WATERTOWN – The Aberdeen Cougars have returned to the pinnacle of girls’ hockey in South Dakota.

The Cougars won their seventh state championship in the past nine seasons, and first since 2021, with a hard-fought 1-0 victory over the Sioux Falls Flyers Sunday afternoon at the Prairie Lakes Ice Arena in Watertown.

“It was a complete team effort,” said Aberdeen coach Rob Weinmeister.

It turned out to be a defensive battle from the opening puck drop and both teams had multiple prime opportunities throughout the contest. Cougars goalie Chloe Vikander stonewalled 23 Sioux Falls shots in the shutout victory.

“I just was thinking about the seniors, and how I wanted to win it for them,” Vikander said, “and … this team has been amazing and I just wanted to win it for them, so I was just giving it everything I had.”

Aberdeen was outshot by a 23-14 margin, and it would have been more than that if not for the Cougars’ defense in front of the net.

“I think defensively we came together as a team,” Weinmeister said. “Not only did they have that many shots, but how many shots did we block? We blocked a lot of shots and Chloe played a heckuva game back there.”

With 13 minutes remaining in the third period, the Cougars broke through and scored the game’s only goal when Rylee Hepper found the upper corner of the net on an assist from Morgan Jones in the final seconds of a power play.

“We were just down in the corner and I saw Morgan and Rachel (Siefken) and I yelled for it,” Hepper said, “got the pass assist and then I shot it and scored.”

Jones described the sequence that produced the game-winning goal.

“We were kind of working it down low behind the net, and just trying to get something going on in front of the net, and I saw Rylee Hepper just on the other side of the net,” Jones said. “I was like she’s open, let’s just get the puck to her and see what happens. And she got the shot off and it went in.”

It turned out to be Hepper’s only goal in league play this season, although she scored on a similar attempt last weekend in non-league action.

“That’s why you have them all out there, because they have skill sets,” Weinmeister said. “She did that last weekend in Minnetonka, put it up in the upper corner.”

There was still work to be done, though, as Sioux Falls had a power play to try to find the equalizer in the closing minutes. However, the Aberdeen defense stood tall and helped to preserve the shutout.

“They are strong,” Hepper said of her team’s defense. “We planned to be a defensive team, step on every person, and just work as a team and backcheck as hard as we can.”

Weinmeister was pleased that his team remained disciplined with the outcome hanging in the balance.

“That’s the way the girls game together and we didn’t panic,” Weinmeister said. “We started chasing a little bit there, but we just maintained our composure.”

And with Vikander turning away one shot after another, the Flyers were not able to get on the scoreboard before time ran out.

When asked how she was able to stop one shot after another, Vikander responded, “I don’t even know to be honest. I just saw the puck and tried to get in front of it, and just hoped and believed.”

Vikander credited her teammates for helping her in the shutout victory.

“It was one of my better games, but the team helped out a lot,” Vikander said. “I couldn’t have done it without them.”

Vikander shutout Sioux Falls earlier in the season as well, but that paled in comparison to doing it in a state title contest.

“It feels great,” Vikander said of being a state champion. “It feels absolutely amazing.”

Interestingly enough, last season the Cougars were league champs, but lost to Brookings in the title game. This year, Sioux Falls was the league champion, only to lose to Aberdeen in the championship contest.

Jones said she likes this finish much better.

“Oh, I’d rather be state champs all the way,” Jones said. “I got a league champ last year.”

Jones, one of three seniors on the squad along with Kailyn Poppen and Alli Stoltenburg, said the team had a memorable state tournament capped in the best way possible.

“These last few days, our team, we’ve just like, everyone’s been clicking, the energy on the bench has been electric,” Jones said, “so to finally get it done today, there’s nothing better than that.”

Aberdeen Cougars 0 0 1 – 1

Sioux Falls Flyers 0 0 0 – 0

First Period: no scoring.

Second Period: no scoring.

Third Period: 1, AC, Rylee Hepper, power play (Morgan Jones), 13:00.

Shots on Goal: Aberdeen Cougars 14; Sioux Falls Flyers 23.

Goalies: Aberdeen Cougars, Chloe Vikander (23 saves); Sioux Falls Flyers, Sydney Fornwald (13 saves).