to regain an even footing with the home team.

At the 7:00 mark, the Fusion had put up six unanswered shots in a row over the course of two minutes to take a 14-10 lead in that category.

The pace slowed down over the back half of the period with only three total shots on goal during the ensuing six minutes of play. As the clock ticked under 1:00, the Fusion made a bit of a move as lines changed and fresh legs entered play. They put up three straight shots, including an attempt at a buzzer beater on a breakaway as time expired, but it remained 1-0.

One-goal games can change quickly, and that’s exactly what happened in the third period as  Milwaukee appeared to have stolen the momentum coming out of the break.

The Wildcats put up multiple shots on goal early, and they continuously kept pressure on the Fusion. With Milwaukee controlling the tempo throughout the first few minutes of the period, they got a lot of pressure on Saint Croix Valley and one of their shots slipped through to tie the game up at 1-1.

A minute and a half later, the Fusion had a golden opportunity to take the lead back when the Wildcats incurred multiple penalties giving Saint Croix Valley a double power play.

Star player Sundby showed off her incredible skating, puck skills and tenacity as she attempted to put the team on her shoulders, manufacturing multiple opportunities including maneuvering around the entire Wildcat defense and making their goaltender fend off her shots. Ultimately, none of these attempts bore fruit, though, and 2:00 later, Milwaukee was back at full strength.

The evolution of shots on goal tells the story of this period. With just 6:00 remaining, the Wildcats had outshot the Fusion 8-5. Saint Croix Valley would outshoot them the rest of the way, but the gameplay was fast and furious as the minutes wound off the clock, and at the end of regulation, the score was still tied at 1-1 sending the game into a sudden death overtime.

The first period of OT was the most defensive with only a few shots on goal for each team, and it ended with the score still knotted up. Both teams seemed determined not to go home with a loss, playing hard and limiting each other’s opportunities.

Play came to an end shortly after play continued into double overtime, however, as Milwaukee squeaked a goal through and pulled the victory away from the Fusion who had outplayed and outshot them for most of the afternoon.

The lone goal of the game for the Fusion was scored by Volgren, but that’s not surprising considering she is currently second in points on the fourth highest scoring team in the state. What is surprising is that she’s doing it as a freshman.

Volgren attributes her high level of success at such a young age to her mom, who actually played college hockey for Fusion Head Coach Matt Cranston’s brother, and she says they have the talent to win in the playoffs; it’s just going to come down to execution.

“My mom played at UWRF for Joe Cranston; she got a lot of penalties and she’s just been my coach my whole life. So, I give all my credit to her,” Volgren said. “We just need to keep working hard, not get in our heads and work together as a team.”

Coach Cranston says this loss doesn’t change their outlook at all; they still expect to contend for a state championship.

“Our goal is to win it all. We have the tools, just not right now. We had a couple kids sick, but that’s not why we lost. It was just a tough day today,” Cranston said. “We outshot them, and we had a good chance with five on three that we kind of blew because we got a penalty. Our power play is like 39.5%, the best in the league, and usually if we get a power play, 50% of the time we score. Well, we double power play, and that's what kind of did it.”

The silver lining to the loss is that at least it wasn’t a conference game. With the final two weeks of the regular season upon us, the Fusion have a total of five games left, two of which are against Big Rivers opponents.

The first of those comes on Tuesday when they will host the Hudson Raiders at Wildcat Centre in River Falls. A win here all but mathematically locks them into another BRC Championship, making this home game a must see for fans of Saint Croix Valley hockey.

In a busy week for the perennial contenders, they will also travel to Hayward on Thursday and Tartan on Saturday. The puck drops at 7 p.m. for all this week’s games.