WARRENDALE — With the Mars hockey team together and healthy for the first time since September, there was little goalie Tyler Spreng needed to say to expound on the Planets' on-ice performance Wednesday night.

Mars was dominant offensively in a 7-0 win over Freeport in the PIHL Class A quarterfinals at BladeRunners.

In the third period, the Planets scored the game's final four goals in a stretch of 3 minutes, 34 seconds and outshot the Yellowjackets 45-20.

Spreng feels Mars is playing its best hockey since reaching the elimination round of the St. Margaret's preseason tournament, which involves teams from all classifications.

Having everyone back is a big reason.

“It definitely helps as you can see. Look at what happened out there,” said Spreng, who made 20 saves. “We haven't had everyone together since St. Margaret's. We did great in that tournament. We haven't had the same numbers since then and haven't gotten the same results.”

The Planets (18-4-1) will look for better results in the PIHL semifinals at 8 p.m. next Wednesday at the RMU Island Sports Complex.

Mars lost to Thomas Jefferson in the semifinals last season and will face Eastern Conference champion Deer Lakes, which split with the Planets in the regular season.

The Lancers advanced with an 8-1 win over Montour.

Mars coach Steve Meyers thinks his team will be prepared for the challenge and thought they were in sync against the Yellowjackets (12-9-2).

“It was good to see it all working good,” Meyers said. “There wasn't too much rust there, maybe during the first couple minutes feeling our way through.”

Freeport goaltender Matt Huston prevented the Planets from dominating early. Huston turned away 15 first-period shots to keep the game scoreless.

“It was a tremendous effort by Matt,” first-year Yellowjackets coach Mel Reichenbaugh said. “He's been strong all year and it continued tonight.”

Paul Maust put Mars ahead with good timing.

He stole the puck at the blue line, creating a breakaway that ended with him sliding the puck past Huston with 11:20 left in the period.

“When we see any opportunity to score, you have to take it because you don't know when the next one is going to come,” Maust said. “Especially in the playoffs, you have to take everything that is given to you.”

Mars added two more goals in the second period. Owen Vasbinder scored on a deflected shot and Noah Raymundo added a shorthanded goal.

The Planets crashed the net aggressively.

“I think we did a good job of that in the first,” Meyers said. “We knew once we got the first one, their back would break a little bit. ... When our team runs a system as a unit, its tough to beat.”

Mars' system kept churning in the third period. A Beau Heakins power-play goal was followed with one by Keaton Hanna 16 seconds later to stretch the lead to 5-0.

Heakins scored another power play goal two minutes later, followed by a second goal from Maust.

Ian Houk-Graves and Raymundo led Mars with two assists.

Maust looks forward to what this team can do moving forward.

“The younger guys stepped up and the upperclassmen really took a leadership role and got us together to make a pretty good team,” Maust said. “We have a chance this year. We have a real good chance.”