Photo by Samantha Davis. Marshall's Abigail Foley celebrates after scoring a goal in the second period against Hopkins Friday afternoon at the Red Baron Arena. Foley had two goals in the Tigers' 6-1 victory, and next advance to the Thanksgiving Classic championship on Saturday.

MARSHALL — The hallway between ice rinks down Red Baron Arena reads descriptive words painted upon the ceiling like ‘determination,’ ‘integrity,’ and ‘character,’ which is exactly what the Marshall girls hockey team showed on the first day of the Thanksgiving Classic Tournament with a 6-1 victory over Hopkins-St. Louis Park, a Class AA opponent, Friday afternoon. With the win, the Tigers continue their perfect start to the season at 7-0 overall.

“We really just worry about ourselves a lot. We don’t worry about who we’re playing too much,” Marshall head coach Cassi Weiss said. “We just focus on the things that we can control and things that we can do to win the game, and that’s what the girls did today. I’m super proud.”

Powered behind a three-goal second period, junior Abigail Foley had two goals on the day, followed by Brooklyn Mauch, Peyton DeMuth, Olivia Degroot and Elsie Deutz all netting one in. Mauch had a team-high three assists.

Marshall entered the day with a strong and busy start to the season, and after having a week’s worth of a rest from games. The Tigers took down Worthington last Thursday with a markable 7-0 win.

“It feels like we did better than maybe what we did the week before,” Weiss said. “It was almost too much having that many games, so it was nice to get back on the ice to practice, work on a few things that we saw, and then see them be implemented in today’s game.”

Hopkins on the other hand, came in with a 1-4-1 record and was looking to get back in the win column.

Marshall had an overall 40 shots on goal compared to Hopkins’ 21. Goalie Lily Stelter finished with a .952 save percentage after allowing just one puck into the net. There were no major penalties assessed during the game.

The Tigers came out strong in the first period and showed it was determined to keep its red-hot start on the year going with a 2-0 early lead, with goals from the powerhouse offensive duo in Mauch and DeMuth, who both currently lead the team in goals on the season.

The Tigers also had 14 shots on goal to the Royals’ five in the first 17 minutes.

Stelter saved all five goal attempts, but two of them came in the first minute of the game. From there, Marshall controlled possession a majority of the period.

At the 5:02 mark, Mauch tracked the puck down defensively and brought it all the way up the ice herself and right into the net on a power play.

There were a handful more shot attempts on the Hopkins goalie, Harper Hatch, until DeMuth and Mia Wichmann found the puck and skated down together.

Wichmann sent the puck to DeMuth coming back from around the net who successfully tapped it in at 14:39, and the team celebrated yet another goal just nine minutes apart from each other.

Mauch nearly had another goal in the final seconds of the period, but got tripped up closing in on the crease.

Although a good performance in the first period, the Tigers ultimately put the game away in the second with three consecutive goals all within two minutes, two of which came from Foley and Mauch assisted on all three.

“She’s [Foley] just one of those players that’s always going to go 100%, no matter how she feels or whatever kind of game she’s having,” Weiss said. “It’s nice to see her get rewarded for those.”

Just three minutes into the second, Mauch found Foley for a shot right after a puck drop in the face off zone.

About 20 seconds later, Degroot also found the inside of the net herself.

There wasn’t much lag time until the Tigers got down in Hopkins territory again. DeMuth assisted up to Mauch skating down, who nudged the puck off to Foley nearly head on with the goalie for her second goal and a 5-0 advantage.

“That line just really does a great job moving the puck around. They [DeMuth and Mauch] do a good job of drawing a lot of players when they do have the puck, which opens up their line mates,” Weiss said. “Having that many goals, that many assists, they just really do a good job of moving that puck around and scoring goals when we need to score goals.”

Even though Marshall built a comfortable lead, Weiss said the team needed to make sure they didn’t let Hopkins get any chance at a comeback.

“We just needed to do what we did in the second and be prepared that they [Hopkins] weren’t very happy,” Weiss said regarding what she told the team after the second period. “We could tell they weren’t happy with their performance, and that they probably had more to give. So, we just needed to be prepared for that, but continue the way we were playing.”

The third period was stagnant, until the Royals were able to get a point on the board about ten minutes in. Due to Marshall’s cushioned lead, it didn’t pose a threat.

There were 26 seconds left in the game, but the Tigers didn’t let up off the gas as Deutz skated up unassisted and drilled in the puck for one more goal.

“I was really happy to beat an AA school that we just don’t have a lot of information on,” Weiss said. “To come out, really play well and score a lot of goals, it just felt really good.”

DeMuth and Mauch currently lead the team with 10 and eight goals respectively on the season so far, while Mauch and Foley have a team-high 12 and 11 assists.

Marshall has a quick turnaround and will play again today in the second day of the Thanksgiving Tournament. It will take on Pine City at Red Baron Arena at 11:30 a.m. in the championship game. 

Pine City is currently 5-2 on the season and plays in Class A.

“[We need to] focus on what we can control, and get some rest tonight,” Weiss said. “Come back ready to play … Really just [have to] utilize our speed tomorrow.”