The Rosemount girls hockey team pulled off a couple upsets in sections to get to its second consecutive state tournament, where the Irish met a familiar foe — Andover.

A year ago, the Huskies downed Rosemount 9-0.

Thursday’s Class 2A state quarterfinal in St. Paul still didn’t go how Rosemount wanted, but the 6-0 defeat was further evidence of the Irish’s consistent progress.

“Last year there was maybe one shift where we played our hockey, and there was more than that this year,” Rosemount co-coach Kyle Finn said. “We’re definitely trending in the right direction, but there were heavy periods where we were doing things that we haven’t done since November or December.”

Much of that is due to Andover. The Irish have generated more scoring opportunities and goals in recent weeks, but the Huskies cut off so many scoring valves with their dominant defensive core. Rosemount finished with just 11 shots on goal, with none coming in the final period.

Third-seeded Andover (22-4-3) will meet second-seeded Hill-Murray in the semifinals at 6 p.m. Friday at Xcel Energy Center in St. Paul.

“Andover’s defensemen are phenomenal. … Very physical, strong players. So they, of course, made it very difficult for us to do what we wanted to do,” Finn said. “That’s their style of play, always has been. They’re very good at it. So yeah, we were prepared for it. Physically, we’ve got some young players out there. We’re definitely going to hit the weight room this offseason.”

Rosemount held its own for the opening minutes of Thursday’s game. That’s when junior forward Sophie Stramel said the Irish started to settle in … “maybe too much.”

“And they came back harder and stronger, and they’re a good team for that,” she said of Andover.

Avery Kasick netted a power-play goal to put the Huskies up 1-0. Four minutes later, Ella Thoreson made it 2-0 Huskies. Andover never looked back from there.

“Super happy overall with their play. I thought our puck possession was great,” Andover coach Melissa Volk  said. “There was definitely some areas of opportunity I thought we could’ve done a better job executing, just making the game a little bit easier for us, at times. But super proud of them just sticking to the process and having it play out.”

Cailin Mumm and Maya Engler — who turned 17 on Thursday — both scored twice in the victory.

Andover has developed into a perennial state title contender. The Huskies were back in the title game a year ago. They look quite comfortable on the Xcel Energy Center ice. That’s a level Rosemount (14-10-5) is hoping to get to in time. The Irish may not be there yet, but they do seem to be on their way.

“I think for the past two years, we’ve made it known that we’re good enough to be here no matter how our seeding is, no matter how our section seeding goes. But I think we know that we can be here and we can compete with these teams,” Stramel said. “You can’t just come to a state tournament for a first time and blow it out of the water. We know that it’s going to take some progress and we know that we have to work together and play with each other and play for each other, and I think that’s what we’re getting to these next couple of years.

“We want to make it a usual in Rosemount to get to a state tournament every year. … We’re not stopping here. We will come next year, and we will compete even harder.”

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