Wausau Pilot & Review
MIDDLETON – The 2024 WIAA State Boys & Girls Hockey Tournaments will take place Thursday, Feb. 29 through Saturday, March 2, at Bob Suter’s Capitol Ice Arena.
The tournaments kick off Thursday with boys Division 2 and girls semifinal matches. Boys Division 1 semifinals will be played Friday, with the three championship games slated for Saturday.
Tickets are $11 per game plus fees and can be purchased on the WIAA website through GoFan.
Semifinal games will be streamed live on the WIAA.tv portal of the NFHS Network with a subscription fee. All three championship games will be broadcast locally on WAOW-TV 9 of Wausau and at waow.com.
Tournament notes courtesy of the WIAA:
LAST YEAR: Green Bay Notre Dame won the Division 1 championship with an 8-2 victory over Verona in the title game. New Richmond topped Oregon 5-1 to capture the Division 2 crown. In the girls final, the Bay Area Bears (De Pere/Ashwaubenon/Bay Port/Green Bay East/Green Bay Preble/Green Bay Southwest/Green Bay West/Notre Dame/Pulaski/Seymour/West De Pere co-op) captured the championship with a 3-0 win over Superior/Northwestern in the championship game.
TOURNAMENT TEAM HISTORY: The first WIAA State boys hockey championship game was held in 1971. The tournament expanded to two divisions for the first time in 2020. The two-division format features four teams qualifying for the State Tournament in each division. Superior won the first championship and has won 12 more since to give the Spartans a membership-leading 13 state titles. Madison Memorial has won eight titles; Hudson has won six; and Madison East has earned four. The first girls tournament was held in 2002. The Central Wisconsin Storm (Mosinee, D.C. Everest, Wausau East, Wausau West Co-op) has three championships. The co-op won the 2008 championship. Championships in 2012 and 2017 were won by the same group of schools but was identified D.C. Everest as the host school of the co-op. In addition, a different configuration of the co-op won the title in 2022.
THE BOYS DIVISION 1 FIELD: Top-seeded Chippewa Falls advances to the state tournament for the first time since 2020 and for the seventh time overall. The Cardinals’ furthest advance toward a title was to the semifinals in 1999. Their return to state this season comes virtue of a 4-0 shutout win over Stevens Point in the Hudson Sectional final. The Cardinals have yet to surrender a goal in the tournament series. Defending champion Notre Dame was issued the No. 2 seed in the bracket. The Tritons are making their sixth state appearance in the last seven years and their 11th overall. Their first five appearances came consecutively from 2010-14. The Tritons’ other state championship came in 2012. They also advanced to the title game in 2020 and finished runner-up. They qualify this season following a 2-0 victory over Bay Port in the Neenah Sectional final. Third-seeded Madison Edgewood is back in the state tournament for the second time in three seasons and for the seventh time overall. The Crusaders’ most notable experiences were runner-up finishes in 2008, when there was only one division of boys hockey, and in 2022. This year, they advance to the semifinals through the Sun Prairie Sectional with a 4-1 victory over Middleton in the final. The Brookfield East/Brookfield Central/Hamilton/Menomonee Falls/Wauwatosa East/ Wauwatosa West co-op will appear at state for the first time as this configuration of schools. Back in 1997 and 2012, when Brookfield Central and Brookfield East comprised the co-op, the program fell in the quarterfinals and semifinals, respectively. This season, the Stars defeated the Kettle Moraine/Mukwonago/Oconomowoc co-op 3-2 in the Muskego Sectional final to reach the state semifinals.
THE BOYS DIVISION 2 FIELD: Defending champion New Richmond received the No. 1 seed in the bracket. The Tigers return for the sixth time in the program’s history. In addition to last year’s championship, the Tigers advanced to the final in 2003 and finished runner-up. Their pursuit of back-to-back state titles continues after rolling to a 6-1 win over Amery/Clayton/Clear Lake/Unity in the sectional final held at Rice Lake. Fond du Lac St. Mary’s Springs is the No. 2 seed. The Ledgers have advanced to the championship game in each of their previous three experiences at state as a stand-alone program, which have all come since 2020. They won state titles in 2020 and 2021 and finished runner-up in 2022. A co-op arrangement they were associated with qualified once. That came in 2018 and resulted in a loss in the semifinals. The Ledgers advance to the state semifinals this season after edging Oregon 3-2 in the final of the sectional played at Oregon. The only other state tournament experience by third-seeded River Falls was in 1997. The Wildcats advanced to the state semifinals when only one division of the tournament was conducted. They are the representatives from the Somerset Sectional following a 2-0 blanking of Menomonie in the final. Fourth-seeded Tomahawk will also be experiencing the state tournament for the second time. The Hatchets’ first pursuit for a state title resulted in a loss in the quarterfinals in 1991. They began celebrating their return to state after an 8-2 triumph over Mosinee in the sectional final played at Mosinee.
