Girls hockey: Orono grinds past Willmar

Feb. 21—ST. PAUL — Willmar and Orono both expected a grind of a game in the Class A girls hockey state quarterfinals. With both teams giving up 1.5 goals per game coming into state, offense was going to come at a premium.

Ultimately, the Spartans' team defense turned into instant offense and helped Orono advance to the state semis with a 4-1 victory Wednesday at the Xcel Energy Center.

"There's no expectation that it's going to be a blowout in any sort of playoff game," said Spartans head coach Paul Antonenko. "They have a very good goaltender (Erin Eilers). She played really well and I thought their team did a really good job getting into the middle of the ice and packing it in front of the net.

"Our girls started moving the puck really well and obviously got some really nice scoring from these girls at the end."

Orono, the No. 2 seed in the tournament, faces No. 3 Dodge County in the semifinals at 11 a.m. Friday back at the Xcel Energy Center. The Wildcats beat unseeded Fergus Falls 4-0.

Willmar is now 0-4 in first-round games at state. The unseeded Cardinals play in the consolation bracket against the Central Lakes Conference rival Otters at noon Thursday at TRIA Rink in St. Paul.

"It was a good, hard-fought, physical game," said Willmar head coach Eric Setrum. "They have a lot of speed. They did a good job getting pucks deep and putting pressure on us. It took us a little bit to get going."

While the Spartans outshot Willmar 39-11, clean shots were tough to come by for the Spartans. That helped Erin Eilers make 35 saves.

"Every single time the puck got to the point the girls pushed them out of the way so I could see it," Eilers said. "It's not just me, it's the defense, too, that helped."

Orono's Anika Fortin added, "They created some tough times in our zone where we had to get (the puck) to our points. We made sure after those first two periods to stay disciplined and play our positions a little better because they created some opportunities. We got it together at the end."

The Spartans created their two goals off the play of the forecheck. The first came from Maddy Kimbrel at 8 minutes, 38 seconds of the first period. She took the puck at neutral ice and fired off a shot from the high slot into the net.

Zoe Lopez, a Minnesota State-Mankato recruit, converted another turnover, this time in the Cardinals' defensive zone, into another unassisted goal with 25 seconds before the first intermission.

"We adjusted extremely well," Lopez said of the Spartans' forecheck. "We may have not started off on the right foot that we wanted to originally but eventually we got on our game and really started hammering down on the puck and closing time and space, which was our goal in the beginning."

Orono's speed on the defensive end gave the Cardinals fits. The Spartans used their team speed to close up the Cardinals' rushes or push them to the boards. Even having the player advantage didn't help as Willmar went 0-for-3 on the power play.

"We were talking about quick shifts on the bench so we could get fresh legs out," Kimbrel said. "We're all extremely fast and we all play with high speed. We knew if we'd take quicker shifts that we'd eventually tire them out."

Willmar nearly made it a one-goal game with 15:41 left when a shot beat Orono goalie Vivienne Anderson, only to go off a pipe. Orono pushed the puck ahead and scored 22 seconds later on a shot by Anika Fortin to make it 3-0. The Spartans tacked on an empty-net goal by Grace Bickett with 31 seconds left.

"We wanted to try and turn the tables a little bit and put pressure on them, get some pucks deep and get after their goaltender a little bit," Setrum said. "We hit a pipe and had a couple close chances.

"That's kind of the difference in games like this. If you can get one of those bounces to go in instead of hitting the pipe, it definitely would have changed the momentum for us."

After being forced away from the net all game, Lauren Eilers skated past a pair of Spartan defenders along the boards. She worked her way in front of Johnson and beat the freshman goalie with a backhand for her team-leading 16th goal. Avery Olson was credited with an assist.

"I saw an opening and took the opening that was in front of me," Lauren Eilers said.

Now in the consolation bracket, Willmar is hoping that an air of familiarity will result in a win or two at state. The Cardinals beat the Otters twice in the regular season, 4-3 on Dec. 21 and 3-2 on Jan. 16.

"There are some teams we have played that we'll play again," Lauren Eilers said. "And knowing we played them and how they work, we can do what we did in the regular season."

Erin Eilers chimed in, "We're just going to bring the same energy we brought to the section final game into this (next) game."