MONROE — Getting a chance to play on home ice in from of the home crowd isn’t something Monroe’s Anika Einbeck and Cammi Ganshert get to do very often. The two hockey players get a chance to play in Monroe just three times this year with the Rock County Fury co-op. 

In a 7-0 blowout of the Stoughton Icebergs Jan. 10 at SLICE, the pair of Cheesemakers bookended the Fury’s goals in front of a crowd of classmates, families and the MHS pep band.

“It’s really awesome showing the school what we can do. And they don’t always know what we can do, because we are a co-op and we only have two from our school,” Einbeck said.

Albany junior Haley Knauf echoed Einbeck’s sentiment. With players from 11 different schools across Rock, Green and Stephenson counties, everyone gets a chance to play at their childhood home ice three times this year between Monroe, Janesville and Beloit.

“We don’t get to come to Monroe often,” Knauf said. “With the band coming and the boys high school hockey team — it’s just great to see. I look out in the crowd when we score a goal and I see their faces just cheering us on, it’s great.”

Einbeck opened the scoring just 6:40 into the game on a rebound at the net. Fury teammates Sara Nerad and Mya Maslonka assisted.

“It’s a big confidence booster. We changed up the lines and it got us rolling,” Einbeck said.

Just 42 seconds later the Fury made it 2-0 as Albany sophomore Alyssa Knauf netted a goal off a pass from Presley Kovacevich.

“I just love playing with her,” Haley Knauf said of her sister, Alyssa. “We’ve always played together. The chemistry has been there for a while — we’ve been playing on the same line for four years. We’ve just been getting stronger every game.”

Despite the 2-0 lead, the Fury coaches and players both felt opportunities were left on the ice in the first period.

“They’re getting used to the new lines we’ve put them in,” Steurer said. “We came out a little bit slow, but I think the girls realized it right away and picked it up. We scored a couple of big goals to really set us up to get rolling.”

The spark that ignited the Fury’s swagger came less than five minutes into the second. Haley Knauf stole a pass just in front of the blue line in the offensive zone with an out-stretched stick. Knauf curled toward Stoughton goalie Abby Seybold, deked and then went top shelf on the glove side with a pretty wrister to make it 3-0.

“I’ve been practicing that one at practice, so to have it work out in a game is pretty awesome,” Haley Knauf said. “I try to go top shelf or 5-hole if I have a breakaway like that, otherwise it’s wherever the goalie isn’t.”

The Icebergs were frozen from the stunning individual play. Just 24 seconds after the puck dropped again Nerad netted in a deflection from Einbeck to make it 4-0. Seybold pulled herself from goal after the play, though returned to the ice three minutes later.

Rock County would net two more goals in the period — both by Janesville Craig junior Mya Maslonka. The first, with 9:18 left in the frame, was unassisted, while the second, shorthanded with 4:59 left, came immediately after Nerad won a faceoff in the offensive zone.

“We picked up some momentum. The girls knew how big this game was — a conference game,” Rock County coach Luke Steurer said.

Ganshert scored the final goal of the game with 9:50 left on a slap from the blue line, with Beloit Memorial’s Kylie Evans credited with an assist. Rock County outshot Stoughton 35-15.

Memorial freshman netminder Olivia Cronin earned the shutout, stopping 15 shots. Perhaps none bigger than a one-on-one breakaway attempt with just 1:45 to play in the third.

“It’s a big confidence booster for the whole team. She’s been big back in the net — standing on her head making big saves,” Steurer said.

Two days after the Stoughton win, the Fury needed to rally against Madison Metro Lynx at the Madison Ice Arena in order to draw to a 1-1 tie.

The Lynx took the 1-0 lead in the second on an unassisted even-strength goal by Abbigale Ahlborn, but Einbeck tied it up at the 8:12 mark off a pass from Beloit Turner teammate Samantha Wells. Cronin had 22 saves in net, while Rock County kept Lynx netminder Gwen Parker busy with 43 shots on goal.

Rock County (11-5-2, 6-0-2) leads the Badger Conference in the standings with 14 points. Cap City (6-5-3 4-0-1) has nine points, while Viroqua (7-7, 4-3) is third with eight points.

“We want to defend our conference title. Last year was our first year being conference champs, and we’d really just love to do that again,” Einbeck said.

Steurer said he’s seen a lot of positives this season, and that his team is tracking along the progression line where he expected them to when practice started in November.

“I think we’re pretty close to where we want to be. We don’t want to peak yet, but we’re practicing and getting better and better every game getting ready for the playoffs,” Steurer said.

Einbeck said that more than just the play on the ice, the team is trending upwards.

“I think it’s just going up right now. At the beginning of the season we were just getting to know each other, but we’ve grown as a family and everyday gets better,” Einbeck said.

Rock County’s last game at SLICE is scheduled for Saturday, Jan. 26 against Onalaska.