Hill-Murray coach Shawn Reid pointed to the strength of his team as a whole for the success in both the offensive and defensive zones.

“It’s hard to get the puck away from our forwards, it’s harder to get around the D, and it’s even harder to get it through Grace,” Reid said.

The dominant defense has helped an equally talented offense. The Pioneers are averaging nearly five goals per game, and four players have tallied more than 25 points on the season.

“We have very few unassisted goals this year," Reid said. "So we try to move the puck, try to get everyone involved and have a five-player rotation."

With the section playoffs right around the corner, the Pioneers might be playing their best hockey at the right time. Their last loss happened on Dec. 17, a 2-1 loss at Minnetonka. Since then, the Pioneers have won 12 games in addition to a 3-3 tie against Warroad.

“I think that we have a really good team chemistry,” said Chloe Boreen, who scored twice in Tuesday’s win. “We have really good bonding. We bond really well and we lean on each other for success. And that’s what really helps us.”

The Pioneers have three games left in the regular season schedule before the section playoffs begin, including another tough matchup against No. 6-2A Maple Grove. Then Hill-Murray will be aiming to make a deeper run than the past two seasons, both which ended in the Class 2A, Section 4 title game. Last season it was Gentry Academy that ended Hill-Murray’s season 4-3 in overtime and in 2021 Stillwater won in the title game 1-0.

Reid noted that heading into the tournament season, the team’s mentality is in a good place.

“I think we just need to just keep doing what we are doing,” Reid said. “Every day the players come to the rink trying to improve.”