The Mirage tilted the ice heavily in their favor in the second period and created chance after chance. They outshot the Bluebirds 11-3 in the second. However, the game remained 2-0 in favor of the Bluebirds going into the second intermission.

“It was all Maddie [Wostrel],” Gutterman said. “We relied heavily on Maddie in the net. She had some huge saves.”

The Bluebirds’ sophomore starting goaltender stopped 29 of 31 shots. Wostrel was prepared for the pressure she’d receive from the highly-ranked Mirage.

“I knew that I had to be aggressive, especially against a team like this,” Wostrel said.

The Mirage finally got their first goal over 41 minutes into the game as Jane Eckstrom was in the right place to put home a rebound off a shot from Mya Gunderson.

The goal didn’t cause the Bluebirds to fold though, as Sydney Burnevik scored what proved to be the winning goal 34 seconds later.

“That’s this team,” Gutterman said. “It’s happened multiple times this year where we give up a goal and then you look a minute, minute and a half later and we’re putting one into the other team’s net. We have some resilience.”

This game marks the third time this season the Bluebirds have scored less than 90 seconds after conceding a goal. The 34-second turnaround wasn’t even their fastest of the season. Brooklyn Johnson, who assisted on Zahalka’s goal tonight, scored 15 seconds after a North Wright County goal during a 3-2 loss for the Bluebirds two weeks ago.

The Bluebirds (3-3) held onto the lead and added a couple of empty-net goals to secure a 5-2 victory.

Gutterman described the win as “gritty” as his team constantly had their sticks on the ice, breaking up passes and poking the puck away to prevent the Mirage (3-2) from making a break up the ice. When they did get clean looks, Wostrel had them covered. She acknowledged that it took everyone on the bench to beat one of the top-ranked teams in the early state rankings.

“I’m really glad with the win and I think we all worked really hard,” she said.