The hours between the end of the school day and the opening draw of a high school hockey game can be excruciating, with very little to fill the void before game time.

Those hours are usually spent reading, napping or gnawing on fingernails.

St. Paul United head coach Nate Mauer was far more productive during his downtime on Wednesday afternoon, treating his feet to a pedicure prior to his girls taking the ice in the Class A, Section 4 final against Mahtomedi.

“They had to bring out the cheese grater pretty much to get the job done,” Mauer said with a laugh of the grooming experience.

St. Paul United took a grater of its own to the Zephyrs, scoring once in each of the first and third periods and four times in the second to coast to a 6-0 victory and punch their third ticket to the state tournament in the past four seasons.

“After the first period we talked about how we couldn’t let down at all,” senior forward Joie Phelps said. “We knew that whichever team came out with more heart was the team that was going to win.”

Phelps, a Ms. Hockey semifinalist and a Cornell commit, scored a goal and dished out two assists in the win, with freshman forward Jenna Hoops recording an identical stat line.

Senior forward Samantha Burke scored two goals, with senior Maggie Conners and Claire Tipler each adding single tallies as the United poured 35 shots on the Mahtomedi (11-14-3) net.

On the defensive side, eighth-grader Jillian Oncay made 14 saves to earn her sixth shutout of the season.

“Jillian’s been doing a great job,” Phelps said. “She handles the pressure really well.”

Pressure is exactly what the United (19-6-1) will find at the Xcel Energy Center in St. Paul, where the team came up short in last year's Class A state finals, losing to Blake by a lopsided 8-0 score.

“You never want to lose like that, so it kind of gives you that new fire, that new spark,” Mauer said of his team embarking on a redemption tour.

Mauer has relied on the spark of his seven-member senior class, of which Phelps and Tipler have been components since the seventh grade, to guide a roster that includes eight underclassmen.

“It’s a pretty different dynamic in the locker room, but that’s what you get in girls hockey,” Mauer explained, referring to the disparity between middle school participants in varsity hockey between girls and boys.

“They do take it in, Mauer said of his younger players. “The seniors want to win, so they see what they bring to the table.”