.
The Onalaska/Holmen/ Melrose-Mindoro High School girls hockey team fell one game short of the WIAA state tournament last season, a disappointment for a perennially successful program.
Then again, the Hilltoppers had a lot to be proud of, and that’s something coach Mark Wagner believes is a solid building block for this year.
“That’s our goal,” Wagner said of reaching the state tournament for the eighth time in school history. “I would like to think it’s a realistic goal. I like what we have coming back.”
The Hilltop-pers open their season against Reedsburg at 7 p.m. Tuesday at the Onalaska OmniCenter.
O/H/M-M’s plans hit a major speed bump last year when goaltender McKenzie Guth suffered a concussion around midseason and missed eight games.
The Hilltoppers didn’t have an experienced backup goalie, so Wagner pressed his daughter, forward Megan Wagner, into service, asking her to play between the pipes for the first time in her hockey career.
“The injury knocked us out of sync just when we were hitting our stride,” Mark Wagner said. “So to get to the sectional final was a great achievement for us last year. It showed the character of our team.”
O/H/M-M held its own with Megan Wagner in goal, and when Guth returned, the team won two of its final three regular season games and won two playoff games before losing 6-1 to eventual state runner-up Fond du Lac/Waupun in the sectional final. The Hilltoppers finished 13-7 overall.
This winter, all but two players return. Guth is healthy and ready to return in goal. Megan Wagner, who was the team’s second-leading scorer despite the switch, will be back at forward and part of a line with Hannah Kepros and Jayda Hoerres.
Seniors Lindsay Harreld and Aly Kenny also return, and Mark Wagner said freshmen Molly Coughlin and Bailey Darling should contribute right away.
“I think we’ll fare OK from the start,” Mark Wagner said. “I don’t really put as much into wins and losses in the first 10 games as at the end of the year. We play more for the second half of the season than the first.”
.
Advertisement 
