Girls Hockey 2025: Hill-Murray outlasts Edina for Class AA crown

Hill-Murray vowed that this latest meeting with Edina would be different. In the past three games against the Hornets, Hill-Murray had surrendered 14 goals and mustered just three in reply. 

They would find a way, they insisted.

With a rematch for the Class AA championship, Hill-Murray decided it had had seen enough of the Hornets buzzing around. While it took a bit longer than they had planned, the desired outcome was achieved. 

Hill-Murray, the No. 3 seed, wrapped up what will go down as perhaps the most exhilarating day in Minnesota State High School League Girls Hockey history with a 5-4 victory in double overtime in the big-school championship game. The Pioneers’ victory came on the heels of Dodge County’s overtime win over Warroad for the Class A championship. Dodge County was the runner-up to Warroad a year ago and thwarted its chance at making history with a fourth consecutive crown. Dodge County made history of its own by becoming the first team south of the Twin Cities to win a Girls Hockey title.

Hill-Murray senior forward Ella Hornung put the finishing touches on the game’s constant end-to-end play by deflecting a blast by sophomore defender Addy McLay with 2:04 elapsed in the second overtime session. 

It is Hill-Murray’s first Class AA title in a decade. The Pioneers were the big-school champions in 2014 and 2015, respectively. 

Hill-Murray sophomore Elliana Engelhardt forced the first overtime session when she scored the equalizer with 3:41 left in regulation time. 

This latest matchup drew little resemblance to the last three meetings. A year ago, Edina recorded a 2-0 victory for the Class AA championship. Early this season, Edina recorded a 6-3 win on Nov. 26. Later, the Hornets continued their mastery with a 6-0 victory on Jan. 4. 

After Hill-Murray’s 5-2 victory over Rosemount in the semifinals on Friday, head coach John Pohl insisted that his youthful club had evolved. 

It showed as they played with poise that just might set the table for repeat trips to the state tournament.   

In 74 minutes of play, Hill-Murray eighth-grade goalie Piper Tam made 24 saves, including eight in the extra sessions. 

Edina was attempting to win its Minnesota-best 208^th team state championship. The Hornets looked on the way to doing so behind two oals from junior forward Cate McCoy and an offense that generated 28 shots. 

Senior forward Whitney Horton gave the Hornets a huge emotional lift going into the second intermission when she scored on a breakaway goal with 1.3 seconds left in the second period. After pulling away from two Hill-Murray defenders, she slid a shot along the ice that went in the right side of the goal for a 4-3 lead with one period to play. 

Hill-Murray climbed into a 3-2 lead with 13:53 left in the second period following a dandy individual effort by ninth-grade forward Gwynn Skoogman. On the play, she gathered the puck at center ice and accelerated into the Edina zone and zipping past two defenders. As she closed in, she fired a shot that found an opening in the upper left corner. 

But less than three minutes later, Edina made it a deadlock again on a power play goal from McCoy. It was her 22^nd goal of the season. 

Four goals were scored in an entertaining first period, two from each side. 

Senior forward Reagan Berglund sent Hill-Murray into the first intermission with a 2-all deadlock when she scored with 32 seconds remaining. About three minutes earlier, junior forward Lorelai Nelson had give the Hornets a brief lead. 

McCoy opened the scoring at 5:16 of the period and Berglund answered just more than five minutes later on a goal that was allowed after review. 

Third place: Holy Family Catholic, making its state tournament debut after upsetting top-ranked Minnetonka in the section championship, will return to its Waconia-based school with the third place trophy following a 4-2 victory over Rosemount at the Xcel Energy Center. Junior defender Katya Sander led the way for the Fire (23-8-0) with two goals. Senior defender Sophie Stramel and sophomore forward Taylor Krieg had a goal each for Rosemount (22-9-0), which upset No. 2 Centennial/Spring Lake Park in the quarterfinals.

Consolation: Senior defender Courtney Little scored two goals and senior defender Mackenzie Jones added a goal to go with three assists to power Andover to a 7-0 victory over Moorhead in the consolation final at TRIA Rink at Treasure Island Center. The Huskies (21-9-1) ended the season with two victories after a quarterfinal loss to Hill-Murray. Moorhead finished the season (21-9-0).