The reigning class A state champions hail from the town of Mahtomedi Minnesota. They had an impressive season going 23-8 with wins against teams like Northfield, St. Thomas Academy, Eden Prairie, East Ridge, Hermantown and Warroad. The Zephyrs rolled through section play beating St. Paul Johnson 10-0, St. Paul Academy 9-1 and Chisago Lakes 3-1 to secure another state tournament appearance.
In the opening round of the state tournament they would play Alexandria and at the end of the first period it was 3-2 Cardinals. It was all Mahtomedi in the 2nd and 3rd period and they ended up with the 6-3 victory and would advance to play the FTP preseason #1 team the Hermantown Hawks. This game was an instant classic and Mahtomedi would get goals by Jonny Grove and Charlie Drage to secure the 2-1 victory and another appearance in the state championship game against the Warroad Warriors. If the game against Hermantown was a classic, this game vs Warroad was one us hockey fans can only dream about, and how championship games should be. At the end of the first period it was a 1-1 tie, with goals by Carson Pilgrim for Warroad and Carter Haycraft for Mahtomedi. The 2nd period opened up a bit and Warroad would score 2 goals, (Pilgrim and Marvin-Cordes), Mahtomedi would get 1 by Patrick Egan making it a 3-2 Warroad lead after 2. The 3rd period was crazy, Warroad would get another goal early on by Pilgrim to take a 4-2 lead. Mahtomedi’s Drage would score the first of his 3 third period goals a minute or so later, only to see Warroads Peyton Sunderland add another goal making it 5-3 Warroad with about 8 minutes left in the game. Drage would then score 2 more goals with the game tying goal coming with 20 seconds left in the game to send it to overtime. The first overtime ended with no score as both teams tightened things up defensively. In the 2nd overtime it was Mahtomedi’s Jonny Grove getting his 2nd goal of the game and earning his team another state championship banner. As an outsider looking in, it was fun to see the thrill of victory for the Zephyrs and the agony of defeat for a very skilled Warroad team.
Mahtomedi does lose their top 7 offensive leaders from the state tournament team, they do however get back starting goalie Charlie Brandt and his .912 save %, and one thing we have learned about this team is they don’t rebuild, they simply reload and will be a favorite to win section 4A once again this season, well done kids on a great championship season!
