Heather Rule has a recap of the Class 2A girls’ state hockey championship.

This story was originally published in the 2025 MN State High School Hockey Tournament Guide.

The post Girls Class 2A: Comeback Kids appeared first on Minnesota Hockey Magazine.

No, she wasn’t talking about any of her hockey stats as a Minnesota Frost center. She was referring to her connections with the 2025 girls’ high school state hockey tournament champions: Class 2A Hill-Murray and Class 1A Dodge County.

“I did two captain’s practices, and one was with Hill (-Murray) and one was with Dodge County,” Heise said on Sunday afternoon following the Frost’s 2-1 loss to Toronto in St. Paul.

“So, 100% on my part,” Heise quipped.

The Frost returned to Xcel Energy Center on Sunday afternoon for a game against the Toronto Sceptres following a four-game road trip. Crews at the arena had the on-ice and board advertising changed over quickly for the 12:30 p.m. puck drop following the four-day girls’ state hockey tournament. Both Class 1A and Class 2A girls’ championship games were decided in overtime, a first in tourney history.

In Class 1A, top-seeded Dodge County – a co-op of Kasson-Mantorville and Byron in southeastern Minnesota – took a 3-1 lead before three-time defending champ Warroad tied the game with a pair of goals in 21 seconds in the middle of the third period by Vivienne Marcowka. In overtime, it took an official review to determine the puck crossed the goal line to give Dodge County the win. Zoe Heimer scored with 1 minute, 3 seconds left in the first overtime period to secure Dodge County’s first girls’ hockey state championship.

Red Wing’s Taylor Heise’s game-winning shot touches the twine as South St. Paul goalie Sydney Conley helplessly looks on in the Wingers’ 3-2 Class 1A girls’ state third-place game in 2013 at Xcel Energy Center. (MHM Photo / Mackenzie Marinovich)

Heise, a Red Wing graduate from southeastern Minnesota, watched the game online.

“I honestly turned the game off when it was 3-1 with about eight minutes left because I had to go do something,” Heise said. “And I came back and I saw it was 3-3.”

She flipped the game back on and saw the Wildcats earn their title, after getting second place a year ago against the same opponent. The championship was the first for a girls’ hockey program in southern Minnesota.

But Dodge County had to wait a few minutes to celebrate. The teams waited by their benches as officials reviewed the final play. When the official signaled “good goal,” the Wildcats rushed off the bench across the ice toward their ecstatic student section, traditionally tossing their sticks, gloves and helmets along the way.

“I love that for them,” Heise said. “You could see how excited they were. I saw girls crying. I would have cried if I made it there, too. But you could just see the pride in their eyes that they knew they could do it.

“They obviously got stuck in that championship game last year, obviously didn’t make all the way through that they wanted to. But I’m really proud of them. I’m proud of any of the teams that came there. State tournament’s a hard place to play. Playing in a big arena with your whole town watching you, I know the feeling. It’s not easy but really happy for them.”

Close connections to Dodge County hockey
Heise, the 2018 Ms. Hockey winner, played in four state tournaments during her high school career with Red Wing. But she never reached the state championship game. She helped lead the Wingers to three consecutive Class 1A third-place finishes in 2012-14 before finishing as the consolation runner-up in 2018.

Though Heise graduated from Red Wing, she called her connection to Dodge County “southeast Minnesota.” Since basketball was more the sport of choice where she grew up, she remembers playing hockey for Red Wing and going to Dodge County for scrimmages.

She also knows Dodge County coach Jeremy Gunderson and his staff well. Gunderson and her high school coach were friends, so the teams scrimmaged before the regular seasons started. She also gives lessons to Wildcats player Alexa Van Straaten, along with the captain’s practice. During last year’s state tournament, Heise also spoke with the Wildcats before their big game.

“Southern Minnesota pride,” Heise said.

Mercury Bischoff (left), the 2025 Ms. Hockey winner, and the Jori Jones Award recipient, Layla Hemp, watch the Frost game Sunday after receiving their awards at a banquet. (MHM Photo / Heather Rule)

During Sunday’s Frost game, an in-arena announcement and team championship photos shown on the videoboard recognized Dodge County and Hill-Murray. In the Class 2A title game, Hill-Murray upset top-seed and defending champion Edina with a 5-4 win in double overtime.

