“You can’t spot a good team four goals in the first period and win,” said Fergus Falls Head Coach Tim Lill.

Madison Garberding scored from Mya Monson at 3:32 of the opening period to give the Cardinals the early lead.  An unassisted shorthanded goal by Bailey Olson at 11:27 made it 2-0 for the home team.  The cardinals took a 3-0 lead when Tanna Christensen scored from Chloe Lownsbury at 13:04 and a Monson goal from Nisa Dawson and Garberding at 16:49 made it 4-0 after one period.

Maddie Hulter scored from Jade Zierden at 3:17 of the second period to get the Otters on the board, however, an unassisted tally by Olson put the Cardinals back on top by four goals at 3:33. Hulter’s second goal of the night made it 5-2 with Chloe Nelson gaining an assist and a Piper Andrews goal at 13:20, assisted by Lexi McGary made it 5-3.

The Otters cut the lead to 5-4 at 3:12 of the third when Nelson scored from Zierden and Ellie Andersen, but Willmar got an empty net goal with four seconds left from Monson to end the scoring.  Dawson and Christensen assisted on the final goal of the night.

Fergus Falls put 31 shots on the Willmar net and the Cardinals had 25 shots on goal.  Ana Jyrkas played the final two periods in goal for the Otters, stopping 9 of 10 shots on goal.