“I think it went really well. We played really good as a team,” Allen said. “We’ve been struggling with that recently, but we really came out tonight and played hard.”

Consistent offensive pressure and a cohesive defensive effort served the Tigers well in the win, who didn’t let up on either end of the rink throughout the night. Marshall held possession for a majority of the game, and eventually forced running clock in the final period.

Allen and Kopitski each finished with a trio of goals, while Easton Jiskoot finished with a team-high three assists. Allen also had a pair of assists to finish the game with 5 points.

Junior Kirby Meulebroeck spent the night in the net for the Tigers, finishing with a .900 save percentage with nine saves.

Marshall's Jacob Allen (front) cheers after scoring a goal in the second period Thursday night.

The Tigers dominated by outshooting the Trojans 53-10.

Winning two of its last three, Marshall is looking to build up some momentum to end the regular season with two games remaining before approaching playoffs. The Tigers also defeated Redwood Valley 4-1 last Thursday.

The Tigers and Trojans met once over the regular season on Jan. 12, where Marshall cruised to a 7-3 win behind, similarly, a five-goal second period. Six different players scored in the matchup, led by Allen’s two.

Marshall got right to action in the game’s first minute, with Allen taking the puck 1-on-1 with Worthington’s goalie on the Tigers’ second offensive possession and scoring 34 seconds in unassisted.

The Tigers’ defense shined as much as its offensive control did in the opening period to help set the early tone. Particularly, Marshall made it a habit to get the rebound off of missed shots to keep possession and pass out to set back up.

The Marshall boys hockey team cheers after the Tigers scored a goal in the second period Thursday night against Worthington in a Big South Conference game. 

“They [the defense] kept us in that one,” Allen said. “They [Worthington] didn’t have very many shots, but they [Marshall’s defense] made sure that happened. They made sure they only got one goal.”

Nate Drown put Marshall up 2-0 in the seventh minute while on a power play, also scoring unassisted, after getting the puck back a few feet off to the right of the goal and hooking the puck around the goalie into the back left of the net.

Marshall had several good looks and close calls the remainder of the first period, especially rattling off a handful of back-to-back shots in the final minute that Worthington goalie Tyson Petersen saved.

The Tigers outshot the Trojans 16-3 in the first.

Kopitski got the hot hand and scored three goals to help Marshall take care of business in a five-goal second period to pull away to a 7-0 lead heading into the final period.

“It feels great [seeing teammates score],” Allen said. “Whenever you score, you’re always just bonding with your teammates. It’s always fun to celebrate with everyone.”

Marshall again kept the puck in its control with a tenacious defensive effort of rebounding shots.

Allen scored in the second minute with a feed from Jiskoot to get the Tigers’ surge going in the second period.

Kopitski scored next at the 8:10 mark for his first goal of the night, again with another good look coming from Jiskoot after taking the puck on defense.

“We knew we were up a little bit, and we got different guys down [toward the goal], and we know we had to get a couple of guys some goals,” Allen said of Marshall’s selfless play. “We were just passing around really well today.”

After Bryce Becker got in on the action and finished a play to give Marshall a 5-0 edge, Kopitski put away back-to-back goals to secure his hat trick performance.

Allen assisted on both of Koptiski’s goals, as did Jiskoot on the latter of the two.

“We [Allen and Kopitski] were really just clicking today,” Allen said. “We knew where each other were every time, moving the puck around well, and got us three goals each.”

Marshall finished the night off strong, not letting go sight of its lead, while Allen finished his hat trick in the fifth minute of the third period with another unassisted goal to put the Tigers ahead 8-0.

Worthington scored in the final 10 seconds, but Marshall was notably quick to cheer on and uplift Meulebroeck for the strong performance and his second varsity win. His first win came against Redwood Valley last week.

Meulebroeck stepped up in both games to help give Marshall’s starting goalie senior McCoy Guenther a night off prior to the postseason.

Thursday was also the first of a three-game back-to-back stretch for Marshall to end the regular season.

The Tigers (7-16) will stay at the Red Baron Arena to host Hutchinson (2-19) today at 7 p.m., before welcoming in Waseca on Saturday with a 1 p.m. puck drop.

“This was a really good game to kick off this last weekend,” Allen said. “Hopefully we can play as well as we did today, tomorrow, and hopefully come out on top, and then bring it into Saturday, too.”

Following Saturday, Marshall will await seeding for the Section 3A Tournament to be released shortly after.