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Willmar 2, Chisago Lakes 1

(3 O.T.)

The Wildcats lost 2-1 to Willmar in triple overtime in the opening game of the state tournament, despite outshooting Willmar 39-18 or the game. In the consolation bracket game, they played well against Mahtomedi, but Mahtomedi scored the go-ahead goal with just 2:18 remaining. That sent the Wildcats to their second straight 2-1 defeat.

The Wilmarr game was Friday, march 16. They played Mahtomedi Saturday, March 17. Both contests were played in Cloquet.

In the Willmar game, neither team scored in the first period despite an 8-3 shot advantage for the Wildcats. Willmar put the Wildcats back on their heels by scoring 18 seconds into the second period.

The Wildcats came back to tie it five minutes later. Laura Burch won a face-off in the Willmar zone and got the puck to Katie Sorenson, who scored to make the score 1-1. The Wildcats dominated Willmar in shots through the rest of regulation play and through the first two overtimes, but didn't manage to get the puck past the excellent Willmar goalie.

"We had the puck actually laying on their goal line six or seven times," said Wildcat head coach Bill Emeott," but we just couldn't move it a few more inches and over that line."

In the third overtime (played three-on-three by state tournament rules), the Willmar center won the opening face-off and pulled the puck back to her defenseman. The center raced toward the Wildcat goal, colliding with a Wildcat defender and taking both players out of the play. The Willmar defenseman carried the puck down the ice, speeding between the two remaining Wildcat players and fired a shot into the upper right corner of the net for the game-winning goal.

Mahtomedi 2, Chisago Lakes 1

Neither team scored in the first period of the consolation game against. Mahtomedi seemed to take charge in the second period, outshooting the Wildcats 11-2. But the Wildcats trailed just 1-0 after the second period thanks to the stellar play of goalie Amanda Budde.

The Wildcats dominated most of the third period, and were finally rewarded with just over four minutes remaining in the game. Allison Ives got the puck in the left corner of the Mahtomedi zone and skated toward the front of the net. She passed the puck to Anna Petersen at the bottom left edge of the right circle. Petersen shot it past the Mahtomedi goalie to knot the score at 1-1.

"Anna had just stepped off the plane at 2 a.m. that morning," said Emeott, "after returning from a spring break trip. She came up with a big goal for us." Both teams took their two-minute timeouts after Peterson's goal. When play resumed, the Wildcats rushed down the ice and Petersen nearly scored another goal, this time shooting the puck just wide.

Mahtomedi scored the go-ahead goal shorthanded on a strange, controversial play with 2:18 remaining. As Mahtomedi buzzed around the Wildcat net, Budde got knocked back into the net and ended up with several players from both teams on top of her as the net came off. The referees had lost sight of the puck, and then saw it under the pile in the net area. They ruled it had gone in the net before the net came off. Without a call for goalie interference, Mahtomedi had a 2-1 lead.

The Wildcats got two point-blank shots in the last minute of play, but the Mahtomedi goalie came up with big saves on both shots, ending the game and the Wildcats' season.

"Any of the eight teams could have won the tournament," said Emeott. They were all pretty evenly matched. We have nothing to be ashamed of. We went up and played two very good games and lost on late goals in both of them."

Emeott reflected on the season. "We had fifteen practices," he said, "then lost our first game 6-2 to Princeton. At that point no one, me included, could envision that we'd get out of districts and make it to the state tournament. We had two players who had never played hockey before and a goalie who had never played goalie before. But, all of the kids worked hard and overachieved. I hope they learned that if you work hard - in school, hockey and other areas of your life - good things can happen. We had a great season with a great group of kids."

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