Photo by Jake McNeill: Marshall forward Eme DeMuth (13) celebrates with teammate Aubree Metheny after scoring a goal in the second period of a prep girls hockey game against Luverne at Red Baron Arena in Marshall on Tuesday night.

MARSHALL — In a rematch of last season’s section championship game, the Marshall girls hockey team got some revenge on Tuesday night. The Tigers took a first-period lead over Luverne and never looked back, riding the early goal to a 5-1 win and its first home victory over the Cardinals since 2017.

“We all knew that we wanted to take it to the next level. We want to get to the state championship, and they’ve been taking that away from us for the past several years,” Marshall forward Brooklyn Mauch said of the team’s rivalry with Luverne. “We haven’t been able to beat them, but now we’re going to start catching up.”

The Cardinals and Tigers split last year’s regular-season series, each team picking up a road win. Yet, Luverne won when it counted, claiming a 4-0 victory in the Section 3A championship to end the Tigers’ season.

As time wound down in the first period, Luverne attempted one last shot toward the Marshall goal. A slew of Tigers got in the way of the shot and Abbey Foley passed the puck up to Brooklyn Mauch along the left side of the rink.

Gliding down toward the goal, Mauch turned her skates parallel to the goalline and beat the goalie with a shot to the right side of the net to give the Tigers a 1-0 lead with 10.3 seconds left in the period.

“It felt really good because I knew we needed it,” Mauch said of the gaol. “We were working hard, but we knew we needed that little push to go over the edge and get going.”

It didn’t take as long for Marshall to find the back of the net in the second period. Four minutes into the frame, Kendal Beernaert took a shot from the right side of the net that skipped over the goaltender’s stick. While the shot didn’t go in, Eme DeMuth was perfectly positioned next to the opposite post to recover the loose puck and tap in the rebound for a 2-0 Tiger lead. Aubree Metheny was also credited with an assist on the play.

Lily Stelter has been consistent in goal all season with a .901 save percentage but took her game up another level on Tuesday. The sophomore netminder’s 26 saves on 27 shots faced surpasses her previous season-high of 21 in a win over Hutchinson. Her .962 save percentage on the day was also shy only of her pair of shutouts against Willmar and Worthington, in which she had 14 and three saves respectively.

“We noticed a lot that they would always pass it to their defense, so we tried to pressure them as much as we could and just stay on them,” Stelter said. “Our team did a really good job of that, our defense are amazing, and our team did such a great job tonight.”

DeMuth netted her fourth goal of the young season in the 15th minute of the period, scoring unassisted with a wrist shot from the faceoff circle to boost the Tigers’ lead. The three-goal cushion was short-lived, however, as Izzy Steensma scored off a feed from Ellie Van Batavia and Tenley Behr 21 seconds later.

While it took the Tigers the full 17 minutes of the first period to net the go-ahead goal, they carried play throughout. Marshall held Luverne to two shots on goal in the first 10 minutes of the game and finished the first period with a 14-5 advantage in shots on goal. Marshall finished the night with 39 shots on goal to Luverne’s 27.

Mauch nearly added to the Marshall lead just moments after DeMuth’s goal on a fast break, but a slashing Penalty on Luverne’s Rylee Kurtz committed a slashing penalty to halt the break. The Tigers dominated the puck on the ensuing powerplay but couldn’t capitalize with a goal.

Less than three minutes into the final frame, Mauch sent a pass to Foley in the slot, who sent the shot home for a 4-1 Tiger lead and her 19th point of the season.

Elsie Deutz scored an empty-netter from near center ice with three minutes remaining to bring the final score to 5-1.

Marshall improves to a perfect 9-0 on the season. The Tigers will look to extend the season-starting surge to double-digits when they host New Ulm on Thursday at 5:15 p.m.

“We’ve loved this momentum that we’ve had these first few weeks of the season, and our goal is just to keep it rolling,” Stelter said. “Nine wins is obviously aweseme, but in the end goal, we just need to keep our momentum up and just keep it rolling into the section finals.”