The Minnetonka Skippers, fresh off a six overtime victory against Lakeville North became the first team in the history of the Minnesota state girls hockey tournament to win three consecutive state titles with a 3-1 win over the Hill-Murray Pioneers in the Class AA championship game Saturday night night at the Xcel Energy Center in St. Paul.
The Skippers began the scoring as Maggie bazana positioned hers=elf behind the Pioneer goal, centered the puck in the slot to Darby Flatley and she scored her first goal of the tournament.
Hill-Murray knotted the game in the second period on the power play when Becca Zarembinski centered the puck to jessica Bonfe and put it past Sydney Rossman for the goal.
Minnetonka entered the history books with two third period goals. The first came on a beautiful pass from Diana Draayer behind her own blue line to Amy Petersen and she put the Skippers in front. Petersen had a role in Minnetonka's thrid goal when she was on the right side of Hill-Murray goalie Alexys Woodward and passed to Laura Bowman on the opposite side. Bowman tapped it it. Pioneer head coach Hill-Murray pulled Woodward to go to a sixth attacker, but it was short-lived when Brittney anderson was sent to the penalty box for body checking.
The two teams played each other on December 8 with the Skippers shutting out the Pioneers 4-0.
In the third place game, Lakeville North beat Eden Prairie 3-2. The consolation game at Ridder Arena was won by Eagan, 5-2 over the North Wright County Riverhawks.
The attendance at the Class AA championship session was 3,247. The total tournament attendance was 19,540.
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