A week ago, the East Grand Forks Senior High boys hockey team felt it didn't put together a strong third period in a tight loss to a Top 5 opponent in Warroad.
On Friday, in another Top 5 showdown, the Green Wave came through in the final frame.
Landon Parker scored his sixth goal in the last four games with a third-period tally to ice No. 3 East Grand Forks' 4-2 win over No. 4 Mahtomedi at the Civic Center.
"I just like the way we played hard," said EGF coach Tyler Palmiscno, who was celebrating his 40th birthday on Friday. "I liked our third period the best. We made simple plays and our goaltending was good when we needed it to be. That's a good hockey team we beat."
It was a matchup of the third-place game at the Minnesota Class A state tournament last year, when Mahtomedi beat the Green Wave 7-3 in St. Paul.
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Mahtomedi graduated 11 off its team from last season, and the team's leading goal scorer -- Colin Hagstrom has been out this season with a broken leg, although Mahtomedi hopes to have Hagstrom back for the playoffs.
"I thought we were really sloppy," Zephyrs coach Jeff Poeschl said. "We turned a lot of pucks over and that really killed us. When you play a team like East Grand Forks, they make you pay for that."
Although the Wave dominated the first period, the teams were tied at 1-1 at the first intermission. EGF freshman Jakson Panzer gave the Wave a 1-0 lead early and EGF peppered the Zephyrs 12-0 in shots to open the game.
But Mahtomedi's first shot on goal resulted in a rebound, which was batted into the net to tie the game with 3:15 left in the opening period by Cole Klingbell.
The Wave took a 3-1 lead in the second on goals by Brody Schultz and Cole Avery. Mahtomedi narrowed the lead to 3-2 on a goal by Nikolai Dulak, who scored his team-best 10th goal of the season.
Parker scored his team-high 12th of the season at 3:15 of the third for a two-goal cushion. EGF goalie Austin Cooley stuffed Blake Hansen on a clean breakaway with nine minutes to go for his biggest save of the game.
Palmiscno said his top line of Parker, Panzer and Mason Poolman had their best game of the season.
"(Parker) is starting to get (his shot) off quicker, so less shots are blocks and more pucks are to the net," Palmiscno said.
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In the first year of the regular-season matchup with Mahtomedi, East Grand Forks plans a return trip next season.
"Both programs have a lot of tradition, and we're always going to get a nice, tough, grind-it-out type game with East Grand Forks," Poeschl said. "Any time you can make our schedule stronger, it makes us better."
Palmiscno agrees.
"They're not just good this year, but they're a good Class A program and we were lucky enough to get them on our schedule," he said. "Hopefully we can keep it going. They're a team that's going to be there at the end of the year."
EGF Senior High 4,
Mahtomedi 2
First period -- 1. EGF, Jakson Panzer (Logan Spencer, Landon Parker) 4:17; 2. M, Cole Klingbell 13:45
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Second period -- 2. EGF, Brody Schultz (Brandon Anderson) 1:44; 3. EGF, Cole Avery (Trey Ausmus, Spencer) 14:53; 4. M, Nikolai Dulak (Adam Johnson) 15:14
Third period -- 5. EGF, Parker (Panzer, Mason Poolman) 3:12
Goalie saves -- EGF: Austin Cooley 2-10-8 -- 20; M: Ben Dardis 12-9-11 -- 32
