There are blowouts, and then there are record setting stunners. While the second variety isn't supposed to happen in the later rounds of the state playoffs, it did on Wednesday night in Minnesota, where a girls hockey team set a state tournament record with nine goals in a single quarter -- and 13 goals in a game -- during a lopsided quarterfinal victory.
As reported by the Minneapolis Star-Tribune, the St. Paul Pioneer Press and a handful of other Minnesota outlets, Warroad (Minn.) High's girls hockey team routed the Detroit Lakes (Minn.) High girls squad 13-1 in a state quarterfinal at the XCel Energy Center on Wednesday night. The Warriors (what else would a team from a terrifically-named town like Warroad be called?) racked up an astonishing state-tournament record nine goals in the second period alone and scored all 13 of their goals in the first two periods of a surprisingly easy victory.
That 13 goal single-team total set a tournament record for most goals in a game by one team, and the game's 14 combined goals also set a state tournament mark.
"It didn't seem like there was a lot of resistance in that second period," Warroad coach David Marvin told the assembled media after the game.
As one might expect, the statistics from the first two period are pretty stunning. Warroad outshot Detroit Lakes by a 50-14 margin across the first 40 minutes. Crunch the numbers and one quickly realizes that Warroad was firing more than a shot per minute in the first two periods. In the record-breaking second period, Warroad was scoring a goal almost every two minutes (you can see the rest of the remarkable statistics on the game's official box score).
In a sport that routinely ends with scorelines of 3-2 or even 2-0, that's an astonishing number … and this was a state quarterfinal.
Despite the gaudy statistics, Marvin insisted that he and his team were not trying to run up the score on a Detroit Lakes squad which was making its state tournament debut.
"You work on offending as few people as possible and staying healthy," Marvin told the media of the third period. "And just wish the period would go away, because it's no fun for anybody."
Incredibly, Detroit Lakes coach Gretchen Norby backed up Marvin's assertion, claiming that Warroad could have easily scored "23, 24" goals based on the number of clean shots they set up.
Luckily for all involved that didn't happen, even if the result was a bit of an eyesore for both Warroad and its overmatched opponent.
"Not to downplay our team, but I think we were realistic going into this game," Norby told the media. "We had done our homework on Warroad. We knew what they had. Really, my hope for these girls is to enjoy this week, take in the experience and play their hearts out."
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