WHITE BEAR LAKE, Minn. — The post-season is underway in Minnesota for girls high school hockey. Section tournaments have started, which means that it's a win or go home situation for any team in the state.
In section 4AA, there are nine teams instead of the typical eight, so there was a play-in of seeds eight and nine to determine who would advance to the section quarterfinal against one seed Gentry Academy.
White Bear Lake and Mahtomedi just so happened to be those two teams, so they had a big match-up on Thursday to find out who would play on in the section tournament.
White Bear Lake would claim the No. 8 seed, so the game was played on their home ice. The Bears were 5-19 on the season while the Zephyrs were 3-21 coming into the game. Mahtomedi and White Bear Lake played each other for their first games of the season back on Nov. 11, which resulted in a Bears win, 4-1.
The 7-3 win for White Bear Lake started off with a bang. Freshman Amanda Smythe found the back of the net about five minutes in, and then 8 seconds later on the faceoff, freshman teammate Tally Domschot scored to put the team up 2-0.
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Mahtomedi was able to put together a quick response though, with a nice glove-side snipe from freshman Rylee Bogren to put the Zephyrs on the board. Quickly after, they would score again on the power play, this time from senior Karen Miller.
Things were tied up 2-2 after the first 20 minutes. The second period was mostly dominated by the Bears, but they could only tally a single goal in the second, again from Domschot.
Things started to get a little carried away in the third period. A few minutes in, sophomore Hailey Dawe of White Bear Lake scored from the front of the net, and then a couple minutes later scored again off a beautiful breakaway. After this, the Zephyrs would pull their goalie to try and create some last chance offense. Instead, the Bears would score two empty net goals, one from sophomore Ava Johnson, and the other completed the hat-trick for Domschot.
The Zephyrs goaltender is an eighth grader Kaitlyn Galeazzi, and while she may only be in middle school, she stopped 45 of 50 shots on goal.
White Bear Lake (now 6-19) will advance to the section 4AA quarterfinal as the No. 8 seed and will play No. 1-seeded Gentry Academy (19-3) on Saturday at 1:30 p.m. at TCO Sports Garden. The winner of that game will take on Roseville or East Ridge on Tuesday in the semifinal, with the section championships next Thursday at 7 p.m. at Aldrich Arena.
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