THIEF RIVER FALLS-After missing three straight games due to an injury, Jaimee Nelson gave Thief River Falls a spark in her return to the ice.
The sophomore forward's two goals gave Thief River Falls a 2-0 lead after two periods here Tuesday. That started the Prowlers on their way to a 5-0 win against East Grand Forks Senior High in the semifinals of the Minnesota Section 8A girls high school hockey tournament.
Second-seeded Thief River Falls, the defending section and Minnesota Class A state champion, plays top seed Warroad in the 8A championship game at 7 p.m. here Thursday.
"It was nice to have (Nelson) back,'' TRF coach Whitney Restemayer said. "She's a sparkplug type of kid who gives you a lot of energy. She's in the right place at the right time to get a lot of garbage goals.''
Both Nelson goals were similar, coming from in a crowd and from close range.
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The first gave the Prowlers a 1-0 lead with 7:32 left in the first period. She scored again at the 9:42 mark in the second.
"To go up 2-0, that gave us some momentum,'' Restemayer said. "Our game seemed to really pick up after that.''
The Prowlers broke the game open with goals from Tessa Jorde, Callie Fagerstrom and Kira Johnson in the third. Jorde's goal from between the circles off a pass from Johnson from behind the net gave TRF a 3-0 lead just 65 seconds into the period.
"That third goal was huge,'' Senior High coach Jim Enright said. "When you put up the number of shots we did, it's hard to come back from 3-0. That (shots on goal) has been our downfall all year.''
Mariah Nelson had only seven saves in the shutout win. Green Wave goalie Mckenzie Whalen stopped 41 shots. It marked the third time this season the sophomore goalie had more than 40 saves in a game, two of those coming against the Prowlers.
"Mckenzie has been so solid for us all year, one of the top goaltenders in the state,'' Enright said. "She's kept us in a lot of games. We were in this one up to the third period.''
While Nelson didn't have a lot of saves, "she had a couple of really good ones,'' Restemayer said. "That's hard to do for a goalie when you're not seeing a lot of shots.''
Senior High closed the season with an 11-16-0 record. The Prowlers take a 20-5-1 mark into the 8A final.
