Red Wing senior defenseman Paige Haley said she feels something different about the ability and attitude of her girls' hockey team.
The Wingers carry the No. 2 seed into Wednesday's Class 1A state tournament. They hope to become the first team other than Warroad or a metro-area private school to win a Class 1A title since their quarterfinal opponent Alexandria did it in 2008.
Red Wing reached the state tournament in 2009 and 2011 but did not receive one of the top four seeds. Last season the Wingers were seeded fourth and fell to eventual champion Breck in the semifinals.
Haley, an offensive dynamo who has signed to play with the Gophers, said those lessons, coupled with games this season against Breck and state tournament qualifiers Blake and North Wright County, taught her team "how to handle tough teams in tight games."
"This is the most talented group we've ever had. We're deeper and more experienced," said Haley, an All-Metro first team pick who scored 20 goals and had 47 assists for the Wingers.
"It seems more like business trip now," Haley said. We're actually going with the idea of accomplishing something at the end that can make our program's history."
Three-sport standoutsNorth Wright County forwards Rachel King and Maddi Sjelin, both of whom attend St. Michael-Albertville, have qualified for state tournaments in three consecutive seasons. King, a sophomore, finished 14th and Sjelin, a senior, placed 81st in the Class 2A cross-country meet last fall.
In the 2012 Class 2A track and field state meet, Sjelin was sixth in the 800-meter run and eighth in the 1,600 while King was sixth in the 1,600 and fourth in the 3,200.