Next door on Sunday, this year’s Ms. Hockey and Jori Jones Award for goaltender of the year award winners were announced. Mercury Bischoff, a Grand Rapids/Greenway forward who scored 58 goals and 86 points in 28 games this season, won Ms. Hockey, while Minnetonka goaltender Layla Hemp took home the Jori Jones Award. Bischoff is committed to play for Minnesota State next season, while Hemp is off to play for the Minnesota Gophers.

At a TV timeout in the third period, Bischoff and Hemp were acknowledged with an announcement and shown watching the Frost game from a suite. They were wearing their green Minnesota Wild jerseys, traditionally given to the winners of these annual awards. They received a round of applause from the season-high attendance mark of 8,770 fans, and Heise noticed them watching the game, too.

“Even before the game, I thought it would have been a great idea for them to get Frost jerseys,” Heise said. “To be here to see what it could be like for them later in life when they get through college and they get to see what we’re part of. It’s cool.”

The post Heise’s Southern Minnesota Pride appeared first on Minnesota Hockey Magazine.

Here are five rules from the Frost’s first regulation loss of the season:

1. Saturday included homecomings and Hill-Murray/Wisconsin reunions for some of the Montreal players.

There were no graphics or lengthy video tributes, but the Frost welcomed back two former players during the game’s first TV timeout Saturday with an announcement in the arena. Montreal forwards Abby Boreen and Clair DeGeorge each had a chance to wave to the crowd via the videoboard and receive a nice round of cheers. Both were part of the Walter Cup Champion Minnesota team last season.

Boreen, a Wisconsin native who played with Hill-Murray and the Gophers, was a reserve with Minnesota who contributed four goals and five points in nine regular-season games before needing to enter the PWHL Draft in June; Montreal selected her in the third round (17th overall). Boreen came into the game as Montreal’s leading scorer with two goals and four points this season, also fresh off being named the PWHL Second Star of the Week on Dec. 23.

She said she’s had a fun season with her new team.

“Moving to a whole new city, meeting literally everyone from scratch,” Boreen said. “I’ve had a blast, honestly. So, I’m really happy to be here.”

Well, Boreen had at least one familiar face on her new team. She and defender Mariah Keopple, another Wisconsin native and a Hill-Murray teammate, have known each other for about a decade. Saturday’s game was a homecoming for Keopple, too, who had about 60 family members at the game.

“They were scattered all around the rink,” Keopple said. “It was incredible to do it in front of them and also fellow Wisconsin people on my team.

2. Three players scored their first goals of the season.

Of the five goals in Saturday’s game, three marked the first of the season for each player. Keopple scored her first goal to tie the game 1-1 in the first period when her point shot made it through traffic. Then Victoire center Alexandra Labelle gave her team the lead with 37.8 seconds left in the opening period as she whacked away at her own rebound in front of the net. Labelle had only one goal in 24 games last season with New York.

Early in the second period, Frost rookie Brooke McQuigge (a fourth-round draft pick) tied the game at two for her first professional goal. The Frost crashed the net creating a flurry of chances before the fourth-line winger McQuigge cashed in. Liz Schepers and Claire Butorac assisted on the play.

“I think my line fed off each other’s energy and we just forechecked well there,” McQuigge said. “Each of us had a swing at the puck. So, it could’ve been either one of my linemates’ goals. Just happy to get the first one.

3. Minnesota makes the right call on a challenge for goaltender interference.

About halfway through the second period, Montreal appeared to take a two-goal lead when winger Laura Stacey crashed the net as Keopple took a shot from far out that ended up in the net. The official on the ice signaled a good goal. But the Frost challenged the play as Stacey skated through the crease and appeared to get tangled with goaltender Maddie Rooney.

Following the video review, the officials, in consultation with the PWHL Central Situation Room, reversed the call to keep it a one-goal game. They determined goaltender interference indeed occurred on the play.

Though challenges aren’t ever easy, it was the right call this time around, said Frost coach Ken Klee.

“The replays are kind of slow for us to get on the bench,” Klee said. “I was watching on the jumbotron like everybody else.”

Klee added that he’s instructed his goaltenders to let him know if they were interfered with on a play, which also helps make his calls easier. Kendall Coyne Schofield was on the ice for the play and noted that Rooney spoke up right away about being interfered with on the play.

“I try to have them take a little bit of ownership of it, too,” Klee said. “Because they’re around the net, and they see what’s happening.

