The final result was nearly identical, but the journey was much different this time around.

The Sioux Falls Flyers defeated the Aberdeen Cougars 5-1 in girls’ hockey action Friday night, but the local squad had a much better effort than in a previous 5-0 setback against the same team.

“They pretty much did whatever they wanted the first time we played them, but not tonight,” said Cougars coach Rob Weinmeister. “They had to work for everything they got tonight.”

Sioux Falls grabbed an early lead and had the first nine shots on goal in the contest. However, Aberdeen settled in after that and tied the game on a goal by Alyssa Roehrich with 30 seconds left in the first period.

“I think that my teammate just passed it to me, and it was the perfect opportunity to just get it in the top corner,” Roehrich said.

When asked if she knew the puck was going in the second it left her stick, the freshman responded, “Not really, honestly. I kind of just shot it and prayed.”

The Cougars then came out and controlled the early part of the second period and actually had more shots on goal than the visitors at one stage before the tide turned.

“I didn’t think we played bad in the first period, we just weren’t getting shots on net. We were shooting it into them and stuff like that,” Weinmeister said. “The second period we came out great. We came out with intensity and energy. I was just telling the girls, they didn’t get a shot on net until the six-minute mark and then that power play, I think they got three shots on the power play, and then the puck bounced their way and we kind of had a dip there which rolled into the third period.”

The Flyers scored two goals in the second period, the last coming with just seven seconds left on the clock. Sioux Falls then added a pair of third-period goals for the final margin of difference.

Still, Weinmeister liked what he saw out of his young team against one of the state’s top squads.

“I think we took them to task and I think they know it too, because that’s a team that you usually don’t see icing the puck and stuff like that and they were tonight,” Weinmeister said. “They’re a good team and they capitalized on our mistakes, which good teams do.”

Weinmeister said Sioux Falls does a good job of anticipating passes and that the Cougars were a bit too slow with their attempts to find teammates.

“They just move the puck well and they’re good on their skates. They read very well so they take away a lot of passing lanes and our problem right now is we weren’t thinking and moving as fast as we needed to for them,” Weinmeister said. “We were telegraphing some of the passes. They were in lanes before we made the pass or we made the pass late which created a turnover, created an opportunity for them.”

Still, it was a spirited effort from the Cougars who lost a lot of talented players from a year ago.

“I think we just had the drive and the intensity to go out there and show them who we really were,” Roehrich said.

She said while the team may look a bit different, the players don’t think any differently.

“You just have to realize that we are the same team that we were last year, we just lost a couple of our players,” Roehrich said, “but mentally we are the same team and we can go out there and compete with anybody if we really try.”

The Cougars have a busy weekend of hockey. They travel to Yankton for games today and Sunday.

Sioux Falls Flyers 1 2 2 – 5

Aberdeen Cougars 1 0 0 – 1

First Period: 1, SF, Berit Hefti (unassisted), 11:12; 2, AC, Alyssa Roehrich (Alli Stoltenberg, Madeline Sandvig), :30.

Second Period: 3, SF, Ragyn Peska (unassisted), 3:54; 4, SF, Hefti (unassisted), :07.

Third Period: 5, SF, Lilly Moon (Rylan Peska), 16:00; 6, SF, Adriana Clark (Gaby Schroeder), 8:10.

Shots on Goal: Sioux Falls Flyers 31; Aberdeen Cougars 22.

Goalies: Sioux Falls Flyers, Riley Vander Esch (21 saves); Aberdeen Cougars, Ellen Orr (26 saves).