Celebrating 20 state girls' hockey tournaments

Stillwater's Jenny Ginkel scores the first goal as the nation's first girls' hockey state tournament opens Feb. 24, 1995. The next day ends with Apple Valley's 2-0 defeat of South St. Paul. The four-team tournament is attended by enthusiastic fans who form deep lines for tickets at Aldrich Arena in Maplewood.

A precocious seventh-grader from Eagan — future Gopher and Olympian Natalie Darwitz — scores nine goals and adds three assists in the first eight-team tournament in 1997. But Eagan falls 6-3 in the title game to Hibbing/Chisholm/Nashwauk-Keewatin, the only outstate team to win a single class girls' hockey ­championship.

Krissy Wendell caps a dominant two-year stretch by recording a hat trick for Park Center in its 6-0 victory over Anoka in the 2000 state championship game. Wendell scores a combined 219 goals in two seasons of girls' hockey — 109 as a junior, 110 as a senior.

Trading places

Bloomington Jefferson wins its first state title in 2001 with a 2-1 victory over Blaine in the title game. The Jaguars' Larissa Luther, a forward/defender who switched to goalie midway through her senior season, outduels Blaine goalie Jody Horak, the Star Tribune's co-Metro Player of the Year.

The tournament splits into two classes in 2002, with eight teams in Class 2A and four in Class 1A. Benilde-St. Margaret's wins the Class 1A title. South St. Paul, after 27 trips to state by the boys and three by the girls without winning a title, claims the Class 2A title with a 2-1 victory over White Bear Lake.

Eden Prairie ends South St. Paul's record 86-game unbeaten streak in the 2004 Class 2A quarterfinals.

South St. Paul wins the 2005 Class 2A title — its third in four seasons — and becomes the sport's first dynasty. The Packers dropped to Class 1A and won again in 2006.

The 2006 tournament moves to St. Paul's Xcel Energy Center after three years at Ridder. A Title IX lawsuit against the league filed three years earlier on behalf of 11 girls' hockey players asked that the league be ordered to make the venue change.

Breck defenseman Milica McMillen plays all 70 minutes to help Breck clinch its first Class 1A title in double overtime in 2012.

Minnetonka outlasts semifinal opponent Lakeville North last February in the longest Minnesota high school game ever played. The six overtime game lasted 113 minutes and 29 seconds and ended at 1:02 a.m. The Skippers returned later on Saturday to win an unprecedented third consecutive title.