Britta Curl-Salemme celebrates scoring her third goal of the season to give the Frost a 1-0 lead in Saturday’s game against Montreal. (Photo courtesy of PWHL)

4. Britta Curl-Salemme, Claire Thompson and Taylor Heise keep adding to their point totals.

The Frost had a slow start, captain Coyne Schofield acknowledged postgame. But they still got on the board first for the fifth time in six games this season. About nine minutes into the game, a bouncing puck found its way into the net for a 1-0 Frost lead. Defender Claire Thompson’s shot bounced in front of the net and off of Britta Curl-Salemme for her third goal of the season.

She’s the eighth player in the league to reach three goals this season. She has four points in six games.

With the primary assist on the goal, Thompson leads the league in assists with seven and points with eight. She’ll carry a four-game point streak into the team’s next game on Jan. 2 against Boston.

Taylor Heise also earned an assist on the play, tying her for second in PWHL scoring with seven points (one goal, six assists). She has a point in five consecutive games

5. The Frost lost for the first time in regulation but remained in first place in the PWHL standings.

The loss snaps a four-game winning streak for the Frost, but they’re still atop the PWHL standings with 12 points. Montreal has won three in a row and moved into second place with 10 points.

The Frost were the last team to lose a game in regulation. Montreal’s game-winning goal came only a few minutes after McQuigge tied the game in the second period. Veteran forward Marie-Philip Poulin finished off an odd-man rush to score her second goal of the season after a late pass in deep from Stacey.

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So, she was not expecting a call with the news that she’d been selected for the Hockey Hall of Fame.

“Initially, just shocked,” Wendell-Pohl said. “You don’t ever expect that phone call.

“Once it settled in, it was just really cool. Then to hear the news that… Natalie Darwitz was also going in. It made it that much better.”

Wendell-Pohl, along with her friend and teammate Darwitz, will be inducted into the Hockey Hall of Fame in Toronto on Nov. 11. The Hall of Fame induction weekend is Nov. 8-11.

Wendell-Pohl, 43, built a hall-of-fame career with eye-popping stats and awards as a high-scoring forward. But it’s not like she was a one-sport athlete as a kid. Whatever sport or game her older brother was playing, Wendell-Pohl wasn’t too far behind him.

“It’s funny, I don’t know what it was about hockey,” Wendell-Pohl said. “I literally grew up playing every sport possible from baseball to tennis to made-up games of hot box in the backyard.”

Her other claim to fame as a youth athlete came on the baseball diamond, becoming the fifth girl to play in the Little League World Series.  

But whatever it was about hockey, it was a sport Wendell-Pohl said she loved right away. She loved being at the rink. Loved skating on outdoor rinks. Loved any chance she could get to put on her gear and skate in a game. The competitiveness, the pace, the skating. She was drawn to it all from a young age.

That passion for the sport carried her through, especially because there initially weren’t many opportunities to look forward to for a future in women’s hockey. Playing in college or the Olympics “wasn’t even really an option.”

“So, for me, it really was just the love of the game and being able to play the sport,” Wendell-Pohl said.

Good timing
Turns out, timing was on her side. She may have been one of the most notable girls’ hockey players in Minnesota, who grew up playing with the boys, but doors started to crack open. It started with the addition of women’s hockey to the Olympics in 1998. That led to more opportunities with women’s college programs popping up.

Wendell-Pohl hadn’t even played on a girls’ hockey team – she was still playing bantams with the boys – before she went to the 1998 Olympic team tryout. But then she came back home and played another year with the boys before two years of girls’ high school hockey with Park Center, leading the team to a state championship in 2000. She also trained and played in the world championships and was part of the U.S. Women’s National Team program from 1998-2007.

She’s a two-time Olympian (2002 and 2006) and competed in six IIHF Women’s World Championships, including in 2005 when she helped the United States win its first-ever gold medal in the event. She led the tournament with nine points that year.

She forged a similar path to Darwitz – playing for the national team before playing college hockey. It’s a path that Darwitz noted is a bit in reverse.

“I feel like I got really, really fortunate with the timing,” Wendell-Pohl said. “There were so many people ahead of me that paved the way and was kind of just the beneficiary behind it just being able to enjoy playing and live in the moment.”

Wendell-Pohl moved to Lake Placid to train with the national team after she graduated from Park Center. With her training, she took nearly a two-year gap between schooling. She started college back home with the University of Minnesota Gophers at age 21.

Her journey left Wendell-Pohl with a new appreciation for coming home and being near her friends and family again.

