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The best team won

By Michael Rand, Star Tribune, 02/26/11, 11:32PM CST

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Minnetonka's stellar year was capped with state championship

Minnetonka was the best girls’ hockey team in Minnesota this season, so in theory it should have been easier for the Skippers to win the Class 2A title than it would have been for any other team.

Right? Well ... not so fast.

When you cover high school sports — particularly hockey — long enough, you learn that the burden of expectation weighs heavily on young athletes. Sticks get gripped a little tighter. Instead of playing with the instincts that got them to the big stage, kids tense up, not wanting to make the fatal mistake that ends it all.

Minnetonka faced an extra dose of the butterfly-inducing potion by not only coming into this year’s state tournament as the No. 1 seed, but also never having been to state in the program’s history.

All of this made the Skippers’ tournament run — capped when Amy Petersen broke a 2-2 tie with 39.6 seconds left in regulation to defeat Edina 3-2 in Saturday night’s title game at Xcel Energy Center — a feat to savor.

“I did feel there was pressure just knowing the caliber of talent we had on the team,” Minnetonka coach Eric Johnson said. “But they’ve had success at the youth level, and I think that carried over here. They carry themselves in a very professional manner, and I was extremely impressed.”

Indeed, many of Minnetonka’s varsity players were members of either the 2007 or 2009 U-14 state championship teams — meaning the Skippers certainly had the tools to achieve their dreams. And getting over the section playoff hurdle to reach state after so many recent near-misses created a sense of relief.

“It’s been incredible to watch and to be a part of,” said senior Rachel Ramsey, a Gophers-bound defensive wizard who labored through the close calls and is savoring the payoff.

But that doesn’t mean they didn’t feel the heat — particularly when Edina scored twice in a 25-second span of the first period (usually a few games’ worth of goals against Minnetonka goalie Julie Friend) to take a 2-1 lead.

Johnson said his team felt “shocked.” The real jolt, though, came later in the period from Minnetonka senior Courtney McDougal. She swiped in a rebound for her first goal this year, which Johnson called “the biggest goal of the season” to that point.

The pressure, though, remained. It certainly didn’t dissipate as a 2-2 game dragged late into the third period, with Edina carrying the better of the play for at least half the game, in Johnson’s eyes. A season that started with one goal was going to come down to, well, one goal.

Petersen made sure it went to Minnetonka.

Afterward, a group of five Skippers was asked if the whole thing was sweeter because the Skippers had defeated rival Edina in the title game.

Friend, who had been silent throughout the entire news conference, grabbed a microphone and said very directly, “Yes. Definitely.”

The same could be said if someone asked if the best team in the state won this year’s championship.

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