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Minnesota State University women's hockey coach John Harrington didn't know what to do. He found himself in what he deemed a "goalie nightmare," his squad down two of their three goalies with surgeries, the third suffering a con- cussion with a questionable return—and it was only November. Harrington was able to use a male student at MSU to fill in during practices, but that still left a large hole as the team prepped to face its biggest competition of the year: Ohio State. Goalies aren't just growing on trees, even in the State of Hockey. However, as stroke of luck would have it, they are living on dorm room f loors with other hockey players. "Some of our freshmen said there's a freshman on our f loor named Avery Stilwell who played in high school," Harrington recalled. "She plays on the Maverick tennis team, but she plays goalie so maybe she'd be interested in doing that." PECULIAR PROPOSITION Stilwell, who played 81 career games in net for Litchfield/ Dassel-Cokato and set a school record with a career .930 save percentage, had shifted her athletic focus to tennis after grad- uation, competing collegiately with the Division II Minnesota State singles squad, earning her a No. 2 ranking following the fall tennis season. So Coach Harrington reached out to the Mavericks tennis coach. "I had to track down the tennis coach (Ryan Kucera) and I said, 'look Ryan, she's not gonna play, we're just bringing her as backup in case Calla Frank doesn't clear concussion protocol. But we're not planning to play her we just need her through Christmas." M A R C H 2 0 2 2 | M H J ON L I N E . C O M 25 I just thought, there's no way this is going to happen. This can't be real. There's no way this ends up happening."