THE?GIRLS?FIELD: The D.C. Everest/Marathon/ Merrill/Mosinee/Wausau East/Wausau West co-op is the top-seeded team in the bracket. The Central Wisconsin Storm makes its fifth appearance at state overall with this configuration of schools in the co-op. This version of the Storm won the championship in 2022. A former co-op arrangement, without Marathon and Merrill, won three titles and made 10 State appearances. The three championships came in 2008, 2012 and 2017. They also advanced to the championship game in 2011 and finished runner-up. To advance to the state semifinals, the Storm outlasted Superior/Northwestern with a 3-2 overtime victory in the sectional final played at Mosinee. The current River Falls/Baldwin-Woodville/St. Croix Central co-op qualifies for the state tournament for the first time. The Fusion is the No. 2 seed in the bracket. Three other renditions of the co-op have a history in the state tournament. The various other co-op configurations were responsible for state championships in 2009, 2010, 2011 and loss in the 2014 semifinals. This year, the Fusion punched their ticket to state with a 4-1 victory over Somerset/Amery/New Richmond/Osceola/Saint Croix Falls in the sectional final played at Hudson. Defending champion De Pere/Ashwaubenon/Bay Port/Green Bay East/Green Bay Preble/Green Bay Southwest/Green Bay West/Notre Dame/Pulaski/Seymour/West De Pere co-op is the No. 3 seed. This rendition of the co-op makes its fourth overall appearance at State albeit with a different host school. The Bay Area Ice Bears won the state title in 2014 and finished runner-up in 2017. Another configuration of the co-op, without Pulaski, also placed runner-up in 2010. The co-op returns to state to defend its title following a 3-2 win over the University School of Milwaukee/Divine Savior Holy Angels/Dominican/ Milwaukee King/Nicolet/Saint Thomas More/Shorewood/ Whitefish Bay co-op in the Brookfield Central Sectional final. Fourth-seeded Sun Prairie West/DeForest/Madison East/Madison La Follette/Sun Prairie East/Waunakee co-op qualifies for the first time, but it’s essentially the fifth time with the only difference being the split of Sun Prairie into two schools. The Cap City Cougars’ most notable experience in the former co-op arrangement was a runner-up finish in 2018. They advance to State from the sectional final played at Janesville following a double-overtime 2-1 win over the Middleton/Dodgeville/ Edgewood/Madison Memorial/ Madison West/Mount Horeb/Verona co-op.
2024 WIAA State Boys Hockey Tournament
Feb. 29-March 2
At Bob Suter’s Capitol Ice Arena, Middleton
Thursday, Feb. 29
Division 2 Semifinals
No. 1 New Richmond (16-9-2) vs. No. 4 Tomahawk (18-8), 9 a.m.
No. 2 Fond du Lac St. Mary’s Springs (18-9) vs. No. 3 River Falls (14-13), 1:30 p.m.
Friday, March 1
Division 1 Semifinals
No. 1 Chippewa Falls (24-3) vs. No. 4 Brookfield East Co-op (20-5-1), 10 a.m.
No. 2 Green Bay Notre Dame (17-8-1) vs. No. 3 Madison Edgewood (24-3), 2:30 p.m.
Saturday, March 2
Division 2 championship, 9:30 a.m.
Division 1 championship, 7 p.m.
2024 WIAA State Girls Hockey Tournament
Feb. 29-March 2
At Bob Suter’s Capitol Ice Arena, Middleton
Thursday, Feb. 29
Semifinals
No. 1 Central Wisconsin Storm (20-4-1) vs. No. 4 Cap City Cougars (10-16-1), 5 p.m.
No. 2 St. Croix Fusion (19-7) vs. No. 3 Bay Area Bears (21-5), 7:30 p.m.
Saturday, March 2
Championship, 2 p.m.
