MIDDLETON – There is a framed picture hanging inside the Cornerstone Community Center where the Bay Area Ice Bears play their home games.
There are several images within the large frame, each representing the players and one of the seven schools they come from as part of the co-op team.
Ashwaubenon. Bay Port. De Pere. Green Bay Notre Dame. Green Bay Preble. Pulaski. West De Pere.
At the very top is a simple message: “We is greater than me.”
Indeed, there is no team greater than this one.
Not four years ago. Not last year. Not now.
Bay Area beat St. Croix 5-4 in the WIAA state championship game March 7 at Bob Suter’s Legacy20 Arena, winning back-to-back titles for the first time in program history and its third championship in the last four years.
Since getting swept in two meetings against St. Croix during the 2019-20 season, the Ice Bears have gone 8-1 against the Valley Fusion and outscored them 46-18.
Senior forward Faye Brunke had three goals and one assist, sophomore forward Aisling Buchan scored one goal and had three assists, senior defender Addison Dahl had one goal and one assist, junior forward Lilly Lyons had two assists and junior goaltender Reese Spiering made 17 saves.
“I’m so proud,” said Bay Area coach Mike Buchan, who is 2-for-2 in state championships after taking over last season. “At the end of the game, I walked in, and without tearing up, the amount of emotion that’s in there. We are with them every single day. Every day for the last almost four months. It is tremendous. We just enjoy going to the rink.
“We added two coaches this year. The coaches don’t miss. The players don’t miss. Just incredibly proud.”
The Ice Bears were outplayed in the opening minutes against St. Croix, which had six of the first seven shot attempts in the game.
But the Valley Fusion couldn’t capitalize on early scoring opportunities, including two power plays.
Through two periods it didn’t get much past Spiering, who earlier in the season became Bay Area’s all-time wins leader.
“I mean, they came out and they were ready,” Buchan said about St. Croix. “It’s easier to play as an underdog, right? I don’t know how much of an underdog they were, but we are the one seed and they are the two seed.
“There is pressure. These girls have dealt with that all year. We get every team’s best game. Good opportunity to talk about Reese. No awards, no nothing. I mean, she stood tall in that first period and gave us an opportunity.”
She wasn’t the only one.
“The group that changed the game for us is our third line, [Jordyn] Clarke, [Malin] Jewitt and [Madeline] Engles,” Buchan said. “They went out, they buzzed them. They were the line that went in there, held it in there, contained the puck in there.”
Bay Area Ice Bears jump out to commanding lead
Despite the slow start, the Ice Bears scored three goals in the first 17 minutes to take a commanding lead into the first intermission.
Two of the goals came on the power play.
Buchan got the scoring started with a power-play goal in front of St. Croix’s net at 10 minutes, 50 seconds of the opening period off assists from Dahl and Lyons.
Dahl, who is one of the best defenders in the state, showed off her offensive skills less than two minutes later with her own power-play goal on assists from Brunke and Buchan.
Brunke made it 3-0 in the final minute of the period.
It was no surprise Brunke got in on the scoring after leading the Ice Bears with 26 goals this season, especially after she had two goals in a semifinal win over Sun Prairie and followed with her hat trick in the title showdown.
She also was one of the darlings of state last season after she scored four goals against Central Wisconsin, setting a record for the most goals scored in a title game since the girls tournament started in 2002.
“The best players rise at the biggest times,” said Buchan, who then turned and asked Brunke how she does it. “Like, last year and this year, are you kidding me? Man, how phenomenal is that?
“You see her, she will have 15-second shifts because she is so tired. You’re going right back out Faye. You see the statistics, what you don’t see on the statistics is what she does defensively and how she closes those gaps in the neutral zone. How she is backchecking on those girls and they can’t sustain anything. Everyone sees the goals and assists, but all the other stuff is unreal.”
Bay Area Ice Bears couldn’t relax despite early advantage
When the Ice Bears get a three-goal lead, it’s almost always game over.
But they only had to look back two days earlier when this same St. Croix team trailed Superior by three goals in the second period of its state semifinal game, only to watch standout junior forward Jane Volgren score four times in a 6-minute span to give the Valley Fusion a lead they never would relinquish.
“I think it was said, like, we know what that team can do,” said Brunke, who scored 86 goals in her four seasons. “They are a strong team, very skilled. They work really hard.
“In the locker room, we knew what they did against Superior. We kind of took that into consideration.”
Volgren struck again against the Ice Bears, cutting her team’s deficit to 3-1 with a goal at 10:34 of the second period after skating through several defenders.
Uh-oh. Here we go again?
It turned out to be the only score of the period by either team, and Brunke stopped the momentum on her second goal to give the Ice Bears a 4-1 lead just 32 seconds into the third period.
She put the exclamation point on her season and prep career with her third score at 8:41 to make it 5-1.
St. Croix wasn’t going to make it easy. It almost pulled off another miracle.
The Valley Fusion scored three goals in the final 5 minutes, the last coming from Oaklie Holldorf with an extra attacker with 47 seconds left.
It went from 5-1 to 5-4 in what felt like the blink of an eye.
No worries.
There was no repeat of the Superior comeback. The clock finally struck zero. The Ice Bears survived.
State champions again.
“That’s what championship teams do,” Buchan said. “These seniors, this is their fourth trip here. This is their fourth championship game at state. That’s why they were on the ice. There is a huge trust factor there with them.
“All year, we go and are like, ‘Addi, take care of this. Faye, take care of this. [Senior defender Ava] McDonald, take care of it. [Senior forward] Hannah [Von Haden], take care of it. They did it.”
Future remains bright for the Ice Bears
It was almost a year to the day when former Bay Area standout Emily Bill was in the same press conference room after her team beat Central Wisconsin 8-0 in the title game.
The Ice Bears were losing Bill and eight other players to graduation, but she didn’t hesitate in saying she thought her team would be back at state the following season.
She was right.
The Ice Bears are losing five seniors this time, including some of their best players.
This time, Dahl was the one asked if the dynasty can continue next season.
“I think they are going to be perfectly fine,” said Dahl, who will play at St. Norbert College. “We lead and we are good role models for them, and they take after us. They caught on really quick.
“We didn’t have a very big team this year, but we had our JV girls out with us every single practice of the year. They picked up the pace with us and they stayed with us. So, I don’t think there is any reason why the momentum shouldn’t keep going in the next couple years.”
This article originally appeared on Green Bay Press-Gazette: Faye Brunke leads Bay Area Ice Bears to WIAA state girls hockey title
Reporting by Scott Venci, Green Bay Press-Gazette / Green Bay Press-Gazette
USA TODAY Network via Reuters Connect
