Emily Johnson had not experienced a playoff win in the first three years of her varsity career with the Litchfield/Dassel-Cokato girls hockey team.
She made sure her wait — and that of many LDC faithful — ended Saturday with a goal with less than two minutes to play in the fourth overtime as the Dragons beat Minnesota River 2-1 in the Section 2A semifinals at Litchfield Civic Arena.
“I didn’t even know it went in at first,” Johnson said of her game winner. “I just, like, saw people jumping in the stands and thought, ‘Oh cool, it must have gone in.’”
It was Johnson’s second of the game, following her score in the second period that tied things up at 1-1, and it touched off a raucous celebration among her teammates, who flooded the ice, and the LDC spectators.
The celebration was a long time in the making.
Litchfield/Dassel-Cokato’s last playoff win came in February 2015, when it beat Mankato East 3-2 in overtime in the Section 2A semifinals.
Perhaps appropriately, the second-seeded Dragons will meet top-seeded Mankato East for the section championship — and a berth in the state tournament — at 7 p.m. Thursday at All Seasons Arena in Mankato.
“I’ve been here, playing varsity, for four years, and we’ve never been this close,” Johnson said. “It’s a nice feeling as a senior to be that close and have that opportunity.”
LDC played host to Mankato East earlier this season, losing 4-3 on Dec. 23. That was a long time ago, and a great deal has changed for both teams since then. Saturday’s four-overtime thriller is one of those changes, the way LDC co-coaches Brett Damerow and Matt Hogg see it.
“We’ve talked all year about learning lessons and learning from our games and learning from our mistakes and learning from our successes and, and building confidence and things like that,” Damerow said. “It’s a journey. I mean, the whole season’s a journey, and even today, I mean, to go out and win an overtime game like that. That’s, you know, you put that in your toolbox, right? That’s something to take to the next game, take the next year for some of these younger girls. It’s an ongoing journey. We get to keep going.”
There were times throughout Saturday when many might have wondered about that.
Though they peppered the Minnesota River goal with 73 shots, it often seemed like each one was fired toward a brick wall as Bulldogs goalie Amelia Messer turned away nearly everything that came her way.
Litchfield/Dassel-Cokato was prepared for that. It was something Damerow and Hogg reminded the Dragons of during practices in the days leading up to the game.
“That goalie they have is, she’s the real deal,” Damerow said. “We knew coming in that she’s, I don’t want to say she’s the best player in the tournament, but she’s pretty close. And for us to beat her is big.”
Messer was in goal when the Dragons beat Minnesota River 2-0 in the first game of the season, back in early November. And she was in goal again when LDC traveled to LeSueur for a rematch in mid-January, a game Minnesota River won 3-0 despite being outshot 48-9.
‘We struggled a bit to score all year,” Hogg said. “We’ve got a lot of young girls who are learning how to score in high school. We just keep working on stuff in practice and trying to show them ways that they can beat high school goalies. But like what Coach Damerow said, she’s a very, very good goalie, and tall and athletic. We knew it was going to take a special couple of goals to beat her and, you know, fortunately for us today, it was us that was able to.”
It looked like a tall task when Minnesota River broke into the scoring column first, getting a goal from MeKenna Mueller at 5:52 of the second period. But The Dragons responded quickly, with Johnson scoring an unassisted goal a little more than a minute later.
The teams remained knotted for the next 73-plus minutes before Johnson broke the stalemate at 13:18 of the fourth overtime.
“I was just looking up ice and I didn’t really see anybody, so I thought I guess I’m just going to skate and try to get a shot on net,” Johnson said. “I looked up and I kind of ran into the ref and I thought, ‘Oh no,’ but I just kept going around. My thought was to just get it to the net. She’s a good goalie, I needed to shoot high, and it just happened to go in, I guess.”
And because of that, the Dragons just happen to be heading to the biggest game in the past seven years.
“We’re really excited for the opportunity,” Hogg said. “We talked (that) the section final is probably the most fun game you can put yourself into, just that atmosphere. I’m really happy for this team that they get the chance to experience that. We’re going to enjoy it and give it our best effort.”
