Dodge County outshot Fergus Falls 30-9 on Wednesday afternoon as they won their Class A State Quarterfinal contest by the score of 4-0 at the Xcel Energy Center in St. Paul. The two teams played a scoreless first period, but the Wildcats scored twice in the second to take a 2-0 lead and then added a pair of third period goals to advance to the championship semifinals on Friday against Orono. Orono beat Willmar 4-1 in the opening game of the tournament.
McKenna LaFleur scored from Zoe Heimer at 5:40 of the second period to get the Wildcats on the board. Maysie Koch made it 2-0 at 11:03 with assists from Nora Cartensen and Mollie Koch.
An unassisted tally by Cartensen at 2:06 of the third gave Dodge County a 3-0 advantage, and Cartensen completed the hat trick at 9:41 with assists from Maysie Koch and Heimer.
Ida Huber stopped all 9 Fergus Falls shots she faced, while Ana Jyrkas came up with 26 saves in the Otter net.
Fergus Falls will now face Willmar in a consolation semifinal at noon on Thursday at the Tria Rink. A win for the Otters would put them in the consolation championship game on Saturday at 10:00am. This is the third time the Otters have faced the Cardinals this season. The Otters have lost the first two meetings, 4-3 and 3-2.