Getting to the girls' hockey state tournament is one thing. But as the Roseau Rams have learned, getting there is another matter.

The Roseau boys have been to a record 31 state tournaments, but this is the first time for the girls. And boy, will they have some stories to tell.

The team bus left Roseau at 6:30 Tuesday morning for the 6 1/2-hour drive to St. Paul. There was plenty of time to check in at their hotel, change from warmups to dresses and attend a 7 p.m. banquet for the eight-team Class 1A field.

Problem No. 1: The heater on the bus was shooting blanks.

"It was fairly chilly," coach Brian Bergstrom said Wednesday at Xcel Energy Center. "We could see our breath."

Problem No. 2: The bus blew a front tire south of St. Cloud.

A state trooper pulled up behind the bus and took charge. The bus couldn't be towed with people on board, he told the coaches. So they sat there. One hour. Two hours. The team bus from Alexandria pulled over and the Cardinals volunteered to load up the Rams and take them the rest of the way. The trooper said no, all these people must stay on the Roseau bus while it's parked along busy Interstate 94.

"We saw 'Roseau Rams' on their trailer," Alexandria coach Mitch Loch said. "We knew it was their first trip to state and how important the banquet is."

Finally, after nearly three hours of sitting, a repair vehicle arrived and replaced the flat tire. The Rams went straight to the banquet, arriving late and still wearing their warmups.

Problem No. 3: State tourney teams are required to have a backup goaltender in full pads on the bench.

The Rams, who learned of this while on the bus, have no backup goalie; Chelsey Froseth is the only netminder. But rules are rules. So Bergstrom called back home, where a set of goalie pads belonging to assistant coach Patricia Elsmore -- who played at Minnesota-Duluth as well as on the Swiss team at the 2006 Olympics -- were sent to the Twin Cities with the Roseau pep band. (The band bus made it without incident. Whew.)

OK, so the goalie equipment was ready, but who would wear it? The call went to Amy Miller, a senior student manager. Here's how that discussion went, according to Miller: "Bergy said, 'You wanna skate at Xcel? You're the backup goalie.'"

Problem No. 4: Does Amy have to take part in warm-ups, or even skate out for the pregame introductions? The answers were no and no.

No one wanted Amy to fall while wearing all those cumbersome pads for the first time in her life. So she stood on the bench while the other Rams skated to the blue line one by one as they were introduced. But after the Rams beat New Prague 4-1, she ventured ever so slowly onto the ice to shake hands with the Trojans.

"I skated about a foot and my legs felt like Jell-O," she said, eating a postgame cookie.

Welcome to state, Rams. You have arrived.

John Millea • jmillea@startribune.com