Photo gallery: Minnetonka vs. Edina
Minnetonka girls’ hockey coach Eric Johnson thought he was complimenting Edina coach Sami Reber when he lauded the Hornets’ defensive game plan.
Turns out the smothering performance was a product of necessity on a night when Edina’s offense wasn’t clicking.
“The team took it upon themselves to say, ‘Hey, let’s crush the D-zone and hopefully squeak a few [goals] by,’ ” Reber said.
Whatever works. Top-ranked Edina completed a three-game season sweep its Lake Conference rivals, getting a last-minute goal from Annie Kuehl to cap a 2-1 Class 2A semifinal victory Friday at Xcel Energy Center.
No. 1 seed Edina (26-4) advances to Saturday’s state tournament championship game to face Brained/Little Falls. The Hornets are seeking to become just the second program to win three consecutive state championships.
Defender Vivian Jungels, a ninth-grader who verbally committed to Minnesota, scored the game’s first goal in the first period. As the game wore on, it looked like it might be the only one.
Minnetonka sophomore goalie Brynn Dulac settled in and kept her team within a goal despite no Minnetonka shots on goal in the second period. The game marked the 12th time in tournament history that a team posted zero shots in a regulation period.
“They did a great job defensively,” Johnson said of Edina. “They made it tough for us to break out of our zone. They took away our time and space but our girls never quit.”
In the third period, resilient Minnetonka scored the first of two backhanded goals that made things interesting.
Junior forward Josie Helling scored her first goal of the season for No. 5 seed Minnetonka (15-14-1). She flipped a puck high into the Edina net with less than five minutes left.
Then Kuehl, a senior forward who has committed to Princeton, scored with 38.4 seconds left to put Edina ahead stay.
“We work on practice on just getting pucks to net,” Kuehl said. “It was a fun goal.”