Despite the large amount of snow that's expected to fall in St. Paul, there's plenty of girls hockey action Saturday at the Xcel Energy Center. Here's a preview of the two championship games.
The Class A final at 4 PM features the second seeded Breck Mustangs and the top seeded Warroad Warriors. Both teams are looking to end long championship droughts. Breck's last state title came in 2012 when they beat the South St. Paul Packers in double overtime and Warroad preceded them with Class A titles in 2010 and 2011. The two teams met on November 24 with Warroad beating Breck 4-2.
The Mustangs began their championship road with a 9-2 win over the Marshall Tigers in the quarterfinals. Carly Beniek and former St. Louis Park Oriole Olivia Mobley scored two goals apiece as Breck scored five second period goals to put the Tigers away. They clinched a championship berth with a 6-0 shut out of the Proctor/Hermantown Mirage. Emily Zumwinkle tallied twice for the Mustangs as they recored their fifth shut out of the season.
Now a look at the Warriors. In two games, Warroad has outscored their opponents 12-1. Sophomore Hannah Corneliusen scored two goals to help Warroad score their 13th shut out this season 5-0. Corneliusen, Genevieve Hendrickson and Kaitlyn Kotlowski scored two goals apiece to lead the Warriors to a 7-1 win over the Alexandria Cardinals in the semifinals. Warroad is a young, solid team with only two seniors and looks like a team that can return to the X the next couple of years.
After the Class A medals and trophies have been presented, the Class AA championship game takes the spotlight at 7 PM. The second seeded Centennial Cougars, playing in their first state tournament since 2008 battle the top seeded and defending Class AA champion Edina Hornets. Centennial won "The Battle of the Cougars" in the quarterfinals as they recorded a 2-0 shut out against Lakeville South. Alison Pitlick and Anneke Linser scored for Centennial. The Cougars would get four goals from Ms. Hockey finalist Gabby Hughes to rout the surprising Eagan Wildcats 6-1. Eagan upset Hill-Murray in the quarterfinals 2-1. As for Hughes, she will join Linser next season at Minnesota-Duluth. It will be a rematch of the December 22 game against the Hornets when they held off Edina 3-2. As for the Hornets, they used scoring balance in the quarterfinals with four players scoring one goal apiece to shut out the Brainerd/Little Falls Flying Warriors 4-0. Edina would break a 1-1 tie with three third period goals, including an empty netter from CC Bowlby with :03 left to play to beat their Lake Conference rivals the Eden Prairie Eagles 4-2. It was the second win in three games over Eden Prairie this season. The Eagles beat the Hornets 4-3 in overtime on January 13.
If you plan on driving to St. Paul, you'll make it OK for the start of Championship Saturday. But after the Class AA final, be careful out there. It's going to be messy but an exciting day of Minnesota girls high school hockey.
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