Photo by Jake McNeill Marshall forward Jacob Johnson checks an opponent during the second period of a prep boys hockey game against Fairmont at Red Baron Arena on Tuesday night.

MARSHALL — After a contentious first period-and-a-half, the Marshall boys hockey team exploded for a series of five goals and four minutes to pull away in its game against Fairmont on Tuesday. Owen Renslow scored a game-high 6 points as the Tigers ran away with an 8-1 win. The win brought Marshall up to .500 in conference play on the season as the Tigers have now won four of their last five Big South Conference matchups.

“We’re starting to figure out how to play,” Renslow said. “We’ve still got some stuff we’ve got to work on, but I think we’re climbing up the hill and I think we’ll be at the top of the hill here soon.”

Marshall had also picked up an 8-1 win over Windom on Monday night, led by another strong second period that featured five goals. Luke Ehlers and Easton Larsen each had a hat trick and an assist in the win while Henry Horvath and Renslow each notched another goal.

Tuesday’s game was tied at one goal apiece after the first period ended. Two minutes into the second, however, Koda Peterson scored the go-ahead goal off an assist from Ehlers and Renslow.

While that goal put the Tigers ahead, it was five minutes later that the Tigers put the game away. Tyler Welsh started the Marshall rally by scoring off a feed from Easton Larsen, and Jacob Allen and Austin Husby each scored a goal about a minute later to increase Marshall’s lead to 5-1.

Allen’s goal was assisted by Blake Grimsley while Husby’s was assisted by Renslow and Tate Mellenthin.

“We were just creating space and hitting lanes. Hitting the slot hard, that’s where most of our goals came from,” Renslow said of the Tigers’ offensive barrage. “Just getting open and making room is about all we did, and we buried the puck in front.”

Another two minutes later, Ehlers scored his first goal of the game off a feed from Renslow and Peterson, and Renslow wrapped up the five-goal run for the Tigers by capitalizing on an assist from Tyler Welsh to make the score 7-1 with five minutes left in the second period.

The goal marked the second time that Renslow found the back of the net on the day. He also scored the game’s opening goal three minutes after puck drop, receiving the feed from Braden Muller in the high slot and hesitating before firing off a hard wrist shot into the top shelf. Nothing but net for the go-ahead goal.

Yet, Fairmont didn’t let Marshall finish the frame with the lead. A Marshall miscue allowed Preston Cepress to come up with a takeaway near the blue line. Cepress and Tyler Kurt has a two-on-none fastbreak but Cepress didn’t need any help, taking it himself and deking out the goalkeeper for the tying goal with six minutes remaining in the first period. 

From there, however, the Marshall defense locked in. After allowing six first-period shots on goal, the Tigers held the Cardinals to eight for the remaining two periods, including just one in the final frame. Marshall, on the other hand, finished with 40 shots on goal, including 17 in the second period and 15 in the third.

“After the first period, we wanted to focus on defense and not giving them any good looks or good chances or any types of rushes on the net,” Marshall head coach Michael Weiss said, adding that he felt that his team succeeded in meeting that goal.

Renslow capped off the hat trick with two minutes remaining in the third period, finishing off the feed from Mellenthin to bring the score to 8-1. 

Guenther McCoy saved 12 of the 13 shots he faced in goal for Marshall while Kaden Olson saved 31 of 38 for Fairmont. 

Marshall improves to 7-11-0 overall with the win, and the result also brings them up to .500 in the Big South Conference standings at 5-5-0. Marshall will look to earn a winning record when it goes on the road to take on Redwood Valley (2-11-0, 1-7-0 BSC)) on Tuesday at 7:15 p.m.

“We started off the season with a really tough schedule. When you do that, you learn some things about yourself and what you need to improve on early,” Weiss said. “You’ve got some time to build and just keep getting better as the season goes on.”

The Fairmont boys hockey team falls to 0-11-0 on the season (0-9-0 BSC) and will look to bounce back when it hosts Austin (7-5-0) for a non-conference matchup on Saturday at 7 p.m.