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MIDDLETON – The 56th WIAA Boys Hockey State Tournament and the 25th WIAA Girls Hockey State Tournament will take place Thursday-Saturday, March 5-7 at Bob Suter’s LEGACY20 Arena.
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Play begins Thursday, March 5, with Division 2 boys semifinals and girls semifinals. Boys semifinals in Division 1 will be played Friday, March 6, with all three championship games to be contested on Saturday, March 7.
Ticket prices for the tourney are $11 per game plus online fees, and they can be purchased on the WIAA website through GoFan, the WIAA ticketing partner, at: https://gofan.co/app/school/WIAA2?activity=Hockey.
The finals of the boys and girls state tournaments will be televised live on WKOW Madison, WAOW Wausau, WXOW La Crosse, WQOW Eau Claire, WCWF (CW14) in Green Bay/Fox Valley and WVTV in Milwaukee. The finals will also be streamed live on the State Television Network’s websites and on Fox11online.com.
The boys and girls semifinals will be streamed live on the WIAA.TV portal of the NFHS Network. To purchase a subscription to the live programming for only $12.99 per month, log-on to WIAA.TV or NFHS Network and click on the subscription button located on the page header. Archived streams of the sessions will be available On Demand on NFHS?Network 72 hours after the tournament.
Tournament notebook courtesy of the WIAA:
BOYS DIVISION 1: Stevens Point Area Senior High received the top seed in the bracket. The Panthers qualify for the first time since 2009 and for the 18th time overall. They won the title in 2002 and had a string of eight appearances from 1993-2000 that produced three runner-up finishes, including 1996, 1998 and 1999. The Panthers were the co-champions of the Wisconsin Valley Conference this year. They went into overtime to defeat Wausau West 4-3 in the Chippewa Falls Sectional final…Defending champion Madison Edgewood is the No. 2 seed. The Crusaders are back in the field for the fourth time in the last five seasons and for the ninth time overall. Prior to last year’s championship, the most notable experiences were runner-up finishes in 2008, when there was only one division of boys hockey, and in 2022. The Crusaders were the champions of the Badger Conference during the regular season, and they advanced to the state semifinals through the Verona Sectional following a 7-4 victory over Monona Grove…University School of Milwaukee is the third seed. The Wildcats return to State for the 17th time overall and for the first time since a five-year span of appearances concluded in 2023. They have won three state titles. The program’s first championship came in 2006, and then the Wildcats added their second title in 2010. Their most recent championship came in 2019. This season, they qualify after skating to a 7-3 win over the Muskego co-op in the sectional final held at UW-Milwaukee Panther Arena. The Wildcats played an independent schedule during the regular season…De Pere/West De Pere, the fourth seed, will experience the state tournament for the first time in program history. The co-op celebrates advancing to the state semifinals following a 4-2 win over the Neenah co-op in the final of the sectional played in Ashwaubenon. The Voyageurs were champions of the Fox River Classic Conference this season.
BOYS DIVISION 2: Waunakee earns the top seed in what will be the program’s first state tournament experience. The Warriors advanced with a win by the slightest of margins, 2-1, over McFarland in the sectional final played in Madison. During the regular season, they finished runner-up in the Big Eight Conference…Second-seeded Northland Pines makes its 20th appearance as a stand-alone program and the first since 2020 when the Eagles were runner-up in Division 2. The Eagles also qualified in a co-op arrangement in 2004. They have won three state championships with the first coming in 1984 and the second in 1986, followed by another in 1989. This season, the Eagles earned their berth in the tourney with a 4-3 win over Mosinee in the sectional final played at Mosinee. During the regular season, they finished second in the Great Northern Conference…Third-seeded Somerset/St. Croix Falls makes its second appearance at state with this co-op configuration after qualifying for the first time last season, which resulted in a loss in the semifinals. In a prior three-school co-op that included Valley Christian (Osceola), the co-op made two-straight appearances in 2020 and 2021. Both those experiences resulted in semifinal losses. They qualify for state this season after a 5-2 triumph over River Falls co-op in the sectional final held in River Falls. The Spartans finished atop the standings in the Middle Border Conference this year…Amery/Clayton/Clear Lake/Unity co-op, last season’s runner-up, is the No. 4 seed. After making the co-op program’s first appearance in the state tournament last season, the Warriors earned another chance at a title this year following a 4-3 overtime victory over Hayward/Lac Courte Oreilles in the Hayward Sectional final. They were the runner-up in the Middle Border Conference this season.
