FARGO — After struggling to bury opportunities in Thursday's quarterfinal, Fargo Davies got its offense rolling early on Friday.
There was no stopping the high-flying Eagles, who scored early and often in their 6-0 rout of West Fargo Sheyenne in the North Dakota boys hockey state tournament semifinals.
Barron Stibbe scored four goals for the Eagles, who earned a spot in Saturday's state championship game.
"It was a great team win all around," Stibbe said. "Obviously we scored six goals, so it was good offensively, as well as defensively. And Trent quietly had a really big shutout for us."
Davies senior goalie Trent Wiemken tallied 20 saves as he posted his 10th shutout of the season at Scheels Arena. Friday's semifinal marked the third time the Mustangs were kept off the board all year.
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"They've been hot," Stibbe said of Sheyenne. "They made the semifinal, they surprised some people. But we held them off. We played a really solid game up front and then on the back end with our D and our goalie."
Sheyenne, which lost to Davies (23-3) for the third time, will play for third place at about 1:15 p.m. Saturday.
Unable to find the back of the net until the third period the day before, the Eagles scored 1 minute, 37 seconds into their semifinal game. Stibbe broke the game open with a one-timer from outside the crease off a Cam Bullinger pass.
Davies found its rhythm early as it jumped out to a 3-0 lead after the first 17 minutes. Stibbe and Jackson Archbold added two late first-period goals. Stibbe went bar down off a cross-ice pass from Archbold at the 14:43 mark. Senior forward Archbold put the puck through Sheyenne goalie Peyton Buchholz's five-hole just over two minutes later.
The Mustangs got their first solid opportunity of the game halfway through the first period when Jayden Rogen hit the post from close range.
"I think the one we got early really got us rolling for the whole game," Stibbe said. "It was really good to have that big first period we did, and that kept us going the whole game."
The Eagles overwhelmed Sheyenne (13-13) with an aggressive forecheck that generated 40 shots.
Stibbe recorded a hat trick 1:36 into the second period after Garrett Winjum set him up on a 2-on-1. Winjum, who had four assists, set up another goal less than 10 minutes later when he sent a pass to Archbold, who went top shelf from close range to give Davies a 5-0 lead that would stick until the final frame.
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The Mustangs, who struggled to get much of anything going offensively, had a shorthanded opportunity late in the period on a Charlie Leshovsky one-timer from close range that Wiemken caught with his glove.
Stibbe scored the sixth and final unanswered goal for Davies 59 seconds into the period after he won a faceoff, kept it for himself and put the puck straight through Buchholz's five-hole. The Mustangs managed just four shots on net in the third period, which got chippy down the stretch. The teams went to the penalty box a combined six times in the final half of the frame.
The offensive output was key for Davies, which had scored a total of five goals in its last three games entering Friday.
"It's huge going into tomorrow night," Stibbe said. "We've shown that we're capable of scoring some goals and hopefully we can bring that into tomorrow night."
FIRST PERIOD: 1, FD, Stibbe (Bullinger), 1:37. 2, FD, Stibbe (Winjum, Archbold), 14:43. 3, FD, Archbold (Winjum), 16:58.
SECOND PERIOD: 4, FD, Stibbe (Winjum), 1:36. 5, Archbold (Winjum, Stibbe), 11:19.
THIRD PERIOD: 6, Stibbe (Kiland), 0:59.
SAVES: FD, Wiemken 7-9-4—20. WFS, Buchholz 13-18-10—41.