“For me, it was interesting and unique, for sure, to go play in the Olympics and then almost come back and play college,” Wendell-Pohl said. “I certainly enjoyed and looked forward to coming home, and I absolutely loved my time playing college hockey here.”

She scored 106 goals and 237 points in 101 career games across three seasons (2002-05) with the Gophers. Skating with Darwitz, they helped lead the Gophers to back-to-back NCAA championships in 2004 and 2005. Wendell-Pohl was a Patty Kazmaier Award winner and two-time WCHA Player of the Year.

Similar paths for the Krissy-Natalie duo
Because Wendell-Pohl didn’t start college immediately following high school, it worked out well enough that she and Darwitz, already teammates for Team USA, played on a line together with the Gophers, along with Kelly Stephens. Darwitz is two years younger in age.

It’s fitting that this duo will be inducted in the same Hockey Hall of Fame class; they’re both already members of the U.S. Hockey Hall of Fame. Even though they didn’t play together in their youth, and only faced each other once in high school. They played together for their country and their hometown college.

“I think people obviously look at the stats and say, ‘ok, they’re teammates,’” Darwitz said. “I think it goes way beyond that. Krissy and I, we basically saw each other grow up. We left home at an early age.

“We have a similar track record of playing with the boys and then going into the Olympics, and then doing college after that. … It’s just a really cool story.”

Wendell-Pohl agreed that seeing each other grow up was a good way to describe her and Darwitz.

“I do think that people probably pair us together,” Wendell-Pohl said. “I’ll happily take that pairing. If you’re going to pair me with Natalie, I’m happy to tag along with that, because she’s certainly a leader and a driver for women’s hockey.”

Memories surrounded by family
Looking back on her playing career, Wendell-Pohl has plenty of memorable moments from the various stages of her career. She credits a lot of her later opportunities to the positive experiences she had in her youth hockey days playing with boys, where a community was willing to embrace having a girl on the team.

“I just feel so fortunate that… for me, I got to live out a lot of my dreams,” Wendell-Pohl said. “I got to play in the Olympics, I got to go play and win national championships with some of my best friends that I grew up with here in Minnesota.

“Sometimes I almost have to pinch myself. You have no idea when you’re living in the moment until you look back that you realize how lucky and fortunate you really were.”

Wendell-Pohl will celebrate the Hall of Fame weekend with her family, including her parents, brother and sister. Her husband, Johnny Pohl, and their three daughters will also attend. It’s a chance to spend time all together, taking a break from busy lives.

Krissy and Johnny are longtime hockey coaches and just started their second season behind the bench of Hill-Murray’s girls’ team, now coaching their two older daughters on the varsity squad: Emily (sophomore) and Anna (eighth grade).

“To see where the game is now and have my own daughters grow up and have those kind of experiences and memories, to be able to play on all-girls teams and play in the summer and be able to go to different camps is really cool,” Wendell-Pohl said. “It’s a sport that unifies a lot of people. It’s a small world. But it certainly brings a lot of people together.

“I just feel really fortunate that I was able to have the journey I did.”

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Emily’s mom, and Hill-Murray co-head coach Krissy Pohl, didn’t see the puck go in.

“I was already shaking my head when she tried to pull it,” Krissy said. “Because I said, ‘oh, you can’t turn it over there, you’ve got to get it deep.’

“I wanted her to shoot.”

Emily said she wasn’t “really sure what happened” on the play, but of course, she was happy that the puck ended up going over the goal line for her 14th goal of the season, tied for the team lead with senior Chloe Boreen.

Pohl’s goal was all the offense the Pioneers needed to keep their undefeated, 12-0 record, although her teammate Sophie Olson added a goal early in the second period to give the top-ranked Pioneers a 2-0 road victory over No. 3-ranked Andover on Dec. 22.

Emily also played with the varsity team last season, scoring nine goals and 28 points in 28 games as an eighth-grader. This season, she’s scored a goal in 10 of the first 12 games, registering a point in all but one game, a 2-1 victory over Edina on Nov. 30.

Pohl is one of the talented pieces that’s turned in a few impressive wins on a tough schedule so far. The Pioneers knocked off one of the best in Class 2A in Minnetonka with a 5-3 victory on Dec. 9 at Pagel Ice Arena. Pohl tied that game 1-1, the first of her two goals on the night, only 16 seconds after the Skippers grabbed a lead.

