Photo by Jake McNeill: The Marshall girls hockey team watches from the bench as the final seconds tick off the clock in the final period of their Class A state quarterfinal matchup against Warroad on Wednesday at the Xcel Energy Center in St. Paul. Marshall lost 4-0 to the Warriors and will next take on seventh-seeded Fergus Falls in the consolation semifinals today at 1 p.m.

ST. PAUL — Making its first state tournament appearance since 2018 on Wednesday afternoon, the sixth-seeded Marshall Tigers couldn’t crack the seasoned defense of the No. 3 Warroad Warriors in the Class A girls hockey quarterfinals. The Warriors limited Marshall to single-digit shots on goal and continued their quest for their fourth consecutive state championship by defeating the Tigers 4-0.

The loss drops Marshall out of state title contention and into the consolation bracket, where they will compete against Fergus Falls in the consolation semifinals for a fifth-place trophy. 

“I think there were a lot of nerves today, just a lot of overwhelming thoughts, and I think it kind of intimidated us a little bit,” Marshall goalie Lily Stelter said. “I think now that we’re going to go play a more familiar team, I think we can definitely calm those nerves and get ready tonight and just focus up.”

Marshall had some momentum early in the game, outshooting Warroad 4-3 through the game’s first eight minutes. Yet, the Warriors turned the game on its head shortly thereafter; nine minutes into the first period, Emmie Hardwick fired a shot off a feed from Lindsey Lorenson into the net. 

The shot was originally ruled to have not gone into the goal, but after a review, the officials made the correction and awarded the Warriors the go-ahead goal.

While the Tigers started strong defensively, Warroad wore on them from there with eight unanswered shots on goal to close out the first period and a 9-1 advantage in the second.

“I think we did a good job of keeping [Warroad] to the outside and just having our sticks in lanes and trying to push them on their toes a little bit,” Marshall head coach Cassi Weiss said of the Tigers’ early defensive success. “Maybe a little bit unexpected from us… Maybe they were looking past our game, so they were just trying to put them on their heels early.”

Jaylie French was the lone player to score multiple points in the game. The Warroad sophomore led the team in points heading into the game and tied teammate Taylor Reese with a team-leading 25 goals with a third-period power-play goal.

No penalties were assessed on either team until the nine-minute mark in the third period. Kendal Beernaert was charged with a hooking penalty and Abbey Foley was called for a tripping penalty less than a minute later. Two seconds after Beernaert’s penalty expired, Warroad capitalized on the opportunity with French finishing off a feed from Reese and Karlee Kalbrener to extend the Warriors’ lead to 4-0.

While she wasn’t able to will her team to a win, Lilly Stelter put on a show between the posts for Marshall. The sophomore goaltender finished the night with 30 saves in the loss, her second-highest save total in the last two months behind a 34-save shutout performance at Minnesota River on Feb. 1.

“[Stelter has] always kind of been a rock in our locker room,” Marshall forward Mady Girard said. “She’s always willing to speak up and she’s always willing to make suggestions to help her out in the back of the net because we know she holds us together in these tough games. I don’t know what we’d do without her.”

“She’s just such a light,” Beernaert added. “I don’t know how to describe it. The excitement in the room, or just the energy, is always high [with her].”

For the Warriors, Peyton Rolli posted a nine-save shutout. The Warroad goaltender entered the day with a save percentage of 94% and played up to expectations, earning her ninth shutout of the season.

Marshall’s roster featured five seniors who were playing on the Xcel Energy Center ice for the first time in their prep careers: Beernaert, Girard, Mia Wichmann, Aubree Metheny and Olivia DeGroot. 

“Stepping out on the ice for warm-ups, I had to blink my eyes a couple extra times and look around, just take it all in because the experience itself is absolutely unreal,” Girard said. “You work all season to get to the point you’re at and you have to kind of accept the reward that comes with being able to play on such an incredible rink.”

Beernaert added that playing on the state championship rink is a dream come true, and added that she and the rest of the Tigers are proud of themselves for achieving as much as they have this season.

Linnea Harren gave Warroad some extra breathing room in the second period, scoring off an assist from French and Olivia Anthony to make the score 2-0, and Katy Comstock made it 3-0 with an unassisted goal six minutes into the final frame.

Tiger culture

Weiss credited Marshall’s graduating seniors for setting the tone in the locker room and creating a culture of selflessness and team-first energy. Among the examples she cited of that culture penetrating into the locker room is a pair of underclassmen — eighth grader Brynlee Dieken and freshman Brianna Foley — giving up their gear without hesitation to teammates who forgot equipment.

“High school kids aren’t always the most responsible, apparently, even at the state tournament,” Weiss said with a laugh.

Moving up in the world

Prior to the state tournament, each of the top four seeds had played at least three games against other state tournament teams. Marshall, located several hours away from many of the top teams, played just one in seventh-seeded Fergus Falls. When asked about the possibility of scheduling some more of the state’s top teams in the future, Weiss was open to the idea.

“I’ll say they’ve never ignored my phone calls, luckily,” Weiss said when asked about Proctor/Hermantown with a laugh. “But it’s exciting to get to be in a room with these coaches, meet them in person and be able to schedule them in the future.”

While the Tigers are always looking to strengthen their schedule, the fact that they no longer have to play every team in the Big South Conference twice gives Marshall more freedom to bolster that strength, Weiss said.

Weiss added that Marshall will look to bolster both its varsity and JV schedule next year after the JV team struggled to schedule 20 games this season.

“That’s just not acceptable when that’s our feeder program, so we need to get them games too,” Weiss said.

Up next

Now 22-4-2 on the season, the Marshall girls hockey team will face a familiar foe in the fifth-place bracket semifinals, Fergus Falls. The game will be played at TRIA Rink in St. Paul today at 1 p.m.

The Tigers and Otters faced off in Fergus Falls in Marshall’s second game of the season on Nov. 9, with Marshall downing the Otters in Fergus Falls by a final score of 4-2. 

“We just need to get back to our roots, get back to our game, and kind of get back to that competitiveness we’ve had,” Weiss said. “Get rid of the nerves and fear and that kind of stuff that we had a little bit today and just get back to playing hockey in a normal rink and go out and play our game.”

Peyton DeMuth and Metheny each scored a pair of goals in the win over Fergus Falls, with each of Metheny’s goals coming after the game was tied at 2-2 in the second period, while Stelter came up with 16 saves for Marshall. Hannah Johnson — the team leader with 20 goals and 38 points on the year — scored one of Fergus Falls’ two goals, the other coming from Averie Tonneson, while Mia Olson saved 21 shots in goal.