For the last three years, the Blake and Breck girls' hockey teams have taken turns at ending each other’s seasons.

In 2008, Breck ended Blake’s season with a 2-0 win in the section playoffs. The following season the Bears got revenge with a 4-2 win in sections that sent the Mustangs home. Last year the Mustangs struck back, earning a 3-1 victory on their way to a second place finish in the state tournament.

The postseason battles and hard-fought conference games over the years have done nothing but add to the longstanding Blake vs. Breck rivalry.

“A lot of these girls are friends, but when they get out on the ice, you can’t even imagine how big the rivalry really is,” Breck coach Lenny Vannelli said. “How the teams organize their spirit in school to how the students dress for it, to the posters. ... There is a lot of excitement and it filters down through the middle school. I think if you talked to a lot of the parents, they would say it’s like the state championship.”

When they take to the ice on Saturday for their first face-off at Breck Arena, they will be playing for the lead in the Tri-Metro. No. 6, Class 1A Breck (10-9) is 6-0 in conference play and sits just one point ahead of No. 2 1A Blake (14-3-3), which is 5-0-1 in conference play.

Blake boasts one of the most potent offenses in the state. The Bears have netted 101 goals already this season and are one of only three teams in the state to have reached the century mark, joining Warroad (122) and Lakeville South (103). Sophomore forward Dani Cameranesi (60 points—third in state) and senior captains Abbie Lund (12 goals, 16 assists) and Hillary Crowe (35 goals—fourth in state) are the leaders on a team averaging over five goals per game.

“They can be pretty dynamic. They know what to do, they move the puck, they move their feet, and they know how to finish,” Bears coach Brano Stankovsky said of the Cameranesi-Lund-Crowe line. “Big players, you expect them to do big things. It’s a chance for them to shine.”

Lund was forced to miss six weeks while sick with mono, returning this past Tuesday to record a goal and four assists in a 5-1 win over Farmington.

For the Mustangs, the season has been a story in itself. Senior Kayla Mork separated her shoulder in an early game against Edina and was forced to miss a month. Mork returned to action and scored a goal on Tuesday, but an MRI revealed she re-aggravated the injury and is unavailable until the section playoffs. Breck also played without junior defenseman Milica McMillen for a six-game stretch while she joined the USA U-18 team in Sweden during the holidays. And just this week, the Mustangs’ leading goal-scorer Kate Schipper has been out of school with the flu.

Whatever issues the teams are going through, Stankovsky believes that when Saturday rolls around, the teams—and schools—will be ready.

“Between the two schools, it doesn’t matter what sport it is. Somehow, the kids always find it within them,” he said. “That’s the fun part. We can have 14 wins like we do now, and lose to Breck, and that the worst thing that could happen.”