Hill-Murray is scoring 5.25 goals per game this season while allowing only 0.75 goals per game. Senior goaltender Grace Zhan (10-0-0) leads the state with a .963 save percentage and a pair of shutouts. Zhan earned the victory over Andover, coming up with plenty of key saves early, on multiple breakaways, on multiple rebound attempts and during the final couple of minutes when Andover pulled its goaltender for the extra skater.

Hill-Murray goaltender Grace Zhan watches a rolling puck to her left as Andover and Hill-Murray players chase after it. (MHM Photo / Heather Rule)

The last time Andover was shut out? Jan. 29, 2020, also at the hands of Hill-Murray on the Andover Community Center ice.

“(Grace) is awesome,” Emily said. “We’re really, really lucky.”

Zhan is even-keeled and humble, Krissy said, and a backbone of their team.

Last season, Hill-Murray fell short in its section final to eventual Class 2A champion Gentry Academy. Following head coach Shawn Reid stepping down after last season, Natalie Darwitz was tapped to be the next coach for the Pioneers. But with the new Professional Women’s Hockey League starting up this season, Darwitz took a job as Team Minnesota’s general manager.

Krissy, 2000 Ms. Hockey winner from Park Center (then Krissy Wendell) and her husband, Hill-Murray athletic director and 1998 Mr. Hockey from Red Wing, John Pohl, stepped in as the girl’s hockey coaches this season, not that being behind the bench was an unfamiliar place for them. They’ve coached their daughter Emily for years, though their plan wasn’t to coach her in high school, Krissy said. They wanted her to “hear different voices,” but this coach-player dynamic at Hill-Murray is a unique circumstance, Krissy added.

They talked to Emily before accepting the coaching position, and she took some time to think about it. Krissy said she and John are harder on Emily than they are on most of the other players, but Emily has also been receptive to that.

“It’s a push-pull,” Krissy said. “I’m giving her her space.

“We’re still figuring it out. She’s a good kid. She’s a pretty mature kid, and we’re pretty proud of her for that.”

Despite the extensive and successful hockey resumes from her parents, Emily is already paving her own way on the ice. Emily said she doesn’t feel pressure because of her parents’ accomplishments. Rather, they’re “very supportive, and they want me to have fun,” Emily said.

“I like to try to be strong and physical but also do the little things,” Emily said. “Get my pucks out of the D zone and try to be there for my teammates on the bench.”

She prides herself on being a good teammate, which also helps keep the pressure off, Emily said. She has her teammates’ backs, and she knows they have hers.

“It’s always good to have a good team around you, and I am blessed to have that,” Emily said.

Though the hockey apple doesn’t fall far from the tree, Krissy said Emily is her own person who’s also a leader for her two younger sisters, seventh-grader Anna and sixth-grader Lucy.

“I do think she knows her own identity, and she knows who she is,” Krissy said. “It’s fun to see her kind of evolve.”

Mom and dad are coaching all three girls on their various hockey teams. They all also play tennis and golf, but the girls are also “all very different,” Krissy said. So, there’s potential for the trio of sisters to skate in the Hill-Murray ranks in a couple of years.

“That’s a long way away,” Krissy said. “We’ll see where we’re at. … That would be really special if it happened.”

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Literally.

The 91st all-time meeting between these northeast metro schools, separated by just five miles, had another unforgettable chapter written, and not just because this edition was played outside. In a series that has featured countless dramatics and unforgettable endings, this one will go down in the history books forever.

Trailing by a goal in the final minute, the Pioneers used some early celebratory fireworks as motivation to find the tying goal with 46 seconds remaining in regulation before winning 2:06 into the extra session.

Brady Ingebritson is mobbed by teammates celebrating his game winner. (MHM Photo / Jeff Wegge)

Both goals were scored by senior captain Brady Ingebritson, who celebrated his tying and winning exploits by leaping into the glass in front of a jubilant — and stunned — Pioneer student section.

“I’ll be talking about this the rest of my life,” Ingebritson said. “OT, Hockey Day, against White Bear Lake. This is just a dream come true.

“And I love the fireworks.”

Moments before the goal, Hill-Murray coach Bill Lechner called timeout to gather his troops ahead of an offensive zone faceoff and to pull his goalie for the extra attacker. 

Then, rather inexplicably, a fireworks display reminiscent of Fourth of July grand finale, began going off along the near horizon about 200 yards from the ice sheet. 

