IRVING, Texas -- Emma Cockrum and Madison Rigsby go to great lengths to play hockey.

When the St. Louis Lady Blues dropped their 19U team before this season, Cockrum and Rigsby joined the Dallas Stars Elite Tier I 19U girls’ team.

Their move paid off Sunday, when the Stars shut out Colorado Select 4-0. The victory gave Dallas the best-of-three series championship, two games to one. With the win, the Stars advance to the Toyota-USA Hockey National Championships March 26-30 in Green Bay, Wis.

The Stars bounced back after losing the first game 3-1. They won the second 2-1 in overtime.

Cockrum led the offense in Game 3, scoring the first goal and assisting on the goal that put Dallas ahead 3-0. Rigsby was a rock in goal.

The two girls still live in St. Louis but commute to play in tournaments for the Stars.

Stars coach Stan Tugolukov also was smiling. On the same day he coached the Stars 19U girls to the title, he also led the Stars Tier I 14U youth team to a district championship as well.

It was the fifth district championship for Tugolukov — who has won three national championships, two with the Alliance Bulldogs U19 team in 2011 and ’12.

He said he can’t tell anything about the Stars’ chances this year.

“Before nationals you don’t know,” he said. “It’s a different group of players, and you’re playing teams you’ve never played before.”

Rigsby went to nationals three times with Blues teams. Cockrum has experienced one national championships — with a team from Ohio that began her life on airplanes.

Rigsby said she was determined to complete the shutout against Colorado.

“All they wanted to do, obviously, was to ruin it,” she said.

It actually helped that the Stars drew four minor penalties in the third period, including spending the final 3:43 on the penalty kill.

“We got to ice the puck toward the end of the game,” Rigsby said. “I kept telling them just to ice it.”

Added Tugolukov, “She’s a top goalie. She likes a challenge. We helped her by blocking a lot of shots. We played tight in the D zone. It was nice to have a shutout.

“We did a good job playing as a team. We picked up our offense to put the pressure on them. Our forechecking was good. We were determined to score some goals.”

Dallas had scored just two goals in regulation play during the series’ first two games.

“This was one of my better games,” Cockrum said. “We usually have pretty even scoring. Normally we fight for the puck in front of the net and see who gets to it first.”

Typically, four different players scored for Dallas. Cockrum’s goal was on the power play 5:04 into the first period. Stephanie Evans scored at 12:34 of the second, and the Stars came back soon after with Courtney Walpole’s goal 28 seconds into the third period, with an assist from Cockrum.

Walpole, who had moved earlier from St. Louis to Dallas, was one reason why Rigsby and Cockrum went south to play. Bruce Walpole is an assistant coach and Jill Walpole the manager for Stars 19U team.

Rigsby said she had noticed a change with her new team.

“There’s no drama,” she said. “Everybody gets along really well. They never give up. They just keep going.”

At 12:32 of the third, Colorado misplayed the puck. Dani Hunt went in on a 2-on-1, kept the puck and shot for an unassisted goal to round out the scoring.

Story from Red Line Editorial, Inc.