Tourney Team Preview: Fergus Falls

{seqn) Breck vs Fergus Falls — Fergus Falls head coach Tim Lill draws up a play during a time out against Breck School late in the third period of a Minnesota State Girls Hockey Tournament Class A quarterfinal game at Xcel Energy Center in St. Paul, Minn, on Wednesday, Feb. 20, 2019. The Breck School beat Fergus Falls, 2-0, to advance to the semifinal round.

By Rob Beer

February 20, 2023 at 5:23 PM

Section 6A

No. 8 Fergus Falls

20-4-1

Coach: Tim Lill

Players to Watch: #5 Maddie Hulter, #43 Tyra Skjeret, #2 Hannah Johnson, #12 Maddie Brimhall

3rd Appearance

Last appearance: 2019

0 State Championships

Fergus Falls, making its third state tournament appearance, runs into one of the state’s legendary hockey programs in four-time state champion South St. Paul, which is making its 17th showing in The Tourney.

“I expect us to go out there and skate with them and it could go south on us, you know, if they have these stars that we just can't stop,” Otters head coach Tim Lill said. “But it could be a really good game too. I don’t know what I’m gonna get. I guess that’s why we play.”

The Otters head to St. Paul riding the wave of eighth-grader Maggie Greenagel’s nifty backhanded goal in overtime last Thursday in the 6A title game against River Lakes, a team that has knocked the Otters out of the running the last two seasons.

Lill grew up playing for Fergus Falls and is making his second trip to state in his ninth season as head coach of the Otters. His team is scrappy, creating turnovers and he expects the looseness following that big section win against River Lakes to carry into St. Paul.

“We just go out there and play hard and we take away time and space a little bit and we get some timely goals,” Lill said.

Since a 14-0 win over an inexperienced Detroit Lakes squad to start the season, Fergus Falls’ only losses this season were to Alexandria 3-2, Crookston 4-1, Alexandria 3-0 and Bemidji 3-2. They tied Brainerd/Little Falls on Jan. 13 and have not lost a game since Dec. 17, outscoring opponents 61-16 since that setback.

Senior Maddie Hulter primes the pump for Fergus Falls, notching 29 goals in 26 contests this season. Fellow senior Tyra Skeret has 44 points while junior Hannah Johnson had 31 and Maddie Brimhall, who is just an eighth-grader, has 25.

Again, a goaltending duo helps lead the Otters, similar to the 2019 state tourney squad that featured sophomore Mady Eklund (10-0-0) and senior Jadyn McKeever’s sparkling .951 save percentage against a 9-6-0 record. This season, juniors Lexi Metcalf and Ana Jyrkas both have played 19 games with nearly identical win-loss records, 11-2-1 and 11-2-0, respectively. Jyrkas has a slight edge in goals-against-average 1.22 to Metcalf’s 1.33.

Ranked Wins (Based on Feb. 7 Let’s Play Hockey Rankings): No. 18A Willmar (5-0, Jan. 31)

Ranked Losses: No. 11A Crookston (4-1, Nov. 29)

Ranked Ties: N/A

By Rob Beer

Rob Beer is the digital content manager for Forum Communications. A journalist with Forum Communications since 1991, he is the editor of The Rink Live and helps cover the CCHA. He also assists with other content produced by Forum Communications.