Did someone hit the button too early? Was there confusion with the horn signifying the end of the timeout? 

Regardless of what happened, it’s set in motion a series of events that will live in infamy in these parts for years. 

With smoke from the display settling in, and fireworks still going off in the distance, officials dropped the puck to resume play in the White Bear Lake defensive zone. Forced into a front-row viewing of the pyrotechnics was Bears sophomore goaltender Leo Gabriel, who corralled a first shot, but couldn’t contain a second, with Ingebritson whipping the puck through the haze and into the cage.

“The fireworks, that got my energy up,” Ingebritson said. “I got together with the guys and said, ‘look at this, they’re already celebrating the win.’

“Our energy was going. The fireworks were great, that helped us.”

It’s not often Lechner, the legendary 69-year-old head coach of the Pioneers, sees something new at a hockey rink. But this certainly qualified.

“We always talk about, ‘play between the glass,’ if we’re focused, they don’t know if they’re playing in front of 10 people or 10,000,” Lechner said. “It’s easier said than done, especially with kids. They’re not pros.”

It’s a consistent message that Lechner preaches, regardless of the setting, the opponent or the time of game, and in this case, that calm paid off.

When things got wild at the end, Hill-Murray looked calm and composed in a setting that was anything but.

“It’s easy to say when you win that you have the perfect formula,” Lechner said. “It’s a little bit early to have everything falling into place, and we still don’t have all the pieces, but we’ll get some guys back and we’ll get closer.”

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“We’re just like, ‘why don’t we become state champions our senior year?’” Strobel said.

Why don’t they? Well, they did.

Hill-Murray defeated Eden Prairie 4-1 in the Class 2A championship Saturday night. The Pioneers pulled off an upset, winning the title as a 5-seed over the 3-seeded Eagles. Strobel had a team-leading four goals in the tournament, including two in the title game.

“We’re 2020 state high school hockey champions,” Strobel said. “And we can live with that for the rest of our lives. That’s the best feeling in the world right now.”

Hill-Murray senior captain Charlie Strobel (L) and teammate Henry Eischen celebrate Strobel’s second-period goal giving the Pioneers a 3-0 lead over Eden Prairie en route to a 4-1 win over the Eagles in the Class 2A final on Saturday night at Xcel Energy Center. (MHM Photo / Rick Olson)

The Pioneers accomplished the feat with what opponents often referred to as their “relentless” play. That offense and defense started off strong from the drop of the puck Saturday.

Hill-Murray took a 1-0 lead in the middle of the first period, capitalizing on the first power-play opportunity of the game. Junior defenseman Matthew Fleischhacker took a shot from the blue line that found its way into the net.

Their underdog status helped their mindset, too.

“Gave us a little firepower at the beginning of the game,” Fleischhacker said.

The Pioneers extended the lead to 3-0 by the time the second period was over. First, they got an early goal from senior Owen Quast when he entered the Eden Prairie zone and blasted a shot top-shelf over the blocker at the 3:46 mark of the period.

With 1:54 to play in the period, Strobel took the puck into the zone and held his ground while being defended by Eden Prairie’s Mason Langenbrunner. Strobel went all the way down behind the net and finished off the play with a textbook wrap-around goal to push the margin to 3-0.

Eden Prairie assistant coach Paul Ranheim pointed to momentum turning just three minutes into the game, when Jackson Blake stood even with the goal line and sent the puck all the way through the crease, parallel with the goal line.

“I think the momentum for us changed when we had the great 3-on-2 and Blake didn’t score,” Ranheim said.

Eden Prairie’s John Mittelstadt (9) and Ben Steeves (6) celebrate Steeves’ third-period goal, cutting the Eagles’ deficit to 3-1 on the way to a 4-1 loss to Hill-Murray in Saturday night’s Class 2A championship game at Xcel Energy Center. (MHM Photo / Rick Olson)

Eden Prairie got on the board with 11:11 remaining in regulation with Ben Steeves’ 37th goal of the season when he picked a corner just inside the top of the goal on the blocker side. The Eagles had life, cutting into the deficit for a 3-1 game.

But Strobel took a diving shot on a 2-on-1 play and his second of the game seemed to really seal the deal for the Pioneers, regaining the three-goal lead with 6:01 left in regulation.

Despite Eden Prairie pulling its goaltender not long after that, the Eagles couldn’t seem to get much going offensively in the closing minutes.  

