Finding the right line combinations in hockey often can be a complex, ever-changing world of confusion for coaches. The bright-colored jerseys players wear – and switch – during practices make it a sort of Rubik's Cube on ice.

But sometimes, things just click.

The proof is usually in the numbers, and look no further than Eagan for Example A of what a cohesive unit can do for a team.

Through the Wildcats' first 18 games, the top line of Megan Wolfe, Bre Steele and Molly Sparks had accounted for 114 of the team's 191 points.

The three play in concert, with Wolfe and Steele (38 points) just ahead of Sparks (37) for the team points lead heading into the season's final six regular-season games.

"We're all equal and we all work hard to get those points," Sparks said. "This line, the way it's connected, has really made for a great senior year. It's special. I wish we had more games left."

Co-head coach Scott Darwitz, the father of former Olympian and Gophers All-America Natalie Darwitz, said the three didn't mesh immediately after he put them together last season. But it was close.

"They just know where they are on the ice," he said. "Their awareness out there is just unbelievable. These three, it's just click, click, click." The key is what each brings to the ice on any given night.

Sparks has the speed. Wolfe has the hands. Steele?

"I'm usually the one in the penalty box," she said with a wry grin.

And she's right. Steele has double the number of penalty minutes of anyone else on the roster. But that's a nod to her grind-it-out style of play.

"I'm not afraid to get the pucks along the boards or in the corners and dig it out for them," she said. "We all have something different, and I think that's what makes our line as good as it is."

That can cause matchup problems for other coaches.

"We're not all puck hogs, and that makes it difficult to cover us," Sparks said. "It's not lopsided one way."

Said Wolfe: "This is fun, and we hope continue it the whole year and all the way to state."

It isn't all perfect, however.

Near the end of a practice last week, Darwitz and his staff elected to put the team through a low-energy shootout drill. The only players to score were defenders and members of the third and fourth lines.

So rather than ending on a fun note, and a little early, the team went back to a few more drills.

"And they were ticked," Darwitz said. "They're great, easygoing kids, but they know what they want and they go and get it."

Despite the bulk of Eagan's points coming off the sticks of three players, there is little to no animosity from the rest of the team. In fact, it's the opposite.

"Megan scored a couple of really nice toe-to-heel goals against [Bloomington] Kennedy and kids on our bench were just like, 'How does she do that?'" Darwitz said. "There's no problem at all. We just need more production out of those other lines. And they know it."

They will get their chance. Sparks and Steele are seniors, while Wolfe still has two more seasons with the team.

Darwitz is confident more success is on the way.

"We have kids on the second and third lines that will fit in and pick up the systems easily," he said. "The four, five years you get with these kids go fast."