Three-day varsity girls' hockey state tournament set to run Friday through Sunday

The Watertown Lakers' varsity girls hockey team gets its turn this weekend to play in Watertown's new $36 million Prairie Lakes Ice Arena and the stakes are high.

The Lakers are the host team for the South Dakota Amateur Hockey Association's varsity girls state tournament that will be played Friday through Sunday on the Premier Rink in the new state-of-the-art facility.

"It's an amazing place. Everybody is excited about it," said Watertown girls head coach Curt Kranz. "Hosting the state tourament in the new arena is going to be fun. They've put together a committee and have a lot of things planned. It should be a real good state tournament this year.:"

The Prairie Lakes Ice Arena opened for business last week and the Watertown Laker varsity boys' team hosted two regular-season games on Friday and Saturday. The girls have been practicing in the building since last week, but won't make their live game debut until the state tourney.

This weekend, a state championship will be on the line.

Here's what you need to know about the state tourney:

Tournament Pairings/Schedule

The tourney opens at 9 a.m. Friday with the third-seeded Mitchell Marlins (9-4-1 in SDAHA play this winter) taking on the sixth-seeded Rushmore Thunder (4-10). The second-seeded Aberdeen Cougars (11-3) meet seventh-seeded Sioux Center (Iowa) Storm (3-11) at 11:30 a.m., followed by the fourth-seeded Oahe Capitals (8-5-1) taking on the fifth-seeded Brookings Rangers (7-7) at 2 p.m. and the top-seeded Sioux Falls Flyers (13-1) against the eighth-seeded Watertown Lakers (0-14).

Saturday's games include consolation semifinals at 11:30 a.m. and 2 p.m. and semifinals at 4:30 p.m. and 7 p.m.

The tourney concludes Sunday with the consolation championship at 9 a.m., third-place game at noon and championship at 3 p.m.

Who are the teams to beat?

Sioux Falls and Aberdeen have performed the best throughout the regular season and seem to have the upper hand, but Kranz sees a tournament that is more balanced than in years past.

Aberdeen was top-seeded and 15-1 a year agao and Sioux Falls 13-2 and the No. 2 seed before the No. 3 Brookings Rangers (13-3) won the tourney by taking down Sioux Falls 5-1 in the semifinals and avenging two regular-season losses to Aberdeen with a 2-0 win in the finals.

Sioux Falls and Aberdeen split two regular-season matchups, including 2-1 in the season finale that gave Sioux Falls the top seed in the tourney. Most of the tournament teams have had close games against higher-seeded teams.

"I can't tell you that I would put money down on any team. Anybody can have a bad game," said Kranz. "In the past few years, there always seemed to be a dominant team but I honestly don't think any team was oustandingly dominant this year."

What about the host team?

The Lakers have gone 0-2 in each of the past two state tournaments and haven't won a first-round game since 2014, the last time Watertown hosted the tourney. The Lakers advanced to the finals before losing to Sioux Falls 4-3 that year in the Maas Ice Arena.

The odds, at least based on regular-season records, don't look good for the Lakers but also don't show the improvement a young Watertown team has made throughout the season. The squad features only three seniors (forward Kaelyn Melville, defender Rylie Redlin and goalie Angelyn Birnell) who are set to close out their Laker careers this weekend.

Last winter, the Lakers were outscored 101-41 during the regular season. This year, the number is down to 60-21. Included are 6-1 and 4-1 losses to Sioux Falls early in the season.

"We've had a lot of games this year where we were in it before getting tired in the third period and falling apart," Kranz said.

More: Laker squads could close out their seasons in the new $36M Prairie Lakes Ice Arena

More younger players have gained experience throughout the year and that has helped Kranz gain more confidence in throwing out a third line.

"People need to remember that the only two games we won last year were against Huron and that probably 60-to-70 percent of our games featured run time (six goals ore more deficit)," he said. "I think we only had a couple of games this year that were really bad games. There's a lot of good teams out there and we've had some back and forth games with some of them."

Offensive leaders for the Lakers include freshman Harper Hendricks (eight goals, six assists), junior Janel Lloyd (5-4) and eighth-grader Emma Schlesner (5-3). Junior Rachel Skott has also provided leadership for a young defensive unit.

Birnell has made 228 saves with a 4.25 goals-against average per game. Sophomore Kira Reppe has also spent plenty of time in the net, recording 199 saves with 4.16 goals-against average. Kranz said Reppe will start on Friday and Birnell, the senior, will start the remaining game or games.

The goal for Watertown is getting an opportunity to play on Sunday and that'll take at least one win over the first two days.

"That definitely would be a good goal for us," Kranz said. "We'll take it one game at a time with Sioux Falls first and see what happens."

Other Players to Watch

Sioux Falls has outscored league foes by a 79-16 margin and Aberdeen 65-16. Things balance out after that with Mitchell (59-43), Oahe (48-51), Brookings (37-48), Rushmore (39-61) and Sioux Center (28-81).

Leaders for the Flyers include Rylan Peska and Zoe Gorra (10 goals, 17 assists each) and Ragyn Peska (17 goals, 3 assists). Goalie Sydney Fornwald has alloved only 1.13 goals per game go to with 199 saves.

The Cougars also have a balanced offensive attack led by senior Kailyn Poppen (9 goals, 12 assists), sophomore Rachel Siefken (11-13) and junior Alyssa Roehrich (12-8). Sophomore Chloe Vikander has 199 saves while allowing 1.13 goals per game.

Mitchell features the league's top scorer in sophomore Brynlee Sabers (31 goals, 10 assists). Sophomore Makenna Tronnes recorded 10 goals and eight assists with senior goalie Eva Ramm (349 saves, 3.03 goals-against average).

Leading any hopes of a repeat for a young Brookings team are freshmen Sawyer Triplett (12 goals, 3 assists) and Kinzey Grendler (10-5). Sophomore Rorii Quam sits between the pipes with 311 saves and 3.46 goals-against average.

Other players to watch are junior Brylee Kafka (23 goals, 4 assists) and junior Sophia Peschong (271 saves) for Oahe; Evan Woods (5 goals, 7 assists), Lillie Hoffman (7 goals, 5 assists) and Claire Larson (350) saves for Rushmore; and senior Antonia Stevens (5 goals, 2 assists) and sophomore Victoria Pendegrass (401 saves) for Sioux Center.

Follow Watertown Public Opinion sports reporter Roger Merriam on X (formerly known as Twitter) @PO_Sports or email: rmerriam@thepublicopinion.com

This article originally appeared on Watertown Public Opinion: Eight-team varsity girls' state hockey tourney to be held in Watertown