“They were getting in shooting lanes,” said Eagles senior John Mittelstadt. “It wasn’t easy getting the puck to the net, obviously.”

The Pioneers were also without one of their top defensemen, Joe Palodichuk, in the game. The team found out in the middle of the afternoon that the junior would be out after going to the doctor and being diagnosed with mono.

It created some personnel changes on the fly before the game. With Palodichuk usually running the power play, the Pioneers stuck Jared Jensen in that spot, while they also rotated five defensemen throughout the game.

“What was bizarre is we got one power play, I believe, and we scored on it,” said Hill-Murray coach Bill Lechner.

It’s the fourth state title for the Pioneers and second in the two-class format that started in 1994, with the other title coming in 2008. Hill-Murray also won the title in 1991, when Strobel’s father, Mike, was an assistant captain on the team. His uncle, Mark Strobel, was the tournament’s leading scorer that year, with four goals and three assists.

For Charlie, it’s a great feeling knowing that family history.

“Then I came in here and tried to do my best to do the same thing,” Charlie said. “I didn’t want to put too much pressure on myself, because I knew if I did, the outcome probably wouldn’t happen.”

Since winning its second state title in 2011, Eden Prairie has finished as a runner-up three times (2016, 2019, 2020).

“They played like they wanted it more,” Ranheim said, of Hill-Murray. “They came out, their legs were moving, and we got behind. And chased and chased and couldn’t find our momentum.”

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When asked about it after the game, Hill-Murray coach Bill Lechner responded, “I guess I didn’t think of it that way but does that happen very often?”

The answer to Lechner’s question is no. In fact, it marks the first time since 2008 that one conference can claim both state champions going back to when the Classic Suburban Conference, featuring Hill-Murray and St. Thomas Academy, managed the same feat. It was also the last time two East Metro teams have claimed state titles in the same season. 

Coincidentally, that was the last time the Pioneers skated off as Class 2A champions. The 2008 Classic Suburban winners were joined by conference runner-up St. Thomas Academy, which won the Class 1A title that year. The Cadets made it a trio of Metro East teams qualifying for the 2020 state tournament, this time as a Class 2A competitor, and advanced to the semifinals before falling to the Pioneers 3-2 on Charlie Strobel’s overtime goal. 

The 2008 Pioneers also beat St. Thomas Academy in overtime at Xcel Energy Center but that came in late January as part of the 2nd-annual Hockey Day Minnesota festivities based in Baudette. Three days later, a 5-4 overtime win over Mahtomedi clinched the conference title for Hill-Murray.

The Pioneers went on to defeat Roseau 4-2 in the Class 2A semifinals, ending the Rams’ 42-game winning streak dating back to the previous season. The Pioneers won the state title with a 3-0 win over another West Metro power Edina.

Mahtomedi coach Jeff Poeschl addresses his team on the bench during his team’s Class 1A quarterfinal win over Delano on Wednesday, March 4, 2020 at Xcel Energy Center. (Photo: Tim Kolehmainen / Breakdown Sports USA)

Hill-Murray coach Bill Lechner’s second state championship came in his 14th tournament appearance (11th in the last 15 years) which includes five trips to the Class 2A final. For Mahtomedi coach Jeff Poeschl, on the other hand, Saturday’s win gave the Zephyrs their first Class 1A state title overall and first in nine trips to the state tournament under Poeschl after three third place finishes (1994, 2015 and 2019).

“They did a great job and it was fun for Poeschy,” Lechner said. “We sent them a little congrats before our game so, yeah, that’s pretty neat.”

The ties between Lechner, Hill-Murray and Poeschl run deep dating back to the 1979-80 season when Poeschl was a senior 3-year starter for the Pioneers during Lechner’s first season as a Hill-Murray assistant coach under Terry Skrypek. One of Poeschl’s teammates, Bill Schafhauser, is Hill-Murray’s girls’ varsity coach and the brother of current Lechner assistant, Pat Schafhauser.

Now they coach at schools slightly more than six miles apart and have done so since the 1997-98 season.

“There’s certainly an awful lot of pride for the East Metro,” Poeschl said. “For as much as we hear about the West Metro and the teams, not to take anything away from them, but we often are in the shadow of the Edinas and the Wayzatas and the Benildes and Eden Prairies and, you know, the list goes on.

“But [I’m] awfully proud of the East Metro and the way that we’ve represented our conference.”

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