“That works a lot on our shorthanded goals,” Shipley said. “On the fly, because the [defeders] aren’t really looking to play defense, since they’re on a power play. And the other one (Retrum or Shipley) just breaks through.”

Retrum bookended the four-goal second period Tuesday with a goal in front of the crease later in the period. As the team’s leading scorer last season with 35 goals and 61 points, Retrum is setting the tone again with five goals and nine points in three games.

Paired with sophomore center Kelsey Olson, Retrum and Shipley, who scored a power-play goal in the third period for her third tally of the season, are doing everything their coaching staff expects to see out of two Division-I commits.

“And more,” said Maple Grove coach Jim Koltes. “They are so talented. We get a front row seat every night to watch them.

“But they’re grounded kids, too. You don’t see big egos out of them.”

Both Koltes and Retrum talked about the shorthanded goals mark. Koltes and Retrum didn’t have the school-record number offhand on Tuesday. But according to the MN Girls’ Hockey Hub stats, Lauren Stenslie, now a sophomore at St. Thomas, scored eight career shorthanded goals in four seasons with Maple Grove. Retrum now has five shorties after scoring four last season.

“She thinks she can get them,” Koltes said. “We’ve told her, ‘don’t be flying the zone.’ That’s one of her goals is to get more shorties.

“She’s coming after Stenslie’s record.”

That record aside, Koltes and the Crimson are very excited about the start they’ve had to this young season, defeating Centennial/Spring Lake Park, Wayzata and Blake and outscoring them by a combined 14-2, “three quality programs in the state,” Koltes said.

Their momentum carried into the game against Blake, despite going down 1-0 before Maple Grove’s Pim Wilhelmy tied the game in the final minute of the first period. Blake had the lead on a power-play goal from senior defenseman Jackie Wethington. But the Bears were also still without senior Ellie Morrison, who’s been out injured to start the season.

“Ellie brings a lot of compete every day,” said Blake coach Kristi King. “And I think we’re definitely missing that. But it gives other kids an opportunity to step up.”

The Crimson talked in the first intermission about picking up the pace since they started out slow and the first “wasn’t our best hockey,” Shipley said. Ella Olson scored on the power play, and by the 6:08 mark of the second period, Maple Grove was in control with a 4-1 lead – off Grace Erickson’s stick this time – that resulted in a Blake goaltending change. The Crimson got a 34-save effort from junior Dani Strom, and she came up with some big saves to keep Blake off the board in the second period.

Special teams was huge for Maple Grove, going 2-for-2 on the power play to go along with Retrum’s shorty. Those were the first two full power plays the Crimson saw this season, and they’ve worked hard on the advantage in practice, Koltes said.

“So as coaches, it was nice to see that they were doing the things we were asking them to do and were looking to try to score, and they put the puck there,” Koltes said.