Class 2A girls state hockey: Andover beats Minnetonka in a 5-4 thriller to complete Huskies' perfect season

Feb. 27—One word can aptly describe Saturday's Class 2A girls hockey state title game in downtown St. Paul: Wow.

Andover and Minnetonka are the elite of the elite in the sport in this state, and a matchup between the two to determine a state title figured to produce a show, and it certainly did not disappoint. Fireworks were abundant at Xcel Energy Center.

"It was a state championship game. It had everything: good tempo, it was intense, fierce, physical," Minnetonka coach Tracy Cassano said. "Both teams, I think, poured their hearts out today."

Every goal early in the night was another prime example of the skating and skill present on the ice for every shift, as the two top-tier goaltenders were nearly rendered moot at various points of the game. And for the other parts, even in a game that featured nine goals, the goaltending was outstanding. Minnetonka's Sophia Johnson and Andover's Courtney Stagman stopped just about everything they could feasibly touch.

In the end, it was Andover who prevailed with a 5-4 victory to remember. Playing 4 on 4 hockey with less than two minutes to play, Maya Engler poked the puck at Minnetonka's blue line to give Sara Kaiser a chance to make a play, and she did.

Kaiser collected the loose puck on the rush, skated across the Minnetonka crease and beat Johnson on the far post to net the game-winner, completing Andover's dream undefeated season and giving the Huskies (30-0) their second title in three seasons.

"I believed in Maya in the battle, and that she won it," Kaiser recalled. "I don't know, I just took the puck and hoped for the best. I just shot for the open net, and it was just an amazing experience."

Andover's Ella Boerger set the tone for the evening with a snipe just 15 seconds into the game to put the Huskies up 1-0. Isabel Goettl lit the lamp later in the period to put Andover up 2-0. It looked like the rout may be on.

But Minnetonka (24-7), who's faced a number of deficits throughout the season and always responded, received a much-needed goal with 83 seconds to play in the period, when Ava Lindsay fired a puck on net that ricocheted off the shoulder of Stagman and into the net to cut the Skippers' deficit in half.

Minnetonka carried that momentum into the second period, where Grace Sadura and Kendra Distad scored two goals in a span of 25 seconds to put the Skippers in front.

Boerger tied the game with a power-play goal midway through the second, but the Skippers carried the lead into the third period thanks to Lindsay's second goal of the game with 4 minutes, 28 seconds to play in the second period.

Finally, early in the third, there was something that more closely resembled a "gritty goal." With Andover on the power play, Maya Engel's shot was blocked by Lindsay, but the puck found its way to the stick of Madison Brown, who chipped it in from a sharp angle to re-knot the game at 4-4.

Four of the game's nine goals were scored on the power play in a contest that featured 13 penalties.

Overtime appeared imminent in the final minutes, as each team generated chances but couldn't crack the crease until Kaiser buried the winner. There was a lengthy review after the score to check for potential offsides before the goal was made official.

Minutes later, Andover was celebrating on the ice.

"It just feels so good," Boerger said. "It still feels surreal. I just can't believe it, honestly."

The victory comes one year after Andover was stopped by Edina on the exact same stage, which ended the Huskies' quest for an undefeated 2020-21 campaign. Goettl said that loss served as motivation for Andover this season.

The Huskies lost a number of great players from that team, and featured a number of younger girls on this year's squad. So Andover coach Melissa Volk said her team felt like the underdogs for most of the season.

And, as it turned out, perfection is indeed possible.

"I'm just so proud of them," Volk said. "To win that this year has been very satisfying, mainly because they're just good kids and good people. The support that they show each other and their community, I could not be more proud."