Blue Jays top Bruins in quarterfinals

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GRAND FORKS — The Jamestown girls hockey team accomplished two things it never had done before on Thursday.

The Blue Jays scored their first-ever win in the quarterfinals of the North Dakota state tournament by defeating Fargo South-Davies 4-2 at Olympic Arena. The victory was Jamestown’s first over the Bruins in team history.

Jamestown (18-6-0) advances to play West Fargo at noon today in the semifinals at Ralph Engelstad Arena.

“I don’t even have the words to explain it,” Jamestown senior defenseman Amber Schaack said. “We are so excited. We have never beaten (South-Davies) before, so beating them and playing West Fargo in the semifinals just adds to it.”

Schaack scored a goal 3 minutes, 27 seconds into the second period that gave Jamestown an early 2-0 lead. It was her 40th goal of the season.

Sophomore forward Torri Kamlitz scored the Blue Jays’ first goal with 2:07 left in the first period. Kamlitz also scored an empty-net goal in the third period.

Senior Steph Kamlitz scored a power-play goal for Jamestown with 39 seconds left in the second period, which restored the Blue Jays’ two-goal lead after Bruins freshman forward Alex Woken scored midway through the second.

West Fargo fights off Williston to reach semifinals

Thursday was nothing like the previous two meetings between West Fargo and Williston, but when the final buzzer sounded, the Packers had earned a win.

West Fargo defeated Williston 4-0 in the quarterfinals of the North Dakota state girls hockey tournament.

The No. 1-seeded Packers (22-1-0) had posted two 10-0 victories over the eighth-seeded Coyotes in the regular season, but on Thursday, West Fargo clung to a 1-0 lead heading into the third period.

Hayley Walsh, Kelly Krahn and Maddy Nelson each scored goals for the Packers in the third period to seal the win.

“We didn’t come out and play the way we wanted to,” West Fargo head coach Pat Johnson said. “Hats off to (Williston). They came out and showed they can play with the teams here and they did. … We got a couple good goals in the third period that broke it open, but we took too many penalties.”

KnightRiders pick up win against Fargo North

After getting called for an early penalty on Thursday, Grand Forks would have been happy just to kill the minor infraction and try to regroup.

Instead, senior center Nicole Novak made a move and scored a short-handed goal. Novak’s opening score set the course for the KnightRiders’ 4-1 win over Fargo North.

Grand Forks, the No. 2 seed and state runners-up a year ago, advances to the today’s semifinal round at Ralph Engelstad Arena where it will play Bismarck. The game will begin 30 minutes following the noon semifinal game between West Fargo and Jamestown.

Bismarck uses 3 1st-period goals to blank Minot

Abby Beehler, Lauren Bischof and Haleigh Springan all scored first-period goals for Bismarck, which helped the Blizzard to a 3-0 win over Minot in the quarterfinals.

The three goals were scored in the span of 2:24.

“We got those three quick goals and played a little conservative not taking chances with passes up the middle,” Bismarck Century head coach Annie Cashman said. “Maybe we took our foot off the gas, but they didn’t score a goal and that is huge in the first round of the state tournament.”

Bismarck advances to today’s semifinal round to play Grand Forks. The game will begin 30 minutes following the noon semifinals game. It is the first time No. 3-seeded Bismarck (17-7-0) has advanced to the semifinals since 2009.

Tags: high school hockey, north dakota state hockey tournament, sports, hockey, preps