In a fitting end to almost four decades of thrilling hockey games at the Warner Coliseum, Stillwater's boys' team clinched its first state tournament appearance ever with a 2-1 upset of Hill-Murray on Friday night.

Brandon Jungmann's power-play goal at 4 minutes, 15 seconds of the third period held up as the game winner in the Class 2A, Section 4 championship game.

"We had a great [semifinal] game against White Bear Lake and after that we were just heads-in-the-clouds," Stillwater defenseman Mitch Reinke said. "We knew we had a deep group here and we all wanted it. We're the first team to ever do it and that's pretty cool."

No. 1 seed Hill-Murray (24-4) grabbed the game's first lead on a goal from Mitch Slattery. Devin Cates tied it up 1-1 at 1:43 of the second period. The No.3 seed Ponies (16-10-2) held the territorial edge for the rest of the period but the score remained tied at.

"We probably played our worst period of the season," Pioneers coach Bill Lechner said. "I thought we picked it up in the third but then that pop-fly jumped in."

Lechner was talking about Jungman's odd goal. The puck deflected skyward and landed behind unsuspecting Hill-Murray goaltender Sam Illgen for a goal and a 2-1 lead.

Hill-Murray and Stillwater played the final hockey game at Warner Coliseum on the State Fairgrounds, which began hosting games in 1976. Ice operations at the building are being discontinued due to deteriorating ice-making equipment and dwindling rink rentals.

A free public open skating event from 4 p.m. to 7 p.m. on Saturday will be the final use of the ice.

Centennial 2, Blaine 1

Fool Blake Miller once and you can't faze him. Fool Centennial's goaltender twice? Not a chance.

Miller led Centennial to a 2-1 against rival Blaine at the Warner Coliseum. Outshot 39-18, the Cougars were saved time and time again by Miller and clinched their second consecutive Class 2A, Section 5 title.

"Our goalie played out of his mind and gave them nothing," said Collin Hughes, who scored the eventual game-winning goal with 1:03 to play in the second period.

Hughes, who said he "saw an opening and shot puck into upper right corner," called Friday's victory, "so much sweeter than last year. We went back-to-back by beating our rival. You can't beat that."

Goal from Ryner Gorowsky and Hughes gave No. 3 seed Centennial (16-10-2) a 2-0 lead over heavily-favored Blaine. The No. 1 seed Bengals (22-5-1), who held the state's No. 1 ranking for a portion of the season, cut the deficit to 2-1 on a power-play goal from Dallas Gerads at 2:45 of the third period.

But Miller, who posted a pedestrian .887 saves percentage in the regular season, refused to get down.

"My goalies coach told me, 'Once playoffs start it's a new season,'" Miller said. "I truly believed that."