By Mason Lyttle
LA CROSSE, WI — The Janesville Jets never trailed in a 3-2 victory over their archrivals, the Coulee Region Chill, in the season’s first edition of the Battle of Wisconsin.
The opening period was relatively quiet outside of a two minute flurry. The Jets struck first on a goal from Nathan Solis (9:30 1st), his second of the season, but the Chill answered quickly off the stick of Marshal Plunkett (10:36 1st). Less than a minute later, Brenden MacLaren (11:31 1st) scored his sixth on a beautiful short side snipe.
The Jets’ power play earned a major opportunity to blow open the game with 1:36 of a two-man advantage, but goaltender Emil Zetterquist and the Chill penalty kill stood tall. Late in the period, Coulee Region’s Marshal Plunkett (15:59 2nd) scored his second of the night, stealing a puck in the attacking zone and walking in to tie the game again at 2-2.
In the third, Christophe Fillion drove the net and poked the puck loose from Zetterquist, giving Erik Palmqvist (7:26 3rd) an empty net tap-in for the eventual game-winning goal.
In his fourth straight start, Garrett Nieto (7-1-0-0) stopped 20 of 22 shots for the win, opposite Zetterquist (1-2-1-1), who took the loss on a 36-save effort.
The Wisconsin rivals battle again tomorrow afternoon. Catch the action live on HockeyTV.com or follow the updates on Twitter.