WATERTOWN — The motor didn’t crank right away, but once it turned over, the Brookings Rangers cruised through their quarterfinal at the South Dakota Amateur Hockey Association varsity state tournament in Watertown.

The No. 2 seeded Rangers scored five third-period goals to down the Mitchell Marlin,8-0 and advance to today’s state semifinal against Sioux Falls West.

“It took us a minute to get going,” Brookings coach Garrett Gerstner said after the game. “But once we settled in we got back to the identity we strive to have and the one we’re going to need through this tournament.”

The first game of the day at Watertown’s new arena saw Sioux Falls West and Aberdeen play deep into a second overtime before West won, 5-4. The Brookings-Mitchell game looked like it might be another tight one through one period, as Brookings led just 1-0.

But the Rangers, skating three and sometimes four lines, wore down the seventh-seeded Marlins to win going away.

“That’s what we want to do, we want to be hard to play against. We want to roll through our guys, we want to possess the puck, get going north and then get it down low on the other end and play as much as we can 200 feet from our net,” Gerstner said. “That’s been a theme all year, and we were able to get a lot of guys out there and they didn’t let it get too big for them.”

Maxten Jensen scored the lone Rangers goal of the first period from right out front off a feed from Talon Hyde and Riley Linstad.

Jensen scored the game’s second goal in the second period, again off a feed fron Linstad, as the Rangers began going deeper on the bench.

The backbreaker for the Marlins came with less than a minute to play in the period, when Luke Honkomp took a feed back to the point from Jackson Heller and slid the puck across the goalmouth to Mason Diers, who banged it home to extend the lead to 3-0.

“The older guys were kind of taking care of things early, and that’s important,” Gerstner said. “But one we got going, it was good to see those young guys play well.”

The floodgates opened in the third. Cooper Deatherage scored two in a row, the second a power play tally off a feed from Honkomp. Cooper Schneider then buried a slapshot on the rush to start the running clock.

Jackson Heller banged one home from in front with assists going to Mauer Bartley and Tre Christopherson. Then on the same shift, Bartley snapped one home from the blue line off a feed from his partner Caleb Johnson.

The Rangers outshot the Marlins 44-12, but when they did have chances — especially early — they were stymied by Brookings goaltender Egan Jensen.

Jensen, who missed the bulk of the season with an injury, is a big presence between the pipes for the Rangers.

“It was unfortunate he missed as much time as he did,” Gerstner said. “I am glad he is getting a chance to finish the year on his own terms, and he’s certainly a calming presence on our back end. He’s played in a lot of big games for us, and the guys all feel that.”

The Rangers, the four-time defending state champions, now look to a state semifinal with Sioux Falls West.

The two teams split a pair of tight games during league play. The Flyers beat the Rangers 2-1 at Larson Ice Center on Nov. 29. Brookings got the win in Sioux Falls on Feb. 7, 4-3.

“That’s what it’s gonna look like if we hold our identity and make a deep run, here,” Gerstner said. “We don’t have a bunch of guys who are going to go score four or five, but we’re looking for a lot of guys to go score one or two.”