Pickle juice.

It’s the elixir that kept Murray Marvin-Cordes chugging during Warroad’s double-overtime victory against East Grand Forks in the Section 8A championship game last week and no doubt was on hand at the Xcel Energy Center on Wednesday — just in case — during the Warriors’ 8-1 state Class 1A quarterfinal victory against New Ulm.

“It was a long game … and the legs kind of locked up,” Marvin-Cordes said about the late stages of the section title game. “First shift of double overtime I got out there and could tell something was going on. (Assistant coach) Dane Shaugabay brought some pickles on the bench and that kind of got me going through the rest of the game.

“But we’re definitely ready to go here."

Marvin-Cordes’ reflexes were tested as early as the pregame introductions, when, with TV cameras rolling and the Xcel lights turned up to blast, teammate Draydin Johnson stumbled at the blueline and needed a steady hand from Marvin-Cordes to prevent what could have been an incredibly embarrassing tumble to the ice.

“I don’t know if I saved him, he recovered on his own,” Marvin-Cordes said about Johnson’s faux pas. “It’s kind of funny that it happened. When you are doing the opening skate-outs that’s one of the things you think about, and the fact that it did happen was kind of hilarious.”

Having done his good deed for the day, Marvin-Cordes proceeded to score a hat trick for the Warriors, giving him 10 goals in his last five games. He’s paired impeccably on Warroad’s top line with fellow senior and sniper Carson Pilgrim for the last two seasons. Pilgrim scored twice against New Ulm and has a team-best 31 goals this season. Marvin-Cordes is second with 27 goals.

“Our whole top line, every since the playoffs have started, they’ve raised their level of play,” Warroad coach Jay Hardwick said. “You can tell once playoffs started they were like, ‘We mean business.’ ”

Marvin-Cordes scored the lone goal of the first period on a backhand shot that clanged in off the left goalpost. He capped the scoring in the third with a breakaway goal on another precision shot. Several other Warroad goals were the result of sniper-class markmanship, leaving New Ulm goaltender Bryer Hoffmann little hope to stop them.

“They had quick releases and could place the puck where they wanted to place it,” Hoffmann said.

No. 2 seed Warroad, state tournament runner-up last season to Mahtomedi after losing a double-overtime thriller in the title game, scored five of its goals in the second period and let off the gas in the third, when New Ulm scored its lone goal. Dehydration and cramping were non-issues. 

The pickle juice remains in reserve.