Austin stars spark win over Marshall

Austin girls' hockey coach Dennis Bray had a message for his two star players, Taylor Jenkins and Catherine Wagner, midway through the second period of Wednesday's Class 1A girls' hockey state quarterfinal against Marshall. He didn't simply tap them on the shoulder, though; he put the rest of the team on their backs.

"I told them they had to carry us the rest of the way," Bray said. "We were only up 2-0 and Marshall was starting to get some momentum. So I told them to carry us, just like they have all season, just like they did last season."

No worries. Wagner, a junior, had a hat trick and Jenkins, a senior, scored the other two goals as the Packers blanked Marshall 5-0.

To suggest Wagner and Jenkins are a big part of the Austin offense is a huge understatement. Between them, Wagner and Jenkins have accounted for 88 of the Packers' goals this season. The rest of the team has scored 60.

Neither player is very big, but their quick hands and feet posed trouble for Marshall (19-6) all night. Wagner had 13 shots on goal, Jenkins seven, with most of them coming on good scoring chances.

Jenkins' two goals gives her a team-high 50 for the season. "Cool," she said. "I didn't even know I was close to 50."

The Packers (17-9) reached the state tournament last year before losing in the first round. Losing eight seniors off that team, they were a long shot to make it back to this year's tournament, yet here they are.

"Catherine and I both took it upon ourselves to step up and be leaders for this team," Jenkins said.

Austin was a mediocre 8-7 at the start of the new year, which suggested that losing so many seniors from last year's team was taking its toll. But the Packers have won 10 of their past 12 games.

"It took us a while to grow together as a team," Jenkins said. "We had a lot of new players who hadn't been through it all before. But the little girls have really stepped up."

The "little girls" are the two seventh-graders and four freshman who are on the Packers roster, all the more reason for Bray to rely heavily on Wagner and Jenkins.

"We only play two lines," Bray said. "Our second line is all freshmen. The other player on our top line is a seventh-grader, and she was so nervous [Wednesday] she couldn't do a lot right. So it was like Catherine and Taylor were out there by themselves a lot of the time."

Bray said he refused to label this a rebuilding year at the start of the season and told the team there were three goals he would like to see them accomplish.

"I wanted us to finish in the top half of the Big Nine Conference and we finished fourth," Bray said. "I wanted to have a winning record and I wanted to win the section final. They managed to accomplish all three.

"I told them after the section final the rest is frosting. Now we want to eat a lot of frosting."

Dean Spiros • dspiros@startribune.com