In their two tourney games played Wednesday and Friday, Blake and Thief River Falls had beaten their first two opponents by shutting down their offense.  Blake beat Hutchinson 9-0 and Red Wing 3-0.  The Bears put 89 shots on their two opponents’ goals in those two games.  They had an easier time in the first game and got into a tight strategic game with the Wingers in semifinal game that they won by using the long pass to wings, mostly Carly Bullock along the left boards.  The pass would often break the opponents' defensive pressure leading to a Bears score.  Against Red Wing the Bears matched their top line of Bullock, Karlie Lund, and Jordan Chancellor with Red Wings’ top line and then alternated their #2 line centered by Sarah Chute and #3 line centered by Julia Shepard against Red Wings’ #2 line.  The strategy worked.  Blake’s top line had 52 of the 89 Bear shots on goal in their first two tourney games.   

Thief River Falls beat New Ulm 5-1 and South St. Paul 4-1 in their first two games.  In their two wins, the Prowlers put 110 shots on net, but ran into some solid goaltending in New Ulm’s Karlie Ries and South St. Paul’s Sydney Conley.  While the Prowler forwards were storming the net, Thief River Falls senior goalie Francis Marshall, faced only 17 shots in the first two games.  Consequently few realized going into Saturday’s game that Marshall was an outstanding goalie.  In an early December game, Marshall stopped 52 of 53 then #1 ranked Eden Prairie shots in a 1-1 tie game.  The Prowlers top line of Emily Bergland, Kora Torkelson, and Kaylee Eskeli put the puck in the net 67 times in regular season play.  The Prowlers #2 line centered by Sylvia Marolt provided the Falls with a one-two punch.  Marolt’s line with Kira Johnson and Morgan Martell at wings scored 44 goals.  Against South St. Paul, Marolt’s line had 16 shots on goal, Bergland’s line had 17.     

Period One-A quick score

A championship game typically would match the top lines of each team.  Win or lose, that often revolves around how the two teams’ top lines match-up.  But in Saturday’s championship game, that didn’t happen.  Other factors were at play and they led to the Prowler win.  The Thief River Falls forwards were deep in physical size and skills.  Because of their size, to some fans the Prowlers may have seemed to be slower skaters against the smaller Blake players.  But the Falls won more than their share of the races in Saturday’s game and they used their physical strength and skills effectively to take a Blake players off the puck.  As the game progressed, more and more the Bears were reaching and were slower in moving their feet; more and more, Blake was relying on their top line; and more and more, as the third period was ending, they were relying on Carly Bullock.

The first period opened with the Bears scoring in the first thirty seconds of play.  Bullock took a pass from Karly Lund and beat Marshall for the score.  Blake led 1-0.  In a rare play, Blake goalie Anna Kruesel’s pass set up the score.  Kruesel and Lund got the assists.  The two teams had scoring opportunites over the next few minutes.  Thief River Falls would take the long shot crossing the blue and crash the net looking for the rebound.  Blake goalie Kruesel handled the shots easily, controlling the rebound on most of the shots.

The Prowlers drew a penalty with 10 minutes left in the period and killed the penalty fairly easily.  Blake got initial pressure on their power play, but the Prowlers were able to clear the puck as the penalty ended.  Halfway through the period, there was no “jump” to the game.  Considering it was a championship game, neither team came out firing after that initial Blake score.  But with five minutes left in the opening period, Blake started to build some pressure and had the Prowler defense scrambling a little in the Thief River Falls zone.  Blake went passive with their offense at that point letting the Thief River defense make the first move.  That may have been triggered by Thief River Falls’ second line starting to outplay Blake’s #2 line.  Thief River outshot the Bears 11-7 in the first period.  The period ended with Blake leading 1-0.   

Period Two-Thief River Falls fans and band inspire

The first three plus minutes of the second period had the teams back to playing cautiously.  Blake got a scare.  The Bears had been playing comfortably until then.  With the puck in the Blake zone, the Prowler forwards aggressively attacked and turned the puck twice for two good shots on the Kruesel.  The Falls’ forwards have quick, accurate, often deceptively fast shots that are hard to stop.  Kruesel showed a quick glove in making those stops.  A minute later, the Prowlers drew a cross checking penalty and killed it.  With the period half over, Blake’s top line was seeing more ice time and the Blake defense was starting to hit Bullock with the long pass along the left boards.  But before Blake could get on a roll, the Bears drew a checking penalty.  It led to a Prowler power play goal.

