By Reagan Hoverman

In one of its most important games of the season thus far, the St. Croix Valley Fusion struggled in the closing minutes of its home game against the Hudson Raiders on Tuesday, Jan. 25. In that game, the Raiders scored two goals in the closing minutes to defeat the Fusion 4-3.

It was a game with significantly high stakes. Going into the home game against Hudson, a win would have, at the very minimum, secured a tie for the Big Rivers Conference championship. It was a game that began with a scoreless first period as both teams did some feeling out of the opposition.

In the second period, the scoring began. The Fusion opened it up two minutes into the second period when star sophomore defender Kendall Sundby scored an even-strength goal to take a 1-0 lead over the visiting Raiders.

Approximately two minutes later, Hudson responded with an even-strength goal by Leah Parker with an assist from Denman Rode. The goal tied the game 1-1 with 12 minutes to go in the second period. Both teams battled over the next six minutes. That’s when Fusion junior forward Sophia John found the back of the pylon with an assist from junior Alayna Brightbill to take a 2-1 lead late in the second period.

Two minutes into the third and final period, the Fusion added what many thought would be an insurance goal as they took a 3-1 lead when junior forward Trinity Mittl scored on a beautiful pass from senior forward Makenzie Weiss.

What happened throughout the next 16 minutes of action was devastating for the Fusion. Hudson subsequently scored three unanswered goals, two of which came with less than five minutes remaining and were scored within two 60 seconds of one another. The Fusion went from leading 3-2 to one minute later trailing 43 with only minutes remaining in the third period. Fusion head coach Matt Cranston spoke about the loss to Hudson.

“We made some costly mistakes at the end,” Cranston said. “That was a hard pill to swallow. We had them up 3-1 and just – costly mistakes. We did it and they scored. That was one of our poorer games of the year. Sometimes you just play poorly.”

The poor play, as described by Cranston, cost the Fusion a chance to have sole possession of the Big Rivers Conference championship this season. The Fusion is now 5-1 in conference play and Hudson is 6-1. However, the Fusion still has two games remaining on the schedule. With two wins, they would have a share of the conference title with Hudson.

“We play Eau Claire and Chippewa, two teams that we’ve beat already,” Cranston said. “If we win those two, there is no way we can’t tie. If we win out, we’ll tie. That’s a win in the conference and we will still hang the banner.”

Fusion fall 4-1 against Central Wisconsin Storm After the Hudson loss, the Fusion played a Friday night, Jan. 28, game at home against the Central Wisconsin Storm. With four minutes remaining in the first period, junior Fusion forward Kiara Therriault scored on a power play with an assist from senior defenseman Jenna Bergmanis.

The second and third periods were dominated by the Central Wisconsin Storm. With two minutes remaining in the second period, the Storm scored a shorthanded goal when Samantha Federici found the back of the net to tie the game 1-1. Less than two minutes later, Storm senior forward Gabrielle du Vair scored to give the Storm a 2-1 lead which they held until the end of the second period.

In the third period, the Storm added two more goals and pulled away from the Fusion. After the game, coach Cranston spoke about the loss against the Storm.

“They played hard and we couldn’t find the back of the net,” Cranston said. “They’re a huge co-op and they have a lot of speed. They beat us fair and square. They were really aggressive on the penalty kill. We changed our power play on the last two because of that. It was tough. We had to kill off six or seven penalties and you can’t win hockey games against good teams like that.”

Cranston stated that none of the goals in the game for either team were great goals. Both the Storm and Fusion are known for playing good defensive hockey which makes it difficult to get good looks at the net regularly. He also said that junior goaltender Jasmine Petersen isn’t on the hook for any of the four goals.

“She’s not on the hook for any of the goals,” Cranston said. “The first one I don’t think was even a goal, the second one bounced off our leg, and the other ones were just scrambles. She stopped a breakaway at the end. Zero of them are on Jasmine (Petersen). I’m very happy with how she’s playing.”

The Fusion bounced back from the 4-1 loss at home against the Storm with an impressive 8-0 victory at home against the Wisconsin Valley Union on Saturday, Jan. 29. With the win, the Fusion tally another one in the win column which is critical to the upcoming playoff seeding.

According to Cranston, the Fusion believe that they will get either the #1 or #2 seed for the playoffs, which would mean they would get the home-ice advantage throughout the playoffs which has been important for playoffs runs of the past.

The next game for the Fusion is on Tuesday, Feb. 1, when the Fusion play the Eau Claire Area Stars in a game that has puck drop slated for 7 p.m. at the Wildcat Center.

Fusion senior defender Natalie Roussopoulos as seen on Friday, Jan. 29, during the home game against the Storm. Roussopoulos was rocking the pink version of eye black and even wrapped her stick in pink tape in honor of cancer awareness night. Photo by Reagan Hoverman