Sophie Olson and Olivia Braunshausen provided timely answers to Stillwater’s surge.

The pair scored just over two minutes apart midway through the third period Thursday and Hill-Murray advanced to the Class 2A girls’ state hockey tournament with a 5-2 win over Stillwater in the Section 4 championship game.

“We just had to keep going because we worked so hard for this,” said Chloe Boreen, who had two goals and an assist.

Tied at 2 entering the third period at Aldrich Arena, the Ponies got the better of play in the first few minutes of the frame, but Hill-Murray goaltender Grace Zhan, one of 10 semifinalists for the Jori Jones Award, given to the state’s most outstanding senior goaltender, made a handful of top-notch saves.

Olson, a sophomore, broke through at 6 minutes, 16 seconds with a backdoor tap-in off a shot from Boreen. A feed from Regan Berglund set up a slap shot from eighth grader Braunshausen to provide some insurance at 8:28.

“They’re just awesome kids,” said co-coach John Pohl. “Olivia Braunshausen is an eighth grader with the mentality of a senior. … And Sophie Olson is so underappreciated and plays a defensive role, yet she stepped up and scored a huge goal.”

Boreen added her second goal of the game with 4:30 to play.

“I’ll never be able to explain the feeling I felt. … It was such an amazing feeling to support each other,” Olson said.

Elliana Engelhardt also scored for the Pioneers (24-3-1), who return to the state tournament for the first time since 2020. They’ve lost the past three section championship games, including 1-0 to Stillwater in 2021.

Class 2A action will begin Thursday at the Xcel Energy Center. Brackets are scheduled to be announced Saturday.

“We only have one kid on our team that’s played in the state tournament. For all the other girls to experience this now is really special,” Pohl said. “Stillwater is a really good team and it’s 2-2 going into the third. We had the energy and the belief in each other, and the girls got it done.”

Josie Lang and Brooke Nelson scored for second-seeded and senior-heavy Stillwater (18-9-1), which found immediate success in hopes of taking down the top-seeded Pioneers.

Zhan made a couple early blocker saves to thwart Stillwater stalwart Josie St. Martin, but a Lang wrister through traffic put Stillwater on the board barely 3 minutes in.

The Ponies had a 45-second two-player advantage shortly thereafter but could not add to their goal total.

Boreen, the Pioneers’ top scorer and future University of St. Thomas player, put home a rebound on the power play five minutes later to tie the game.

St. Martin thought she put the Ponies back on top 32 seconds later, but officials ruled her redirect came via a high stick.

An Ohio State commit, St. Martin had a team-high six goals for the gold medal-winning Team USA at the Under-18 Women’s World Championship last month.

Engelhardt scored midway through the second for Hill-Murray, which entered averaging five goals per game, but Nelson, a South Dakota soccer commit, made it 2-all with a shot from the right circle with 1:11 left in the middle frame.