Photo by Jake McNeill: Marshall captains Kendal Beernaert (center), Abbey Foley (left) and Mady Girard (right) accept the Section 3A championship trophy after the top-seeded Tigers took down No. 2 Luverne by a score of 5-2 at Gustavus Adolphus College’s Lund Arena on Tuesday night.

This story will be updated with stats, quotes and details

ST. PETER — For the first time since 2018, the Marshall girls hockey team is state-bound. Despite facing a 2-0 deficit to No. 2 Luverne late in the second period of Tuesday’s Section 3A championship, the top-seeded Tigers rattled off five unanswered goals to claim a 5-2 victory and advance to the Class A tournament.

“We’re so happy we get to have this opportunity, we’ve been waiting for it for far too long,” Marshall goalie Lily Stelter said after the win. “We’re doing it for the seniors. They’re all just such hard workers and I think every single one of them deserves to go to state. Every single one of these girls on our team deserves to go to state. We’re just speechless.”

Heading into the game, the Cardinals were five-time reigning section champions. Most recently, Luverne sent Marshall home with a 4-0 loss in the 2024 section final. Luverne also defeated Marshall 5-2 in the teams’ last regular-season meeting this year after Marshall won the first battle 5-1.

The section final was the last chance for five Marshall seniors to make it to state. The win extends the prep career of Mia Wichmann, Kendal Beernaert, Mady Girard, Aubree Metheny and Olivia Degroot with their first state tournament appearance.

“It feels actually unbelievable. There’s no words to describe it in this moment,” Beernaert said. “It hasn’t really hit me yet, but these girls have put so much work in, it’s no surprise that we won.”

Just as hope started to fade with the Tigers facing a 2-0 deficit in the waning minutes of the first half, Marshall came up with a spark when it needed it most. The Tigers worked the puck into the offensive zone and Brielle Felton-Krog passed the puck to Elsie Deutz near the post. Positioned just outside the crease, Deutz sent in the Tigers’ first goal of the night with 2:57 remaining in the period.

Luverne’s one-goal lead didn’t last long after that. With 85 seconds remaining in the period, Cardinal forward Trinley Vanderburg was called for a tripping minor on a hard collision with Marshall’s Eme DeMuth. While those on the Marshall side of the arena booed when Luverne was only assessed a minor, those boos quickly turned into cheers.

Brooklyn Mauch found herself in open ice with just the goaltender to beat on the power play. She dangled her way into forcing the goalkeeper to bite before sending in a diving shot to knot up the game at two goals apiece with 37.8 seconds left in the second period. Mia Wichmann was also credited with an assist on the play.

“All I thought about was how much my team needed it,” Mauch said. “We were all working so hard to get it and I knew one of us had to put it in the back of the net. So I think it was just a team effort, we were all trying to get one in.”

After a five-minute stalemate to start the third period, Deutz came up with her second goal of the game and perhaps the biggest of her young career. The freshman forward was well-positioned near the post when Felton-Krog took a shot from just outside the crease. Krog’s shot was deflected, but Deutz was ready and tapped in the rebound for what would be the game-winning goal.

Luverne had an opportunity to go up 3-0 when Van Batavia got the pcuk on a fastbreak during the power play, but with no defenders in the area, Stelter came up with a clutch blocker save to keep the Cardinals’ lead at just two goals. She went on to finish the night with 13 saves as the Tigers outshot Luverne 20-15.

“I’ve really been trying to focus recently on just relaxing. It’s so much easier to make saves when I’m relaxed,” Stelter said, a change she credited assistant coach Derek Smith with helping her make. “A big part of playing goalie is staying relaxed, keeping your cool and not getting flustered. I think that really helped me when she came on that break. Obviously it’s stressful, but it’s good to keep cool.”

Luverne outshot Marshall 6-4 in the first period, but the Tigers dominated the start of the second period, outshooting the Cardinals 4-1 through the first five minutes and finishing the period with a 12-8 advantage in shots on goal on the night.

“I think what we were thinking at first was just shots, shots, shots. We have to shoot at the goalie. But then we realized that we couldn’t just shoot at the net, we had to shoot on the net,” Mauch said. “That’s what mostly changed our mindset. We had to win every race, no matter what, and we had to do this for our seniors.”

Unfortunately for the Tigers, the lone shot on goal was a big one. Elle Van Batavia has possession of the net and tried to pass it to a teammate, but the puck deflected off a Marshall skate and into the back of the net for a 2-0 Luverne lead just over three minutes into the second period. Tenley Behr was credited with an assist.

“We talked in the locker room about how, if we keep pressuring the puck and shooting the puck like that, they’re eventually going to go in,” Beernaert said of the team’s mentality in the deficit. “We just kept pressuring it and they soon

Stelter made a trio of sprawling pad saves in the game’s first few minutes, preventing Luverne from taking an early lead despite Marshall’s edge in time of possession. Yet, a two-minute minor on Ava Kolander for tripping put Luverne in the offensive zone and Luverne scored the game’s first goal just six seconds later, with Behr netting the go-ahead goal six minutes into the game.

Mauch joined Deutz as multi-goal scorers in the game with eight minutes remaining in the third, taking the puck unassisted and dangling her way to another goal for a 4-2 lead.

With 53 seconds remaining in regulation, Kendal Beernaert scored the empty-net clincher to cement Marshall’s 5-2 victory. Aubree Metheny earned the assist on the play.

Marshall improves to 22-3-2 on the season with the win and now prepares to head to the state tournament for the first time in seven years. Seeding for the state tournament will be released this weekend, with the Class A quarterfinals slated for Feb. 19 at 11 a.m and 1, 6 and 8 p.m.