Boys Hockey 2025: East Grand Forks rides postseason wave to Class A crown

Prior to the 2024-2025 season, East Grand Forks was included in the preseason chatter when discussing potential teams that would emerge with the Minnesota State High School League’s Class A Boys Hockey Championship in early March. 

But the Green Wave fell off the radar in the wake of a 2-5-1 start. While that portion of the early season schedule included tough competition, it did little to sway opinions. The next segment of the season resulted in a 6-1 run, but that was followed by a semi-disastrous 2-7-1 stretch that drew the regular season to a 10-13-2 close.

As the postseason often does, it was a chance to hit the reset button and shed the topsy-turvy nature of the regular season. It took soul searching, heart and a desire to end the year in a positive way. 

How about six consecutive victories to end the postseason? 

East Grand Forks couldn’t have picked a better time to play its best hockey, a span of a half dozen games that ended with a crescendo in the No. 4-seeded Green Wave’s 2-1 overtime victory over No. 2 St. Cloud Cathedral in the Class A championship game on March 8 at the Xcel Energy Center in downtown St. Paul. 

Senior forward Jace Van Eps ended the Green Wave’s season in dreamlike fashion when he scored early in the overtime session to dethrone St. Cloud Cathedral, the reigning Class A champion. Van Eps earned the game’s hero cape when he took a shot from deep in the near corner. The shot slid through a narrow opening between the right skate of St. Cloud Cathedral junior goalie Keaton LeGrande and the post. A milli-second later, the puck had made its way over the goal line behind LeGrande. 

“I saw a small opening and decided to go for it,” Van Eps said afterward. 

It is the third Class A championship for East Grand Forks. The others came in 2014 and 2015. The Green Wave are the first No. 4 seed to win a state crown since Mahtomedi in 2020.

The Green Wave were close to not even needing Van Eps’ heroics. Senior forward Cooper Hills scored near the midway point of the second period and that goal stood for what seemed like an eternity. 

But with 43 seconds left in regulation time, St. Cloud Cathedral finally found its elusive first goal. Ninth-grade forward Bo Schmidt scored a power-play goal with an extra attacker from an empty net.

East Grand Forks sophomore goalie Noah Schindele made 37 saves in the victory.

It was the fourth time this season that East Grand Forks won in overtime. An equally impressive win in extra time came last week when the Green Wave defeated top seed Warroad in the Section 8 championship game.

Third place

Orono bounced back from a semifinal loss to St. Cloud Cathedral with a resounding 5-1 victory over Hibbing/Chisholm in the third place game at the Xcel Energy Center. Junior forward Rory Kvern and senior forward Trey Landa each had a goal and an assist to power the Spartans (17-11-3). Kvern’s power play goal early in the third period gave Orono a 3-0 lead. Junior forward Blake Riccio had the lone goal for the Bluejackets (19-11-0).

Consolation

Northfield, making its fourth state tournament appearance and third in a row, scored two goals in each of the second and third periods to race past Northern Lakes for a 4-0 victory in the consolation final at 3M Arena at Mariucci. Sophomore defender Benjamin Geiger scored a goal and assisted on two others to pace the Raiders (24-5-2). Northern Lakes (20-10-1) fired 28 shots.