Girls hockey: Marshall shuts down Worthington, 6-0

The Trojans were never in control of the game and were rarely in control of the puck. Worthington was outshot 44 to 14, as the team could not find a way to consistently generate offense or keep Marshall out of its zone.

Marshall opened the game with a flurry of high-quality shots on goal, which Trojan goalkeeper Bailey Kruse made a heroic effort to stop. But with 12:22 to go in the first period, Mauch scored her first goal, finding herself wide open in transition after a perfect pass from Chantel Peralta.

The Tigers only allowed one goal in the first period, but things certainly would have been much worse if not for 16 saves from Kruse.

Worthington’s offense showed some life and the home crowd got noisy with less than three minutes left, when the Trojans barely missed multiple point-blank shots against Marshall keeper Emma Klenken.

“I do give credit to the girls. In the first period, they kept Marshall running,” said coach Chad Nickel. “I think they caught them off guard, but it wasn’t enough to take it home.”

The first period was the best period for the Trojans, Nickel said. And indeed, in the second period, Marshall’s many close-range shots started to find their way into the net.

With 42 seconds gone in the second, Mauch deked two defenders and struck again, this time unassisted.

Marshall’s Rachel VanKeulen scored with 13:50 remaining, followed by Amaya Strivens with 1:18 left.

Trojan defenders often found themselves out of position and lunging toward their Marshall forwards, who passed, skated and dribbled with a significantly higher level of precision on the night.

“Our girls showed up for part of the game but didn’t bring it all for the whole game,” Nickel said. “It wasn’t the full game I expected.”

When Worthington launched an offensive and failed, the Marshall counterattack was often deadly, as the Trojans did not have enough defenders in position.

Penalties were an issue, too. The Trojans committed six penalties to Marshall’s one.

After a slashing call on Worthington, Mauch secured her hat-trick on the power play with 11:05 left in the third. With 5:45 remaining and on another power play, Marshall’s Olivia Peterson made it 6-0.

At that point, Kruse was replaced by Kaylee Bents. However, Kruse ended her night with 37 saves and stopped, for the most part, an onslaught of close-range attempts and one-on-one chances. She even made a few diving stops when Marshall players found themselves open on the weak side.

“She did do a good job,” Nickel said. “I’ve got to give it to her, she sees a lot of shots.”

Marshall continued its tradition of being Worthington’s demon. When the two teams last met, Marshall won 8-0.

“I will say we improved on the fact that we allowed less goals this game than when we saw them earlier this season,” Nickel said.

Still, Nickel had some positives coming out of the loss.

“They‘re starting to pick up and and read the defensive end, they’re moving in and out more fluently than they have in the past,” he said.

Worthington has won four games this year. Next up, they’ll travel to Fairmont for a Thursday away game.