Team South Dakota had to win its game on Friday to reach the quarterfinals on Saturday and get a little bit of help. The win and help have now propelled them to the National Championship game on Sunday in Sioux Falls at the Tier II 14U Girls National Tournament.
Oahe’s Ava Lavinger and Team South Dakota will be playing for a championship on Sunday after two wild games on Saturday. In the quarterfinals, Team South Dakota would blow a 3-0, comeback from a 4-3 deficit to lead 5-4, then have to win in a shootout 6-5 over Team North Dakota. Team SD took a 3-0 lead in the first period with goals from three Sioux Falls girls, Lily Gorra, Emma Honner and Aniston Murray. However, North Dakota pulled within one after two periods making it a 3-2 game and eventually taking a 4-3 lead not even four minutes into the third. Team SD answered with two goals from Murray reaching a hat trick to now lead 5-4. But with five minutes remaining it would be North Dakota tying the game back up on the power play and forcing overtime where nobody would score sending the game into a shootout.
In the shootout, North Dakota would miss first and then Brookings’ Sawyer Triplett would miss. South Dakota goalie Moriah Lincoln would make the save on the second shot as Honner came in and scored on South Dakota’s second shot. Lincoln would make a save on the third shot attempt from North Dakota sealing the win and beating the top seed in the quarterfinals to reach Saturday night’s semifinal.
In the Saturday night game, a three goal second period from Team SD would be the difference in a 3-1 win over South Pittsburgh Rebellion. Brookings’ Ashton Otteson and Triplett each would score, but Sioux Falls’ Juliana Chan would net the game winner making it 2-0 at the time and Team South Dakota finds itself from almost missing the quarterfinals to playing for a National Championship on Sunday.
South Dakota faces the Vegas Jr. Golden Knights who beat them 1-0 on Wednesday in the first game of the tournament, for the championship today. Puck drop is at 11:15 from the Scheels Iceplex in Sioux Falls.
