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Fury 2nd at holiday tourney
fury celly
Sara Loerke (14) joins Haley Knauf (5) and other Rock County Fury teammates to celebrate a goal during the Wisconsin Holiday Tournament hosted by Fox Cities in Neenah Dec. 27-28.

NEENAH — The Rock County Fury took second in the six-team Wisconsin Holiday Tournament Dec. 27-28, losing to Fox Cities 6-2 in the championship.

After beating Black River Falls and Chippewa Falls/Menomonie in back-to-back games Dec. 27, the Fury advanced to the Dec. 28 championship.

Fox City scored two goals in the first and made it 5-0 after two periods. In the third period, Monroe’s Cammi Ganshert scored an unassisted goal to put the Fury on the board. With just 30 seconds left and trailing 6-1, Monroe’s Anika Einbeck scored off an assist from Haley Knauf to make it 6-2.

Rock County was outshot in the game 54-15. Freshman Olivia Cronin of Beloit Memorial had 46 saves on 52 shots against for the Fury, with Brodhead sophomore Brooke Teubert filling in with a pair of saves.

In the opening game of the weekend, the Fury defeated Black River Falls 3-1. BRF scored just 35 seconds into the game to take a 1-0 lead, but Alyssa Knauf scored an unassisted power play goal with just under two minutes left in the frame to even the score before the first intermission.

In the second, Sara Nerad made it 2-1 Rock County off of a pass from Olivia Combs. Haley Knauf put the dagger on BRF with an empty net goal with just 27 seconds remaining. Einbeck and Alyssa Knauf assisted the final goal.

Cronin had 19 saves and the Fury outshot BRF 32-20 in the contest.

Two hours after the final horn, Rock County was back on the ice and picked up a 5-1 win against Chippewa Falls/Menomonie.

Einbeck scored at the 2:27 mark in the first period with Alyssa Knauf assisting. In the second, Haley Knauf made it 2-0 Rock County with Einbeck assisting.

The bulk of the action came in the third, with Nerad and Einbeck scoring back-to-back power play goals, putting Rock County up 4-0 with less than four minutes to play. Samantha Wells assisted on both goals, and Haley Knauf assisted on one.

CFM finally got on the board with 3:22 left in the game, but Nerad added a shorthanded goal two minutes later off a pass from Haley Knauf to cap the scoring.

The Fury outshot CFM 28-17. Cronin had 16 saves.

The next game for the Fury is Jan. 5 at DC Everest.