MIDDLETON, Wis. — A pair of three-goal flurries was enough to give defending champion New Richmond a shot at a second straight state hockey title.

The top-seeded Tigers gained control with three goals in just over a minute in the second period en route to an 8-4 victory over Tomahawk in the Division 2 semifinals of the Wisconsin boys state tournament Thursday morning.

New Richmond (17-9-2), ranked No.1 in Division 2 in the state coaches poll, advances to Saturday morning’s title game against the winner of second-seeded Fond du Lac Springs (18-9) and No. 3 seed River Falls (14-13) at the Capitol Ice Arena,

After a wild 3-3 opening stanza, Steven Chapman slipped a defender and closed from the right side, punching it past Trevor Seliskar to put the Tigers up 4-3 at 4:05 of the second period.

Zaylin Sweet scored just 17 seconds later to make it 5-3. Brody Jackson scored from just outside the crease to push the lead to 6-3 at 5:16.

“I think that really kind of got us situated and settled in,” New Richmond coach John Larson said of three-goal spurt. “I would attribute a lot of the first period to nerves. Just everything, the first game of the tournament.”

Caleb Dickens brought the Hatchets to within 6-4 with an unassisted, short-handed goal at 15:32 of the second period.

Catcher Langeness regained the three-goal margin for New Richmond with a goal 1:07 into the third period and then tallied the final score at 12:50.

“I thought we played with them, we just ran out of a little bit of depth at the end,” Tomahawk coach Dewey Reilly said. “But when you look at those first couple of periods, you couldn’t ask for a more exciting state game.”

Junior Ryan McGillis had 13 saves for New Richmond, while Seliskar had 26 stops for Tomahawk, making its first state appearance since 1991. New Richmond outshot the fourth-seeded Hatchets 34-17, including 11-3 in the decisive second period.

Tomahawk (18-9) jumped in front 1-0 just 2½ minutes in when Jonah Dickens punched it past McGillis from the left elbow.

“I think it helped our team, actually,” Langeness said. “We’re coming in pretty cocky with a one seed going against a four. So when we got shot in the face, it almost opened our eyes and made us play to our level of hockey that we should be.”

The Tigers answered with three consecutive goals for a 3-1 lead with just under six minutes remaining in the opening period.

The Tigers trailed for just over a minute before Bjorn Bahneman tied it from just outside the right post.

“Just getting that goal, I think, was big for us to kind of settle, just responding,” Larson said. “We took one early, a turnover, but I thought it was a good response and then it kind of snowballed.”

Jackson gathered in a pass from Gage Fox and punched it in from the left side to put New Richmond up 2-1 at 3:43. Jameson Unger’s power-play goal pushed the lead to 3-1.

Tomahawk regained momentum a minute later when Logan Seymour backhanded it in from the right side. Dickens pushed it up the right side and tied the score with an unassisted goal from the right circle at 13:13.

“Give Tomahawk a lot of credit,” Larson said. “They battled back and certainly made it interesting. But I was proud overall, especially in the second period and into the third where we simplified our game a lot.”

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