GIRLS: Last year’s champion, the Bay Area Ice Bears (De Pere/Ashwaubenon/Bay Port/Green Bay East/Green Bay Preble/Green Bay Southwest/Green Bay West/Notre Dame/Pulaski/Seymour/West De Pere co-op) is the top seed in the bracket. The Ice Bears will make their fourth straight appearance, which also accounts for the overall total in this co-op configuration. They have advanced to the championship game in each of those experiences, winning the gold trophy in 2023 and finishing runner-up in 2024. This rendition of the co-op makes its sixth overall appearance, albeit with a different host school. In addition to the Bay Area Ice Bears’ state titles 2023 and 2025, they won the championship in 2014 and finished runner-up in 2017. Another configuration of the co-op, without Pulaski, also placed runner-up in 2010. The co-op returns seeking a fourth straight appearance in the championship game following a 3-1 win over the Cedarburg Co-op in the sectional final played at the UW-Milwaukee Panther Arena. The Ice Bears were the champions of the Eastern Shore Conference this season…The St. Croix Valley Fusion (River Falls/Baldwin-Woodville/St. Croix Central co-op) is seeded second. The co-op will make its first appearance with this configuration of the program. Two different configurations of the River Falls co-op program won three straight titles from 2009-2011, and four other variations of the River Falls co-op have qualified five times. This season, St. Croix Valley was the champion of the Big Rivers Conference. They reach the state semifinals by doubling up on the Somerset co-op 4-2 in the Somerset Sectional final…Third-seeded Superior/Northwestern makes its second appearance overall and the first since finishing runner-up in 2023. Superior, as a stand-alone program, had four previous experiences. The most notable of those were a state championship in 2005 and a runner-up finish in 2004. The Spartans advance to the state semifinals this winter following a 7-0 blanking of the Northland Pines co-op in the Hayward Sectional final…Fourth-seeded Cap City Cougars (Sun Prairie West/DeForest/Madison East/Madison La Follette/Sun Prairie East/Waunakee co-op) qualifies for the third straight year, and essentially, for the seventh time with the only difference being the split of Sun Prairie into two schools. The Cougars’ most notable experience in the former co-op arrangement was a runner-up finish in 2018. After placing second in the Badger Conference this season, they make their return to state by virtue of a 2-0 shutout over the Beaver Dam co-op in the sectional final hosted at Beaver Dam.
2026 WIAA State Boys Hockey Tournament
March 5-7, at Bob Suter’s LEGACY20 Arena, Middleton
Thursday, March 5
Division 2 Semifinals
No. 1 Waunakee (19-7-1) vs. No. 4 Amery Co-op (19-8), 9:30 a.m.
No. 2 Northland Pines (20-6) vs. No. 3 Somerset/St. Croix Falls (17-10), 1:30 p.m.
Friday, March 6
Division 1 Semifinals
No. 1 Stevens Point (23-3) vs. No. 4 De Pere/West De Pere (21-4-1), 10 a.m.
No. 2 Madison Edgewood (25-2) vs. No. 3 University School of Milwaukee (19-8), 2 p.m.
Saturday, March 7
Championship Games
Division 2, 11 a.m.
Division 1, 7 p.m.
2026 WIAA State Girls Hockey Tournament
March 5-7, at Bob Suter’s LEGACY20 Arena, Middleton
Thursday, March 5
Semifinals
No. 1 Bay Area (24-2) vs. No. 4 Cap City (18-6-1), 4:30 p.m.
No. 2 St. Croix Valley (23-4) vs. No. 3 Superior/Northwestern, 7:30 p.m.
Saturday, March 7
Championship
3 p.m.
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