DULUTH — Trailing 3-2 with less than a minute to play in Thursday's Section 7A matchup against Proctor/Hermantown, North Shore made one final effort to find the equalizer by pulling goaltender Alexa Harrison for the extra skater.
As the clock continued to wind down, defenseman Sarah Stauber unleashed a blistering shot from the point that made its way through to netminder Neelah McLeod, who made the initial save. Waiting to pounce on the rebound was sophomore Berkley Hoff, who deposited the loose puck with 12 seconds remaining to force overtime.
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Pandemonium ensued within the raucous Mars Lakeview Arena crowd.
“I just bared down and I got low on my stick and it popped right out to me,” Hoff recalled. “I put it in and the atmosphere was great. It felt good.”
Hoff’s marker punctuated a two-goal rally for the Storm over the final six minutes of regulation, erasing a 3-1 Mirage lead and an avalanche of momentum built by the visitors.
“A lot of teams could’ve packed it up,” said North Shore head coach Mike Hoff of the team’s resilience. “They were down 3-1 in the third period after a 1-0 game and they fought back hard and it feels good.”
The late-game heroics by Berkley Hoff may have been all for naught without a mammoth effort by goaltender Harrison, who kept the Storm in the game with 23 saves over the first two scoreless periods.
The senior netminder finished the game with a season-high 41 saves, including a handful of breakways.
“Harrison kept us in there in the first and second periods,” said Berkley Hoff. “We weren’t on it very well and she stepped up for us and kept us in the game.”
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The scoreless deadlock was broken less than a minute into the third period when Berkley Hoff received a drop pass from Nina Thorson and uncorked a slap shot from the point that found its way into the net low blocker side.
The goal came seconds after a save by Harrison on a two-on-one rush by Mya Gunderson and Jane Eckstrom that failed to connect.
Moments after the opening goal by Hoff, the Mirage were forced to kill off a five-on-three power play in what provided a spark of momentum for the visitors. Proctor/Hermantown proceeded to score three unanswered goals in a span of four minutes beginning with an unassisted tally by Gunderson.
Cambriia Thomas followed it up by rifling a shot from the slot past Harrison to give the Mirage a 2-1 lead. Grace Nichols put an exclamation point on the three-goal barrage by finding the back of the net just seconds after Thomas’ go-ahead goal.
The 3-1 score stood less than two minutes before Thorson breathed new life into the North Shore bench with a bar-down snipe, cutting the deficit in half. Thorson, who nearly scored on two breakaway opportunities in the middle frame, finished with three points.
Sensing the momentum shifting to the other end, the Mirage began to grip their sticks too tightly and opened the door for Berkley Hoff's game-tying goal.
“We panicked a bit and didn’t take care of the little things,” said Proctor/Hermantown head coach Emma Stauber. “That allowed them to come back and tie it. So (there’s) some things to learn but overall there were a lot of good things from my team as well.”
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The Mirage outshot North Shore 3-0 in the extra period and spent the final minute of the frame on the power play, but were unable to capitalize.
North Shore (19-3-2) will close out its regular season schedule on Saturday, Feb. 1 at home against Visitation. Proctor/Hermantown finished the regular season 18-6-1.
Section 7A tournament play starts on Tuesday.
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