For the third straight year Fargo North got the best of Jamestown in the quarterfinals.
It was far from effortless, but the defending state champion's dominance over the Blue Jays remained intact after the No. 2-seeded Spartans posted a 2-1 win over Jamestown during the North Dakota state girls hockey tournament on Thursday at the REA Olympic Arena.
The Spartans advance to play Grand Forks in the semifinals 3 p.m. today at Purpur Arena.
Fargo North coach Kris Dougherty wasn't surprised by No. 7-seeded Jamestown's gritty play.
"Jamestown doesn't quit and they have some pretty good players that play well together," Dougherty said. "It's the state tournament and you're going to have games like this. The fun part about this is we came away with the win."
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The two teams skated to a scoreless first period in which the Spartans outshot the Blue Jays 12-4.
North's Sam Hagen scored at the 4 minute, 44 second mark of the second period, but Jamestown didn't let the Spartans own the lead long.
Jamestown junior forward Stephanie Kamlitz took the puck coast to coast and got a shot past North goalie Kayli Stenstrom two minutes after Hagen's goal.
Both teams had several scoring chances the rest of the period, but Stenstrom and Jamestown goalie Carissa Finck each held the offenses in check. North outshot Jamestown 17-12 in the second period.
A body checking penalty by Jamestown's Torri Kamlitz with 1:32 left in the second gave the Spartans (17-6-1) a power play.
North senior Mara Teschendorf, who had several shots go wide of the net early, quickly capitalized and gave the Spartans a 2-1 lead slamming home a rebound past Finck.
"We pride ourselves on our power play ... and that was clutch," Dougherty said of Teschendorf's goal. "That's right place at the right time. That's a senior leader, that's a goal scorer and that's a girl who has been to this tournament five years in a row."
The 2-1 score ended holding up as the final, but not before Stenstrom and Finck stopped another period's worth of shots. Stenstrom stopped four shots to preserve the lead while Finck saved 11 to keep the Blue Jays within a goal of North.
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"Whenever (Teschendorf) came up I was saying, 'defense take her outside, take her outside; don't let her get a slap shot,'" Finck said. "I thought I handled myself pretty well. It was nice to go out there and give it my all."
Finck finished with 38 saves for the Bluejays (11-12-1).
"We had a slow start, but I thought we really picked it up in the second period," Bluejays coach Brad Schaak said. "(Carissa) played good enough to keep us in the game. She's the type of goalie where if she sees a lot of pucks right away and makes some highlight-reel saves she gets zoned in and she was zoned in today."
So was Stenstrom, who finished with 19 saves.
"Everybody put in a good effort," Stenstrom said. "The first period was definitely a little bit shaky, but after that we finally figured out we were in the state tournament and this is where we want to be."
