The Fury’s season came to a crushing end on Tuesday, Feb. 20, at the Janesville Ice Arena. The Cap City Cougars, Sun Prairie’s co-op team, defeated the Fury in sectional hockey by a score of 2-1.
The Fury, Rock County’s co-op hockey team, were champions of the Badger Conference and carried the #1 seed into sectionals.. They ended their season with a record of 16-9.
The game was a close contest between evenly matched teams. The Fury opened the scoring with a goal by Milton senior Emma Kligora, assisted by Craig sophomore Macy Murphy.
Cap City tied the game in the second period after the Fury were caught in a change following a penalty kill. The third period was scoreless, and regulation ended in a 1-1 tie, the same way their previous two meetings with Cap City ended.
The Fury won the two regular season matchups in overtime, but in the playoff game, Cap City turned the tables. Fifty-nine seconds into overtime, Cap City snuck in the puck to win the game.
Sun Prairie advanced to the sectional final and played Middleton on Saturday, Feb. 24, at the Ice Arena. And the #5 seed Cougars won again in overtime, defeating Middleton 2-1 to advance to the state tournament.
The Fury is a co-op hockey team of athletes from Craig, Parker, Beloit, Edgerton, Milton, and even some from schools in northern Illinois. Players from Craig are sophomore forwards Macy Murphy), Anna Cole and Ally Cole, and freshman defender Mallya Maurer.
In the final state rankings, Rock County was ranked 16th, and Sun Prairie 21st.
The loss doesn’t dim what the Fury accomplished this year. “A winning record and conference championship are awesome achievements,” said math teacher and hockey fan Betsy Murphy, whose cousin Macy is one of the players for the Fury.
