A perennial state champion took down the defending state champion in girls’ hockey action Saturday afternoon.

The Aberdeen Cougars, who have won six of the past eight state titles, edged last year’s champ Sioux Falls Flyers 5-4 at the Odde Ice Center.

“We’ve been looking forward to this game since we started practicing, because we want to see where we’re at, skill-wise,” said Cougars player Morgan Jones. “Obviously, Sioux Falls lost some girls, so it’s a slightly different team that we were playing, but it’s still really high competition. It’s good to know that we can beat them and compete with them.”

The Cougars controlled play for the majority of the game, setting the tone in the opening period when they outshot the visitors 17-5.

After giving up an early goal, Aberdeen responded with back-to-back goals to take the lead. Kailyn Poppen scored the first one, then spotted Jones who put the puck in the back of the net to give the Cougars a lead.

“We’ve been working on, we call it attack triangle, so we have one person high and two people down low going into the zone,” Jones said. “We’ve been working on that non-stop at practice and so we’ve been trying to put it to use in games and that’s what happened on that play.”

After the Flyers tied the game on a power play goal to start the second period, the Cougars again responded with two goals – one each by Alli Stoltenburg and Poppen – to take a 4-2 lead into the final period.

Aiden Raap’s goal with 6:37 left pushed the margin to 5-2 and it appeared the Cougars were in total control. However, the Flyers closed the gap to 5-4 with 2:43 remaining after scoring two goals, including one on another power play.

“One of the things that disappointed me today was our penalty kill, but I think you saw why Sioux Falls is a good team,” said Cougars coach Rob Weinmeister. “They possessed the puck and they worked it around for great opportunities on the power play. It’s something that we can take away from them and learn from.”

In the end, Aberdeen’s fresh three lines and speed on the ice proved to be too much for the Flyers.

“One of the goals today was win your shift,” Weinmeister said. “Winning your shift is out there hustling and beating them to the 50-50 pucks and stuff like that.”

As a result of doing that, the Cougars were able to keep pressure on the Sioux Falls goal as they outshot the Flyers 40-23 in the contest.

“We try to just connect our passes and get them moving, and keep the puck moving,” Jones said, “because I think that’s where we really excel. We have a lot of speed on our team.”

Weinmeister thought his team’s effort was better on Saturday than it was against Huron on Friday when the squad jumped in front with five first-period goals.

“Much better effort today. I think they were a little more focused today,” Weinmeister said. “I think things maybe got a little too easy for them (Friday) night in the first period and we lost our focus, but today was better. We were skating hard. We were looking for passes.”

The Cougars, 4-1 on the season, have another tough matchup this coming weekend when they host Brookings on Saturday afternoon at the Odde Ice Center.

“They have the same team as last year, because they didn’t have any seniors, either,” Jones said. “We were able to compete with them pretty well last year, so we’re hoping for the same thing this year.”

Sioux Falls Flyers 1 1 2 – 4

Aberdeen Cougars 2 2 1 – 5

First Period: 1, SFF, Zoe Gorra (Juliana Chan), 11:10; 2, AC, Kailyn Poppen (Alyssa Roehrich), 9:13; 3, AC, Morgan Jones (Poppen), 1:32.

Second Period: 4, SFF, Alyssa Lingen, 16:29; 5, AC, Alli Stoltenburg (Allison Woehl), 9:10; 6, AC, Poppen, 2:16.

Third Period: 7, AC, Aiden Raap (Rylee Hepper, Ema Rehder) 6:37; 8, SFF, Lingen, 5:27; 9, SFF, Hallie Gray (Halle Watson), 2:43.

Shots on Goal: Sioux Falls Flyers 23; Aberdeen Cougars 40.

Goalies: Sioux Falls Flyers, Sydney Fornwald (35 saves); Aberdeen Cougars, Chloe Vikander (19 saves).