The boys hockey team advanced to the state tournament after defeating the Hill Murray Pioneers in a thrilling 4-3 victory in a double overtime on Feb. 28. The intense game kept fans on the edge of their seats as both teams battled it out for a spot in the state tournament. With the overall win, the boys hockey team fought hard for their hard and well deserved spot in the state tournament. The hockey state tournament takes place on March 6-8 at the Xcel Energy Center.
“Winning was absolutely unbelievable, it was a huge game we had and there is no better way to go to state than beating the number one seed,” senior Rylan Lord said.
With the hockey team making it to state, the first game of the tournament occurred to be during a school day which meant several students skipped school to support the team. The first game of the tournament also happened to be against the Andover Huskies, with an ending score of 5-0. Senior goalie Cal Conway transferred over to Stillwater from Andover and left his old team with a complete shutout against him.
Winning the first game meant that the team was able to continue their journey to the championship game of the tournament. As a whole, Stillwater hockey has not been to the state tournament since 2016 and the team has never made it to the championship game.
Stillwater beat St. Thomas Tommies and made it into the final game of the state tournament against the Moorhead Spuds on March 8. for the final round of the tournament. The hockey team has several seniors this season and the game against Moorhead was the seniors final game.
“This week was the best week of my life. It felt like the whole community was behind us the whole step of the way. Playing at an NHL [National Hockey League] stadium in front of 20 thousand people will forever be something I will never forget. We did not get the result we wanted at the end but it was so unbelievably fun and I have so many memories that will last for a lifetime,” senior Conor McGlynn said.
Moorhead quickly scored three goals on Conway in the first minute of the game, which worried the team and the fans because the game was already off to a bad start. However, Stillwater ended up coming back and getting more goals on Moorhead in the third period leaving the final score of the game 7-6.
In the next few seasons, the team hopes to see improvement with the overall season but also with the final state tournament. The team next year is going to be a younger team as they are losing many highly skilled seniors from this season.
Sophomore Tate Batchelor explained how the boys have plans to “work hard in the off season” and be better prepared for next season.
“I think the team has got a lot of work to do, because obviously, we have a lot of seniors, and next year we are gonna have a young team. We are gonna have a lot of juniors. We need guys to step up, and I know we are just going to have to come up with a hard work mentality, and understand that nothing’s gonna be handed to us,” sophomore Teague McGlynn added.