Thief River Falls kept the pressure on Blake on the power play controlling the puck in the Bears' zone.  With penalty time running down, Thief River Falls got the puck low attacking Kruesel from the right side.  The puck slid through Kruesel across the crease to Kora Torkelson.  Torkelson had moved into position by leveraging a Blake defender away from the crease area creating room for a shot.  She snapped the sliding puck into the net with a Blake defender on her back.  The goal tied the game and the Thief River Falls fans went wild backed by their band.  Over on the Blake side it was quiet.  For a Saturday early evening Class A championship game, there were few students to cheer and no band.  The momentum had shifted to Thief River Falls on the ice and in the stands.  And the stands revved up the Prowlers on the ice.  Thief River Falls came on like a blizzard blowing across Highway 32 driving the Bears back into a cave.  On the ice, Blake had Bullock’s line and in the stands they had no answer.

The second period ended in a 1-1 tie with Blake under pressure.  Each team had 9 shots on goal.  Both teams were tired.  It would be tough coming out of the locker for the third period.

Period Three-How long will Bullock last?

More and more, Carly Bullock's line was on the ice.  They opened play in the third period and her line brought pressure in that first minute of play.  But with Bullock off the ice, the Bears pressure would end and the Prowler attacks began.  Thief River Falls was bent on carrying the puck across the blue and taking the shot if they beat the Blake defense.  If the Bear’s defense slowed the Prowler forward, then she would dump the puck.  Blake recognizing Bullock was their best chance, was starting to put her on the ice after quick rests, sometimes without her line.  Bullock would carry the action into the Thief River Falls’ zone often setting up Blake scoring chances.  Her size and strength countered the Prowler defense size and strength, her hockey skills gave her the advantage.

When Blake drew a tripping penalty with nine minutes to go in the game, Bullock was out on point for the penalty kill.  But the Blake defense tired on that Prowler power play.  Thief River had some great scoring opportunities.  The Prowler pressure continued as the two teams battled mostly in neutral ice with Prowlers beating the Bears at the Blake blue line occasionally and going for the long shot.  Blake would counter with rushes led by Bullock and her line.  The play of the game was setup by a penalty call in the neutral zone.  As it often happens in hockey, a simple thing leads to determining the game.  The battle over puck control resulted in coincidental minor penalties called on Thief River Falls Sylvia Marolt for holding and Blake’s Carly Bullock for roughing.  Bullock was off the ice for the next two minutes.

Playing even, without Bullock, Karlie Lund and Blake defenseman Sylvia Wallin carried the Bear attack initially to the Prowler goal and came close attacking Marshall, but could not beat her.  Gradually the Prowlers attack took over the game.  Their forwards started to beat the Blake defense at the Bears blue line.  On one these attacks, Emily Bergland crossed the blue line and let fire from the left faceoff circle.  The shot was hard and quick but off-speed.  Kruesel’s glove save attempt failed.  The puck tipped off her golve into the net.  It was the winning score with three minutes left to play.  Bullock still had seconds left to serve on her penalty and did not see the ice for another minute. 

Blake came back to pressure Marshall in the last minutes of the game.  The Prowlers went defensive and sought to control and dump the puck.  With 90 seconds left to play, under fierce Blake pressure, the Prowlers drew a tripping penalty.  With the power play faceoff in the Prowler zone, Blake pulled their goalie, but couldn’t control the puck off the face off.  Thief River Falls Callie Fagerstrom ended up with the loose puck at the left boards and drove the puck off the boards 150 feet into the empty Blake net for the insurance goal.  Thief River Falls won the game 3-1.  The Prowlers are the 2015 Class A state champions!  Congratulations to Thief River Falls on a great season.       

What is next?

YHH covers hockey at all levels all year.  Our expanded coverage of girls high school hockey this year was to get more hockey fans interested in girls hockey in general.  We go to the arenas and post stories.  The stories we post try to cover the action on ice, not just the result.  Our reader response has been great.  The MSHSL league was pleased to point out the increased attendance at the 2015 state tourney and YHH feels our viewers are a significant part of that increased interest.  YHH believes that by posting the stories with a point of view that reflects the game action, our readers get a real perspective of girls hockey and the girls playing hockey.  It is a sport unto itself and not just a clone of boys high school hockey.  We will be covering boys high school sectional play this week and expect to cover some great games over the next two weeks.  Both girls and boys hockey are truly great sports, each is their own.