The Portage Lake Pioneers won the Great Lakes Hockey League playoff championship over the weekend by defeating the Fond du Lac Bears in the title game Sunday in Eagle River, Wisconsin. (Provided photo)

EAGLE RIVER, Wis. — They came in as the top seed, but that does not mean the Portage Lake Pioneers had it easy en route to their Great Lakes Hockey League playoff title Sunday afternoon in Eagle River, Wisconsin, for the first time since 2015-16. The Pioneers had to defeat the Fox Cities Ice Dogs twice Saturday just to get to the Kohlman Cup final against the Fond du Lac Bears, whom they beat, 1-0.

Dawson McKay scored the lone goal with 7:20 remaining in the second period. Goaltender A.J. Petrulis finished with the shutout in goal, stopping all 42 shots sent his way by the Bears.

To get to the title game, the Pioneers scored four goals in the first period and four more in the third in Saturday night’s semifinal matchup against Fox Cities, which they won, 11-6.

Trailing 1-0 in the first period, Portage Lake got goals from Zach Hill, Austin Mikesch twice, and Dawson McKay in a 9:14 span to jump out to a 4-1 lead.

Fox Cities responded with two straight goals in the final 4:37 of the opening frame to trail 4-3 heading to the second period.

Portage Lake struck three times in just under nine minutes to push their lead to 7-3. Brendan Erickson, Dawson McKay, and Alec Broetzman scored the goals.

The Ice Dogs got one back in the late moments of the period.

The Pioneers poured it on from there, with Broetzman scoring twice more surrounding a goal by Brett Hauswirth, and then Spencer Donnelly added one, and the locals held an 11-4 lead. Fox Cities scored twice more late to cut the lead to five, but they could not get any closer.

Petrulis made 32 saves to earn the win.

Earlier in the day, Portage Lake scored four times in the first and four more times in the third to defeat the Ice Dogs, 8-1.

Hill, Erickson, Mikesch, and Riley McKay all scored first-period tallies. Dawson McKay picked up a pair of assists in the sequence, and the Pioneers led 4-1 after 20 minutes.

Neither team could get much done in the second period as no goals were scored in the frame.

Colton Salani struck less than four minutes into the third period to put Portage Lake up 5-1. Broeztman struck 3:01 later and Dawson McKay closed out the offense with two goals in a 3:19 span.

Petrulis made 20 saves to earn the win.

The Pioneers opened their tournament on Friday with a 22-1 win over the Sun Prairie Killer Bees. The Killer Bees had earned their way in the larger tournament by winning the play-in game against the Dane County Dairy Kings, 6-5.

The Killer Bees did not win a game during the regular season.

The Pioneers struck three times in the first period against Sun Prairie, then 11 times in the second, and added eight more in the third.

Ross Rouleau led Portage Lake offensively with seven points, all assists. Cale Markham had three goals and three assists. Hauswirth chipped in three goals and two assists.

Salani also scored a hat trick and picked up an assist as well.

In total. 18 different skaters picked up a point in the game.

Goaltender Brian Brzezinski made 15 saves to earn the win.

WOLVERINES SPLIT WEEKEND

The Calumet Wolverines earned a win in their first game of the tournament on Friday by defeating the Mosinee Papermakers, despite being outshot 68-33.

Calumet jumped out to an early 2-0 lead thanks to goals from Matt Yeo and Michael Babcock 5:05 apart.

Mosinee cut the lead in half before the end of the first period.

Logan Rastello scored a pair of goals 17:35 apart in the second period to put Calumet up 5-1 going into the final frame. Yeo assisted on both tallies.

The Papermakers scored two goals in less than four minutes to make it 5-3 less than eight minutes into the third.

Yeo scored his second goal of the game with 8:44 remaining. The goal stood as the game-winner, with Rastello earning the only assist.

Mosinee got one back with former Calumet goaltender Ian Carroll pulled, but that was all they could get.

Goaltender Matthew Ryynanen made 65 saves to earn the win for the Wolverines.

In the second game of the tournament, the Wolverines fell to the Bears, 8-0.

Ryynanen and Bruce Parisot combined to made 56 saves in the loss.

UP NEXT

This weekend, the Pioneers and Wolverines are back in action for the final times this season as they battle each other for the Gibson Cup. The Pioneers have won the trophy each of the last two seasons, and will host both the opening game on Thursday and the third game Saturday, if needed. The Wolverines will host Game Two on Friday.