The law of averages indicated it was bound to happen sooner or later, and Addyson Keller made it happen with just under a minute to play Saturday afternoon at the Odde Ice Center.

Keller took a feed from Rachel Siefken and put the puck in the back of the net with 58.5 seconds left to give the Aberdeen Cougars a 3-2 girls’ hockey win over the Mitchell Marlins.

“I got a beautiful pass from Rachel and I was sitting high slot. I set the puck up, because I had a little bit of time, I just looked at it, and I did my snap shot,” Keller said. “I was just aiming for the net, and just the general area, just to get a rebound or something, and it went in.”

The goal capped an offensive barrage that saw the Cougars outshoot Mitchell by a whopping 23-1 margin in the final 17 minutes. Included in the third period were three power-play opportunities.

Aberdeen’s Leah Kranzler tied the game with 10:11 left on an assist from Raniesa Mattke. The Cougars continued to play in front of the Mitchell goal, but had a hard time finding the go ahead goal.

“Great puck control today. Can’t really complain about that. We just got to find the back of the net more often,” said Aberdeen coach David Sandvig. “Put a lot of pucks on the goalies’ pad, but the girls really worked the puck around, a lot of great passes, they were passing to shoot, it was great to see.”

While the Cougars had a hard time getting a puck past the Mitchell goalie, they stayed the course and kept firing away, eventually outshooting the Marlins by a 45-16 advantage.

“You keep going. You figure it will come along at some point and it did,” Sandvig said. “That’s why you stay in it. You don’t get desperate. You just keep playing your game.”

Keller knew the Cougars were doing the right things, they just weren’t getting the reward throughout most of the contest.

“Every time my line went off the ice we were just talking about like, OK we did this right, this right and this right,” Keller said, “we just need to keep doing this right, and eventually one of them is going to go in.”

While the Cougars were literally living in front of the Mitchell zone, Aberdeen goalie Chloe Vikander had very little action on the other end of the ice. She said that is not always the best situation, either.

“You just gotta kind of stay warm, and stay locked in,” Vikander said. “It’s hard if you’re not getting those shots for like 15-20 minutes. …. Sometimes it’s a little much. You just have to stay ready for it, because you never know when it’s going to come.”

And eventually it did come and Vikander was ready for it, stopping a solid Mitchell opportunity in the closing minutes with the game still tied. Vikander finished with 14 saves in all.

“Chloe played an amazing game,” Keller said. “She really kept us in there … She got tough shots all game. She needs to get a little round of applause, because she did amazing.”

As well as Vikander played in the first two periods, her team still trailed heading onto the ice to start the final period.

The goalie said the message in the locker room between periods was to keep the pressure on.

“Just keep playing hard,” Vikander said. “We were outskating them, outshooting them the whole time, so we’re like if we keep shooting it’s going to fall, we’re going to get one eventually.”

Alyssa Roehrich scored Aberdeen’s first goal on an assist from Olivia Sandvig in the second period to tie the score at 1-1 at the time.

The same two teams are back at it again at 11 this morning at the Odde Ice Center.

Coach Sandvig said it provides a prime opportunity to see what the squad is doing right and also what it needs to work on.

“What’s nice about it from a learning standpoint is you get to do the same thing against the same group (Sunday),” he said, “so you can really compare what do we do same, what do we do different, how do we carry that forward, so from a learning moment standpoint it’s pretty good.”

Mitchell Marlins 1 1 0 – 2

Aberdeen Cougars 0 1 2 – 3

First Period: 1, MM, Makenna Tronnes (Karlie Konfrst), 2:22.

Second Period: 2, AC, Alyssa Roehrich (Olivia Sandvig), 14:02; 3, MM, Tronnes (unassisted), 9:21.

Third Period

4, AC, Leah Kranzler (Raniesa Mattke), 10:11; 5, AC, Addyson Keller (Rachel Siefken), :58.

Shots on Goal: Mitchell Marlins 16; Aberdeen Cougars 43.

Goalies: Mitchell Marlins, Kaylie O’Connor (40 saves); Aberdeen Cougars, Chloe Vikander 14 saves).