For 10 minutes and 43 seconds, Friday night’s Class AA semifinal between No. 3 seed Hill-Murray and second-seeded Blaine seemed to be in question. 

Hill-Murray sophomore Haylee Blinkhorn scored in the middle of the second period, cutting the Blaine lead to 2-1 and swiping the momentum from the Bengals.

“I felt like the energy from the bench and on the ice was up and our spirits were up,” Blinkhorn said. “We just felt like we could do anything.”

But with just two seconds left on the clock in the second, Blaine’s Emily Brown stuck a needle into Hill-Murray’s (24-5-1) hubris balloon.

Brown beat a screened Pioneer goaltender Ava Bailey with a screaming wrist shot to send the Bengals into the locker room with a two-goal cushion.

“That one stung with two seconds left,” Hill-Murray head coach Bill Schafhauser said of Brown’s goal.

Blaine senior Paige Beebe opened the third period with a goal just 11 seconds in, another stinger for the Pioneers to endure. 

Brown, a Ms. Hockey finalist and Minnesota commit admitted that she may have overdone it with her celebration of Beebe’s goal.

“I almost thought I might’ve chosen the wrong sport,” Brown said with a laugh. “I jumped pretty high, I should’ve been a basketball player maybe,” Brown added. “That was a little hard on the calves.”

Bengals’ head coach Steve Guider said that he was pleased with team’s play heading into Saturday’s title game.

“We played a pretty complete game tonight, (with) a couple little breakdowns in the d-zone,” Guider said.

Breakdowns aside, the Bengals’ penchant for wearing their opponents down held true for another game.

In addition to Brown and Beebe, junior Gabby Rosenthal, sophomore Ramsey Parent and senior forward Courney Moser scored goals for the Bengals (24-3-2).

“I thought we played a great hockey game,” Guider said. “I’m very proud of this group of kids.”