Outplayed by girls' hockey rival Benilde-St. Margaret's less than two weeks ago, Minnetonka evened the season series with a 2-1 victory.
Second-period goals by Amy Petersen and Katie McMillan gave the No. 2 Skippers a 2-0 lead that the No. 1 Red Knights could not overcome. Liv Halvorson scored early in the third, but the Skippers endured. The Skippers advance to the Eden Prairie Mid-Winter Meltdown title game Saturday.
"We needed this," Minnetonka coach Eric Johnson said. "There was a playoff atmosphere, and it was a tight game."
Both teams were without key players. Benilde-St. Margaret's forward Kelly Pannek and Minnetonka defensemen Sydney Baldwin and Sidney Morin are in Finland with the U.S. Women's Under-18 team.
