Photo by Kim Nelson Marshall forward Peyton DeMuth skates with the puck around Luverne’s Paula Martinez during the Tigers’ game against the Cardinals at Red Baron Arena on Tuesday night.

MARSHALL — In a game between two of the perennial contenders in the Big South Conference, the Marshall Tigers hosted the Luverne Cardinals in an early season Conference matchup. Marshall is coming off two wins over the weekend at the Marshall Thanksgiving Classic Tournament, and they were looking to add to that momentum. Marshall comes into the game with a 3-3 record, while Luverne is at 2-3. Both teams are young, with Marshall having four Seniors on the roster, while Luverne only has one Senior and two Juniors.

Both teams started off with some quick shots, with Tiger freshman goalie Lily Stelter making a couple of early saves, and Cardinal goalie sophomore Emma Saarloos turning away several close-in shots.

It was end to end skating for the first six minutes, but then Cardinal senior Anika Boll took a pass from Hannah Woodley and buried the first goal of the game. Paula Martinez also had an assist on the play. Just a little over two minutes later, Boll scored again, with an assist from Payton Behr. Marshall had a couple of good scoring chances late in the period, but they were turned away by Saarloos. Stelter made a great save on a close-in shot to keep the score at 2-0, which is how the first period ended. Each team had six shots on goal in the period.

The second period saw Marshall keeping the puck in their end early in the second period, and they were able to draw a tripping penalty just 1:12 into the period. But they were unable to capitalize on the power play, getting just one shot on goal. With 3:53 gone, Tenly Behr took a long pass from Paula Martinez and broke in alone to score the third goal of the game, giving Luverne a 3-0 lead. Shortly after that, Stelter made a great glove save to keep Marshall in it, and two minutes later, Marshall was able to break through on a goal by Abby Foley, with an assist from Lily Verkinderen. That made the score 3-1, and the Tigers were back in the game. Luverne drew a tripping penalty, and a minute into the power play, Luverne was assessed an interference penalty. Neither team was able to score on the power play, and the second period ended with Luverne on top 3-1. Marshall had four shots on goal, while Luverne had five.

The third period started fast, with both teams getting some good shots early. Marshall had a couple of close-in chances, but Saarloos was able to turn them away. Luverne carried the puck into the Marshall zone, and on a scramble in front of the net, Payton Behr was able to blast a shot past Stelter at the 4:36 mark, giving Luverne a 4-1 lead. Marshall peppered the net with eight shots on goal, but Saarloos was up to the task, stopping all eight shots. That made the final score 4-1, in favor of the Cardinals.

Emma Saarloos had 17 saves on the night, and Lily Stelter ended up with 16 saves. After the game, Marshall Head Coach Cassi Weiss said of her team, “We didn’t do a great job of getting out to the point, so they were able to get off some good shots. Our first line has worked well together. They really clicked last year, and they are doing it again this year. We really struggled with our power play last year, and I thought that tonight we had our best performance of the season on the power play. We got some good zone time, we just weren’t able to get the puck in the net. Lily Stelter has come a long way, in only her sixth varsity game. She is really starting to figure it out, and she has made some great saves to keep us in the game. Last week, she made a huge save, when we were hanging on to a 2-1 lead, and we were able to score shortly after that. She has been a staple in our defensive zone, and she deserves a ton of recognition. We are really proud of how she has played so far this year. I think we all know that this was not our best performance. We know we can play better, so we will just keep working and hope to put together a good game against New Ulm.”