This week in HS hockey: Back into the conference grind; very busy time for Wausau West; Storm continue their homestand.

After plenty of holiday tournaments in the past two weeks, it’s back to conference play in high school hockey this week. In the Wisconsin Valley Conference the state’s #1 ranked team, Stevens Point, will look to maintain their slim hold on the top spot over Wausau West. Tonight SPASH plays host to Wisconsin Rapids at the K.B. Willett Arena and Thursday travel to Marshfield. The Panthers are 12-0 overall and 3-0 in the WVC and feature a high flying offense with Grant Molski, Jackson Schroeder and Grady Miller with double digit goal totals already.

Wausau West, 3-1 in the Valley and 8-4 overall is off until Thursday when they travel to Wisconsin Rapids to start a busy five day stretch. On Friday and Saturday, the Warriors host the West Hockey Invitational and will play top non-conference competition with a 2nd match-up this season with Eau Claire Memorial on Friday at 6 pm and Big Eight conference leader Middleton on Saturday on 1:15. The Warriors fell to the Old Abes 3-2 in double overtime in the season opener just over a month ago in Eau Claire and will try to build on the momentum of wins vs. Notre Dame Academy and Verona at the NDA Showdown last week. Julian Scalcucci has been rock solid in net for West while the line of Cooper DePuydt, Chase Crass and Owen Pergolski has paced the offense. To add to the busy stretch, West travel to Chippewa Falls on Monday for a weather make-up game. You can hear all four of those Wausau West hockey games live on 98.9 WXCO, online at wxco.fm, mobile devices by searching WXCO and on the Civic Media app.

D.C. Everest is third in the WVC at 3-2 and 9-5 overall. The Evergreens will host Rhinelander in a non-conference game on Tuesday before returning to WVC play at East-Merrill United on Thursday. Everest has gottten top notch goaltending play from Griffin Bunnell and Zachary May this season to spark the good start with the offense led by Cole Van Slyke’s 12 goals with Thomas Passineau adding 10. Learn more about the D.C. Everest hockey team on Wednesday at 6:25 pm as coach Dan Van Slyke will be our guest on the Big High School Sports Show on 98.9 WXCO. The Bluejacks are still looking for their first WVC win of the season after 4 league losses and are 4-9 overall. East will be back in WVC action tonight at Marshfield.

In the Great Northern Conference it’s a massive week for Mosinee. Mosinee is 2-0 in the league and 7-5-1 overall. Mosinee is one of three teams unbeaten in league play and they will meet the other two in the next three days. Tonight Mosinee hosts Lakeland and on Thursday will be home against D-2 #1 ranked Tomahawk. Tyler Baars, with 12 goals, 17 assists and 29 points, and Elliot Yirkovsky, who has 14 goals and 12 assists, will need to continue to spark the Mosinee offense to move atop the league standings by the end of Thursday night.

The Central Wisconsin Storm will continue to enjoy a stretch of home games this week. After a lot of long bus trips in the first month of the season, the Storm are playing five straight home games between last week and this weekend. Last Friday the Storm beat Western Wisconsin 7-2 but fell on Saturday 4-3 to Gentry Academy of Minnesota to fall to 11-3 on the season. Tonight Central Wisconsin will play host to Northland Pines at Marathon Park and then play back-to-back at Greenheck/Turner Community Center on Friday vs. Eau Claire Area and Saturday vs. Hudson. The Storm has gotten strong play in net with freshmen Cami Flohr and Taylor Simonson while the offense has flourished with Gabi Heuser (15 goals, 14 assists), Jayden Yirkovsky (19 goals, 7 assists) and Sophie Bohlin (13 goals, 9 assists). Every game is vital for the Storm in their battle for a top postseason seed vs. Superior and Hayward. Like last season, those 3 teams rank in the top four in the state rankings and will fight for one ticket to the state tournament.