Still No. 1

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St. Croix Valley Fusion freshman Hailey Rock gets ready to flip a backhander past New Richmond goalie Whitney Hubmer for the first goal of the game. Bob Burrows photo.

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The red-hot St. Croix Valley Fusion snapped New Richmond’s four-game winning streak with an 8-0 victory over the Tigers last Tuesday at Wildcat Centre.

The undefeated Fusion improved to 13-0-1 and tightened their grip on the No.1 spot in this week’s Wisconsin Girls Hockey rankings while the Tigers slipped to 7-4-1.

The Fusion hit the road to take on the seventh-ranked Eau Claire Area Stars (7-4-0) Tuesday night and will visit Apple Valley, Minn. Saturday. Next Thursday, Jan. 29, they will host No. 2-ranked Chippewa Falls (9-2-0) at United Center in Baldwin.

Last Tuesday, Hailey Rock scored a pair of first-period goals and Alice Cranston had a goal and two assists in the Fusion’s 8-0 win over New Richmond.

Rock scored the only two goals of the first period to stake the Fusion to a 2-0 lead. Sig Dangeur and Cranston assisted on the first goal of the game and Nikki Plunkett picked up an assist on the second.

The Fusion took a 3-0 lead early in the second period when Lily Cranston won a face-off back to Darcy Behringer at the point and Behringer walked the puck past two Tiger defenders and beat New Richmond goalie Whitney Hubmer.

Tara Frey added to the lead with a power play goal at the 13:42 mark, assisted by Rock and Alice Cranston, before Heidi VanDell scored just 10 seconds later with assists from her line mates Lily Cranston and Karlyn Sturtevant.

St. Croix Valley didn’t let up in the third and extended its lead to 6-0 on an Alice Cranston goal 39 seconds into the period, assisted by Behringer and Frey. Plunkett added a goal midway through the period after some nifty passing by Frey and Alice Cranston to make it a 7-0 game.

Sturtevant made the final 8-0 with a hard wrist shot after ending up on the back end of passes from Erin Thornton and Plunkett and walking the puck out from the corner.

The Fusion finished with over 50 shots on goal in the win while holding the Tigers under 10. Fusion goaltender Devin Roen posted her eighth shutout of the season while lowering her goals against average to 0.71.

Tags: bob, burrows, fusion, hockey