Photo by Jake McNeill Marshall’s Talan Plante takes the puck into the slot during the boys hockey team’s 6-0 win over Windom at Red Baron Arena on Tuesday night.

MARSHALL — Talan Plante’s hat trick and a four-goal explosion in the second period allowed the Marshall boys hockey team to a 6-0 win over Windom in Red Baron Arena Tuesday night. Plante’s trifecta marked his second varsity hat trick, the first coming in the Tigers’ 8-3 win over Morris/Benson Area two weeks ago.

“I trust my teammates a lot but I think I can do a lot myself too. Not trying to be a selfish player, but I’m just trying to find the back of the net,” Plante said. “That hasn’t been against great teams lately but hopefully I can step it up.”

While Plante scored once in the first period, the second was the difference-maker for Marshall. Plante doubled the Marshall lead six minutes into the frame, rocketing an assist from Blake Grimsley past Windom goalie Adam Dahna’s blocker side to take a 2-0 lead. Andrew Seanor nearly made it 3-0 on the ensuing puck drop after taking the puck right down the ice for a fast break before the Windom goalie made a nice pad save to limit the damage.

That damage wasn’t limited for long, however. Plante took another shot from the left side of the net and, while Dahna was able to make the stop, Owen Renslow recovered the rebound on the opposite side of the net and lifted the puck over the goalie’s left leg to make the lead 3-0. Before the lamp was even un-lit from the third goal, Andrew Seanor scored another off an assist from Renslow to give the Tigers a 4-0 lead with seven minutes remaining in the period.

“I think once we got that first one, we just got a little bit of confidence that if we can move the puck and get pucks to the net, we’re going to get some. Once we got one, they were hungry for more,” Marshall head coach Michael Weiss said.

Plante broke the game open for Marshall just three minutes into the first period. He gathered a loose puck and deked his way through a pair of defenders in the slot before sending in the go-ahead shot.

“He’s just a game-changer when he’s out there. Any mistake another team makes, he’s going to capitalize on,” Weiss said. “He plays the game hard and takes advantage of every opportunity he gets.”

The series of converted opportunities came not long after Marshall struggled to capitalize on its chances in the first period. In a span of 66 seconds, Windom was called for a five-minute minor for spearing and a two-minute minor for hooking. Despite having two minutes on the 5-on-3 and another three on the 5-on-4 power play, Marshall struggled to generate scoring opportunities. Windom limited the Tigers to a 1-0 lead after the first frame.

“We just talked about moving the puck more. Everyone wanted to score that first goal… and we’re trying to force pucks to the net when we needed maybe to just settle down and move the puck around a little bit,” Weiss said.

Plante completed the hat trick with six minutes remaining in the third period off an assist from Luke Ehlers. While the Tigers only led Windom 17-14 in shots on goal after Plante’s third, the quality of looks was the difference as Marshall then led 5-0. Another three minutes later, Ehlers found the net himself by taking an assist from Chase Mellenthin left of the slot and firing a shot toward the right side of the net. Dahna deflected the shot with his arm but couldn’t completely turn it away and it found the corner for a 6-0 lead.

Gavin Welsh was perfect in net for the Tigers, saving each of the 21 shots he faced, while Dahna saved 24 of 30 shots for the Eagles. The win gave Welsh his first shutout of the season.

While Marshall never outshot Windom by more than four shots in a single frame, they outshot Windom by at least two shots in each of the three periods.

After dropping each of their last two games to Luverne and New Ulm, Marshall improves to 2-3 on the season with the win over Windom. The Tigers will look to get back to .500 when they host Redwood Valley on Thursday night.

“Wins are always good to come by. You play those tough games last week in hopes that you learned something and improved and we showed we improved a lot in all the areas we talked about, so that was good to see,” Weiss said.