Chase Ellingson started with the puck deep in his own end. Breck’s 5-foot-5 ball of energy gathered speed as he approached center ice, losing control of the puck just for an instant.

Two Mankato West defenders had Ellingson in their cross hairs as he jetted over the blue line, but by then he had full mastery of the puck and a blurring gathering of speed. A quick juke to the left had both Scarlets reaching in the wrong direction. Then it was just a matter of zipping to the right, shooting and scoring.

To hear Ellingson describe it, there wasn’t much to the shorthanded goal. A ho-hum play, really.

“I don’t know, I just made a move,” the Mustangs’ Mr. Hockey award finalist said. “I saw an opening, shot and it went in.”

The goal was Ellingson’s second of three in No. 2-seeded Breck’s 8-0 demolition of the unseeded Scarlets in Wednesday’s state Class 1A quarterfinal at the Xcel Energy Center in St. Paul. He now has a team-leading 39 this season.

“He always has a good game, he always has a good practice,” Breck coach Les Larson said about Ellingson’s dominating performance. “I’ve never seen a guy that consistent for four years.”

Senior forward William Blake also had a hat trick for the Mustangs (25-3-1), with his three goals (one on the power play, one shorthanded and one at even strength) coming in succession in a span of 6 minutes, 41 seconds in the second period.

Blake’s scoring flurry, which put Breck ahead 5-0 heading into the third, put the Mustangs – most notably Ellingson – in their comfort zone.

“We know you can’t leave a team hanging around for too long,” Ellingson said. “They will come back, score a couple of goals, and it’s a whole new game. Those goals in the second period were huge for us.”

Breck was dominant on special teams. The Mustangs’ first three goals came on the power play, they scored twice while shorthanded and they killed two 5-minute major power plays. Ellingson matched Blake’s feat by scoring a power-play goal, a shorthander and one at even strength.

“We were skating with them up and down 5-on-5,” Mankato West coach Curtis Doell said. “We get the (game’s first penalty), and it kind of took the wind out of our sails. When you have that many talented guys on the ice, they are going to find ways to score goals.”

After losing to St. Cloud Apollo in last year’s state tournament quarterfinals, Breck entered Wednesday’s game fully determined to avoid a trip to the consolation bracket and a cavernous, quiet Mariucci Arena.

“Last year motivated a lot of guys,” Blake said. “We have a lot of returners, everyone knew how much going over to Maricuuci … it’s not that fun. Nobody wanted to repeat that, so I think that helped a lot.”

Added Larson: “I have nothing agaist Mariucci, but there are 10,000 empty seats at 9 in the morning. And we’ve experienced that.

“It’s a lot better to be here."

Breck is 5-2 in state tournament quarterfinal games under coach Larson, who has guided the Mustangs to seven state tournament appearances in his eight seasons as coach.

Senior forward William Blake scored three goals in a span of 6 minutes, 41 seconds in the second period to help propel top-seeded Breck to a 8-0 victory over unseeded Mankato West on Wednesday in the quarterfinals of the state Class 1A tournament at Xcel Energy Center in St. Paul.

Breck senior and Mr. Hockey award finalist Chase Ellingson also had a hat trick for the Mustangs. The school is 5-2 in state tournament quarterfinal games under coach Les Larson, who has guided the Mustangs to seven state tournament appearances in his eight seasons as coach.

Blake’s goals came on the power play, shorthanded and at even strength. The last one, the shorthander, put Breck ahead 5-0 with 9:19 left in the second period.

Breck (25-3-1), ranked No. 2 in the state’s final coaches’ poll, excelled on special teams. The Mustangs’ first three goals came on the power play, they scored twice while shorthanded and they killed two 5-minute major power plays.

The best of Blake’s goals was his last. With the Mustangs shorthanded, Blake won a faceoff in the Mankato West (15-12-2) end by pushing the puck forward toward the goal. He muscled his way to the front of the net and fired a backhand shot past Scarlets goaltender Jackson Peterson. The goal put Breck ahead 5-0 with 9:19 left in the second period.

Blake put the Mustangs took a 3-0 lead one minute into the second period with their third consecutive power-play goal. He shot from the high slot into an empty net on a cross-ice feed from Tyler Scott. Blake made it 4-0 with a spin-o-rama shot from the slot. The play was set up by a spinning, no-look backhand feed from behind the net from Ellingson.

Austin Heidemann and Ellingson scored in the first period to put Breck ahead 2-0. The hat trick for Blake, who plays on Breck’s top line with Ellingson, gives him 23 goals this season.

Ellingson added a shorthanded third-period goal on a scintillating end-to-end rush during which he juked past two Scarlets defenders before firing a shot past Peterson. Sophomore defenseman Nick Strom also scored in the third period on a blast from the point. Ellingson closed out the scoring in the closing minutes with an upper-shelf blast. The goal was his team-leading 39th of the season.

Breck sophomore goaltender Linden Olness stopped all 16 shots he faced before giving way to sophomore Blaine Madson late in the third period. Madson stopped the lone shot he faced during his 3:52 stint in goal. Mankato West’s Jackson finished with 27 saves.