Girls Hockey: "Own the moment" - Warriors win home playoff

With heads down and doubt setting in, Allyson Smith looked at her young teammates and simply said, "Own the moment."

The senior center did just that as she skated toward the net from the left side. With a defender hanging on her every glide, Smith owned the moment by snapping in Saturday's game-winning goal at 12:50 of the third period to lift the top-seeded Brainerd/Little Falls Warriors to a 5-3 victory over No. 8 Buffalo/Maple Lake in the Section 8-2A quarterfinals at Essentia Health Sports Center.

"Honestly, it was just a bunch of fumbling pucks until it finally reached my stick," said Smith. "I saw the goalie cheat over a little bit thinking I was going to pass and I just shot where it was open."

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Warriors 5, Buffalo 3

• Key: Allyson Smith sneaks in game winner 12:50 in the third
• Overall: Brd 24-2, Buf 9-17-1
• Next: No. 1 Brainerd vs. No. 4 Sartell/Sauk Rapids at Essentia Health Sports Center, Brainerd 7 p.m. Tuesday

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Smith is one of four seniors on a roster that holds 13 sophomores or younger. It was the Warriors first home playoff game since 2011 and Brainerd hadn't enjoyed playoff success since that 2011 game when it beat Moorhead 3-1 in the quarterfinals. Since then Brainerd was 0-6 in the playoffs.

Still the Warriors showed postseason poise as it fended off Buffalo who tied the game at 2-2 and 3-3 before succumbing to Smith's goal and an Ella Kalusche insurance goal with 10 seconds remaining.

"Credit to Buffalo they came back, but we persevered as a team and all 20 girls had each other's back," Smith said. "It's frustrating when people come back on you, but you just have to look to the next shift and tell yourself you're going to beat that girl on the next shift.

"Some of the girls heads were kind of down so I just said, 'girls, this game is not over. Pick up your head because we're going to own the moment.' That's what we did. We owned the moment."

Smith's goal came six minutes after Jada Habisch posted her team-high 17th goal of the season on a penalty shot. The first-year varsity player waited until the last moment before she snuck her shot past Warrior goalie Olivia King to tie the score 3-3.

"I can't even, quite honestly fathom how stressful that was for Olivia," said Warriors head coach Jim Ernster. "I would assume the two most stressed people were Olivia's mom and herself. That's a big spot. The kid made a nice play. On a penalty shot like that she waited, and waited and waited and Olivia just kind of ran out of time and the girl put it behind her."

Brainerd's other Olivia, sophomore forward Olivia Wiskow, scored her fifth goal of the season as she powered the puck through two defenders and past Buffalo's Kennedy Sohler.

"I just saw Josie (Kramer), the puck hit her and then I saw the rebound," said Wiskow. "That's my job to just to go to the net. It was fun to know we did it as a team. I couldn't have got the goal if Ally hadn't won the faceoff and if Josie hadn't of been there. I thank my team for everything I do."

Wiskow's goal was needed relief as the Warriors saw it's early 2-0 lead vanish in 28 seconds. Emma Carlson put Buffalo on the board first as she picked up a loose puck in front of the net and fired it past King. Habisch scored her first goal of the game as Buffalo manufactured a 2-on-1 breakaway to tie the game 2-2.

"That's hockey," said Ernster. "As much as you can stress to keep your foot on the gas, sometimes mentally you go to a different place. Give credit to Buffalo's goaltender. It could have easily been 4-0 at that point.

"When we give up the one goal now nerves start to kick in. This is a lot of firsts for a bunch of these girls. As much as you try to pump them up on the bench all of a sudden it's 2-2. Now it's a whole new game."

Emma Booth gave Brainerd a 1-0 lead when she found the puck in a scrum in front of the net. Early in the second, Emma Smith received a beautiful pass from Hannah Hittesdorf on a 2-1 and handed the Warriors a 2-0 edge.

"I was nervous before the game, but we just took this game as one step at a time," Wiskow said. "We knew we needed to just take it one shift at a time. That kind of calmed the nerves because we have 20 girls helping us out. We went out and fought for each other."

For the past two seasons the roles were reversed as Brainerd traveled to Buffalo for the section quarterfinals and lost to the Bison 5-1 both times.

The young Buffalo team finished the regular season 1-7-0 against section opponents, including a 9-7 loss to the Warriors Dec. 23, but they gave Brainerd all it could handle Saturday, which Ernster believes might be a good thing.

"We told the girls before the game even started, remove the one from in front of Brainerd," Ernster said. "Remove the eight in front of Buffalo. There are plenty of cautionary tales in the world of hockey where eights upset the No. 1s. It's good that we had this test because you want to play at a pace where you're going to play at the next two games anyway. This was fine with us."

Buffalo 0 2 1-3

Brainerd 1 1 3-5

First period: BLF-Emma Booth (Abby Pohlkamp) 10:02

Second period: BLF-Emma Smith (Hannah Hittesdorf, Taylor Larson) 2:42; Buff-Emma Carlson (Julia McAlpin) 11:22; Buff-Jada Habisch (Emma Carlson, Jillianne Hovland) 11:50

Third period: BLF-Olivia Wiskow (Allyson Smith) ppg 5:04; Buff-Habisch penalty shot 6:37; BLF-Allyson Smith (Gabbie Smith) 12:50; BLF-Ella Kalusche (Gabble Smith, Allyson Smith) 16:50

Shots on goal: BLF 14-10-23-47, Buff 3-6-3-12

Power plays: Brd 1-5, Buff 0-5

Goalies: BLF-Olivia King (9 saves); Buf-Kennedy Sohler (42 saves)