Submitted Photo Coaches and members of the Bottineau-Rugby girls’ 19U hockey team In the back row from left are Scott Mayer and Mike Thompson, coaches; Morgan Wittmayer, Emma Rybchinski, Tallie Fedje, Drew Marsden, Mari Melgaard, Sophie Oppen, Brooklyn Bartsch, Rebecca DeCoteau, and Assistant Coaches Keith Dibble and Dominick Marsden. In the front row from left are: Ellee Rybchinski, Ashlyn Dibble, Madison Thompson, Harleigh Parisien, Tana DeMontigny, Haylee Jundt, Haley Mayer, and Isabel Chavez.

The Bottineau-Rugby 19U girls hockey team came home from the North Dakota Amateur Hockey Association High School Tournament in Bismarck with a second-place trophy on March 6.

Three team members – Rugby’s Brooklyn Bartsch and Bottineau’s Tana DeMontigny and Madison Thompson – also had places on the girls’ all-state team. The North Dakota team will participate in USA Hockey’s American Showcase in St. Louis, Missouri., from April 21-25.

Bottineau-Rugby Head Coach Mike Thompson, Madison Thompson’s father, said Bartsch, DeMontigny and his daughter would “play in front of college coaches” at nationals in April. “It will open up some more opportunities to play at different college levels.”

“It’s a real fun time for them,” Mike Thompson said of the showcase tournament. “Last year, they didn’t have the showcase because of COVID. So, they took the team to a national championship, which is quite a bit different. There was no exposure to the college coaches. So, it’s going to be a really fun time.”

Mike Thompson said Madison Thompson had qualified for the showcase in 2020 as an alternate before COVID canceled the event.

“This will be her first year going to the showcase,” Mike Thompson added. “It’ll be something new for us. They’ve taken girls in the past, but that was before my time with the team.”

Mike Thompson and Scott Mayer, Bottineau-Rugby’s assistant coach, credited their team’s hard work for their success this year.

The 19U girls had defeated Watford City 5-4 and Langdon 2-1 before falling to Minot 3-2 in the championship round at state.

“It was a one-goal game,” Mayer said. “Minot came out strong and took a two-goal lead in the first period. The second period was pretty back-and forth, and Minot put another one on the scoreboard. In the third period, it was pretty much all us. We were able to score two and we were really close to tying it up at the end of the game.

“I’m proud of them,” Mayer added. “They had a really good season, an unbelievable season. They played hard all season.”

Mayer’s daughter, Haley Mayer, plays on the Bottineau-Rugby 19U team.

Scott Mayer said Bottineau-Rugby’s roster had only one senior this year. Madison Thompson, a senior at Bottineau, will graduate in May. All-state team member Bartsch is a sophomore, while DeMontigny is a junior.

“We hope to be back in the same situation that we were this year,” Scott Mayer said, adding the team would miss Madison Thompson after she graduates. “She was one of our goal scorers and one of our better checkers and defensemen,” Scott Mayer noted. “We’re going to need somebody to step up and fill those shoes.”

Mike Thompson said the team had played in championship rounds at state before, but not for a number of years. “I think it was nine and ten years ago,” he said.

“A lot of the girls would’ve been from three years old to five or six years old, so they probably don’t remember it,” Mike Thompson added.

He said he was proud of the girls, too.

“There was a lot of fun this year and a lot of tears,” he said. “They worked hard.

“A lot of the younger girls got a lot of experience this year and they really contributed,” Mike Thompson added. “It was a real fun year for everybody – the parents and the players.”

Mike Thompson said his daughter plans to continue with hockey after high school.

“In early summer, she signed on to play hockey at Dakota College at Bottineau,” he said.

“She started when she was three years old, almost four. So, this is her fourteenth year in hockey, I believe,” Mike Thompson said of Madison Thompson.

Mike Thompson and Scott Mayer said the team would miss Madison Thompson.

“But we have a real strong core of players, still, with Brooklyn Bartsch, Tallie Fedje, Tana DeMontigny, who will be playing at state. She’ll be back again and she’s a really strong player,” he said.

“A couple of the younger ones are showing potential,” Mike Thompson said of future team members. “Ashlyn Dibble, she’s really working hard and she’ll be fun to watch as she matures.”

Two team members, Rugby sophomores Bartsch and Haylee Jo Jundt, said they planned to stay with hockey throughout their high school years. They both said they were excited and proud their team did well at state.

“Mike was really proud of us,” Jundt said of Mike Thompson.

“I’m really excited and I’m glad that I get the opportunity to go to (nationals),” Bartsch said. “There will be a bunch of different states playing. North Dakota has never made it to the championship round. I’m hoping we get there.”

Bartsch said she enjoyed playing at state and was happy the team advanced to the final round.

“We had a good chance at making a championship game. We just had to do it. We had a feeling we were going to make it,” Jundt said. “I thought it was cool that we had made it that far and was happy about what we had accomplished over the year.”

Bartsch nodded, recalling the game. “Minot started out with the lead and it was definitely a battle.”

Jundt added, “The first and second periods, we weren’t playing our best, but we didn’t let them score anymore in the third period. And we outshot them every period. In the third period, we really forechecked hard, got two in the net. Then, the last five minutes were a competing battle to see who wanted it more.”

Like the Bottineau-Rugby Braves, the 19U girls’ team is a co-op, with teams using ice rinks in Rugby and Bottineau for practice and games. Players Sophie Oppen, Haley Mayer, Mari Melgaard, and Ashlyn Dibble are Rugby students.

Other Rugby girls on the 19U team are Sophie Oppen and Ashlyn Dibble.