Whether it be hockey, basketball, football or any other high school sport, rebuilding programs often take lumps in unfamiliar playoff environments, and that’s exactly what happened to the River Falls boys’ hockey team on Thursday night.

The fifth-seeded Wildcats traveled to Hobbs Ice Arena in Altoona for a first-round matchup with Regis/Altoona/McDonell, the fourth-seeded program in the Division 2 playoff bracket. Altoona’s co-op paired an all-state caliber goaltending performance with a five-goal night offensively that ultimately led to the Wildcats’ season ending in a 5-1 defeat.

As Altoona senior goaltender Alex Erickson made save after sublime save late into the third period, River Falls head coach Cam Wilken couldn’t help but acknowledge to his assistant coaches that they were watching one of the best opposing goaltending performances of the season. “I looked at one of our assistant coaches after (Erickson) made another highlight reel save and we both said the same thing, ‘Now we know what it’s like when teams play us with our guy (Jayden) Serene and he steals the game,’” Wilken recalled. “We didn’t play badly on Thursday, but we didn’t do enough to win. Their goalie had a night to remember, but it’s our job to find a way to score. We didn’t do that and hopefully, we’ll learn from this and grow going forward.”

More than 90% of Erickson’s saves came during the second and third periods, as River Falls tallied just three shots on goal during the opening frame. The Wildcats’ lackluster start – combined with three first-period trips to the penalty box – paved the way for Altoona senior forward Evan Gustafson to have another sensational night offensively.

After River Falls had two players go to the box within 90 seconds of one another late in the first period, Altoona had a five-on-three advantage that gave Gustafson all the space he needed to score the first goal of the game and give the co-op a 1-0 lead over River Falls.

Gustafson’s goal was the first of Altoona’s three unanswered scores throughout the first and second periods that put River Falls in a 3-0 deficit going into the third period. Coach Wilken spoke about how the lethargic start – particularly in the first period – was a letdown.

“We did start slow,” Wilken said. “Looking back, it sort of felt like we were matching them in the shot department, but all of ours were either getting blocked or missing the net. Our first period was by far the period we made the most mistakes and we felt like it was a letdown for us. But it really wasn’t a landslide in RAM’s favor like the scoresheet may make it look.”

River Falls didn’t score its first goal of the game until the 15-minute mark of the third period. That’s when River Falls sophomore forward Riley Usgaard found the back of the net with assists from senior Eli Condon and junior Hunter Rappel to make it a 3-1 game.

However, that’s when the aforementioned Gustafson seized control of the game for Altoona. Three minutes later, he scored his second goal of the game and then added a third goal with less than four minutes to play in regulation, which gave Altoona its 5-1 lead.

Gustafson’s three-goal performance in the first-round playoff game was his second hat trick of the season against River Falls. He produced nearly an identical performance just three weeks earlier when his hat trick lifted Altoona to a 5-3 win over the Wildcats. Coach Wilken spoke about struggling to contain one of Altoona’s top scorers.

“He had another nice night for sure,” Wilken said. “We did our best to put the line of (Teddy) Norman, (Wyatt) Tschida and (Matthew) Marsollek on him. They did a good job staying with him overall, but a player with his talents is eventually going to break through and we knew that. The problem was, we needed to score before he started putting the puck in the net and that didn’t happen.”

Although Altoona’s goaltending ultimately decided the game, River Falls’ struggles on the power play didn’t help their cause. Altoona converted two of seven power play opportunities while River Falls cashed in on none of its three chances.

The Wildcats finished the 2022-23 season converting just 10% of all power play opportunities, down from the nearly 30% that River Falls converted throughout the 2021-22 campaign. Coach Wilken spoke about struggling with the power play the entire season.

“This entire season our power play never really came together,” Wilken said. “It didn’t seem to make a difference what adjustments were made, it just never got off the ground. Thursday’s game was a perfect example of that. Going forward, that has to change if we want to have success in the section tournament. It’s yet another part of learning the little things you need to win and grow as a program.”

Although the Wildcats’ season ends in a first-round exit, coach Wilken is still happy with how his team improved this year and is bullish on the future of the River Falls boys’ hockey program.

“We were playing better hockey than we ever have since I’ve been the coach at RFHS. For the better part of the year, we looked like a more mature team, and did a better job sticking to systems and game plans,” Wilken said. “But second, we never really got any momentum that resulted in us stringing wins together. As coaches, figuring out the root cause of that and a way to fix it will take the offseason. We do a good job of going back through each of our games in the summer and learning from those and seeing how we can put players in a better position or how to better teach what we’d like to see for the upcoming season.”