The Tigers took a 4-0 lead in the opening period with goals from Eme DeMuth, Peyton DeMuth and two from Brooklyn Mauch and performed just as well on the defensive end throughout the night. Marshall outshot the Cardinals 45-13.

“Our defense is amazing. Like I am just so lucky to have the best defense ever. They’re always moving their feet,” Stelter said. “Even when they do, the rare times they do let pucks get behind, they’re always hustling as hard as they can to back check, and they’re just so confident with the puck and really know how to move it.”

Stelter finished the night with 13 saves while Mauch led the Tigers with 3 points between a pair of goals and an assist. Peyton and Eme DeMuth both had a goal and an assist.

“​​Certainly we know when we play Marshall, that we’re going to spend time in the defensive zone, and we have to be disciplined and structurally sound,” Fairmont head coach Aaron Haycraft said. “Marshall is a tremendously fast team and physical team, and we know that. They’re really well coached, they play fast, and we knew we had to start winning pucks below the goal line, and I thought we did that way better the second and third period. I’m proud of our effort all game.”

Marshall's Abbey Foley moves the puck up the ice in the second period against Fairmont Thursday night.

The Tigers also defeated the Cardinals earlier in the season 7-1 on Nov. 20, completing its regular season sweep over Fairmont.

“As the season has continued, we’re playing a lot of really good teams, and we’ve got some really good teams coming up that we got to play as well, sure that the ultimate goal is to get back to that state tournament,” Marshall assistant coach Derek Smith said. “It’s every day, continuing to just get better and get better, because teams are not going to get worse that we’re playing. We got to make sure that we’re ready, and be at our peak when the time matters, when sections come.”

Fairmont had two close looks to score a goal in the first two minutes of the game, with Stelter promptly showing up for another strong performance with blocks on both shots.

At the 5:11 mark, Eme DeMuth got the Tigers on the board first with a goal unassisted.

Marshall’s speed made an early difference maker in keeping control of the pace of the game, making a habit to interrupt the Cardinal’s offense and beating them to the puck.

Marshall's Brooklyn Mauch (15) and Eme DeMuth (27) go to hug Lucie Pearson after scoring a goal in the second period against Fairmont Thursday.

“Against a lot or most teams, you can definitely tell like we’re so much faster than a lot of teams,” Stelter said. “We’re so lucky to have a lot of really fast girls, and we really just try to use that to our advantage and just try to make the best of it.”

After Marshall kept possession and had a few back-to-back shot attempts, Mauch scored on a power play at 11:51 with an assist from Abbey Foley and Peyton DeMuth. Fairmont’s Carly Gustafson was called for a minor tripping penalty.

Fairmont’s Halyn Haycraft nearly had an immediate response to get the Cardinals on the board, but Stelter came up with the save again just as Peyton DeMuth scored in return a minute and a half later, assisted by Mauch, to give the Tigers a 3-0 edge.

Marshall scored its last three goals of the first period in the span of two minutes, as Mauch scored her second with a feed from Ava Kolander skating up the left side of the goal to send the puck into the back right for the Tigers’ 4-0 lead.

“We know everything about Marshall and what they are all about. We’re very confident with how they’re going to play … They’re really fast and they move the puck really well, so that’s not a surprise to us and it’s a compliment to them,” coach Haycraft said. “We have to be really disciplined. Our effort was there the whole time. It’s just that first period, we had way too many breakdowns.”

Marshall's Brooklyn Mauch breaks through a pair of defenders in the second period against Fairmont.

Marshall outshot Fairmont 21-5 in the first.

Marshall controlled a majority of the possession time in the second period, although Fairmont honed in on its defense more aggressively by disrupting the passing lanes, limiting the Tigers to one goal and less shot attempts.

Yet, in the 11th minute, Eme DeMuth found an open Lucie Pearson after stealing the puck back in Fairmont territory who found the back of the net for a 5-0 Marshall lead.

Marshall kept its foot on the gas the rest of the way on both ends of the rink, withholding Fairmont’s offensive looks and completing the shutout.

Stellar Stelter saving

Stelter, recently reached a milestone of 50 career wins in the net in Saturday’s win over Minnesota River where she finished the game with 20 saves.

Following Thursday’s win over Fairmont, Stelter has 315 saves on 340 shots faced for a .926 save percentage along with her five shutouts.

“It was cool finding that out. It’s been really special and really fun to be able to be a big part of this team. Like in my freshman year and in my eighth grade year, I really didn’t think I would get much playing time until around this year,” Stelter said. “So, now I’m really happy that I’m able to help this team out. It’s a really special team to be a part of and it’s really fun.”

Tigers back on track

With five games left in the regular season, Marshall has been working its way back up after dropping three straight games against other ranked opponents in late December, all by one goal with two in overtime.

Since then, Marshall hasn’t dropped a game and got its revenge win over conference rival Minnesota River 5-3 on the road Saturday. Mauch led with 5 points between three goals and two assists, and Peyton DeMuth had a pair of goals in the win. The Bulldogs defeated the Tigers on Dec. 20 on an overtime power play.

“First off, that Minnesota River team, that’s a very good team. And honestly, over the last couple years, we’ve kind of been developing this nice little rivalry with them … The compete level that they bring every single game, I know forces us to a higher standard when we play them and we can’t take a period off,” Smith said. “We had a really, really good first period against them down in Minnesota River … There was a little extra motivation to that one.”

Marshall had a big jump in this week’s state ranking coaches polls as well from 11th up to No. 7. Prior to Thursday, three of the Tigers’ four consecutive wins came on the road and two were shutouts.

“Like last month, we felt like we were in a little bit of a slump, but honestly, we were just playing lots of really intense and really high-skilled teams. This month going in, we have a lot of time to work on our skills like speed and conditioning during practice,” Stelter said. “We’ve definitely been trying to take advantage of that, and even this week and these past few days, we’ve been grinding on the ice having lots of fun.”

Looking ahead

Marshall moves to 16-4 overall on the season, and has two remaining home games before the postseason begins. The Tigers will host South Central on Jan. 16 and New Ulm on Jan. 22, where Marshall will also recognize their senior duo in Avery Kesteloot and Foley.

Marshall will next look to get its stride going when it hits the road to Willmar (4-11-1) today with a 5 p.m. puck drop.

“The girls are working incredibly hard, as you can imagine watching them play. They don’t hold much back there. We’ve got a super special group of girls, and are continuing just to improve on the areas that we need to work on. [Also], making sure that those areas that we are good at [like] our speed, and utilizing those strengths that we have,” Smith said. “In these games that we might get up four or five, we don’t [want to] create those bad habits, so for when the time comes and the games do start to matter and playoffs, we’re ready to go.”