Charlie Strobel scored twice for the fifth-seeded Pioneers, who skated to a 4-1 victory and left yet another opponent marveling about their determination.
The Zephyrs' Colin Hagstrom scored the game-winner for a 3-2 victory over Hermantown, which had tied the game in the final seconds of the third period.
The Eagles got goals by Ben Steeves and Jackson Blake, both of whom joined the team this year, en route to a 4-1 victory and a shot at another Class 2A championship.
Hermantown star Blake Biondi can’t pinpoint the exact moment the Hawks lost their status as the “lovable little team from the north. “Like Coach always says, ‘It’s everyone’s Super Bowl when we play them.’ ”
From higher attendance to better teams playing more competitive games, the small-school tournament once derided as the “junior varsity’’ is thriving. It starts today at the X.
Olivia Mobley, a Quinnipiac University-bound senior, scored 49 goals and 35 assists this season as she leads the Mustangs in their bid for a third consecutive Class 1A title.
One scored five goals in a championship game. Another stopped 65 shots in a game that would never end. And it gets better. The best of the best when it mattered most on the nation's grandest high school stage on ice.
By the time the puck drops Wednesday morning at Xcel Energy Center, all of the Star Tribune’s Top 75 players in boys’ hockey state tournament history will be disclosed heading into the sport’s diamond anniversary tournament.