High School Boys Hockey: Hill-Murray wins latest Section Final clash 5-0 over archrival White Bear Lake

Hill-Murray earned a 32nd trip to the State Boys Hockey Tournament with a 5-0 win in the latest of many Section Final clashes with archrival White Bear Lake Friday night at Aldrich Arena in Maplewood.

Click the video box on this page to watch KSTP Sports’ extended highlights of Hill-Murray vs White Bear Lake in the Section 4AA Championship, and postgame celebration and interviews with the Pioneers

The trip to State completes a quest the Pioneers (23-4-1) have been on since a helpless, disappointing end to last year’s campaign. After winning the program’s fourth State title in 2020, Hill-Murray was denied a chance to defend when Covid-19 protocols caused them to be disqualified from the 2021 tourney.

Jack Senden scored twice Friday in the 19th Section Final meeting between the two programs – 21 if you count two between Hill-Murray and White Bear Mariner. Pioneers goalie Jack Erickson made 25 saves for his sixth shutout of the season.

Leo Gruba opened the scoring with an end-to-end rush two minutes into the game, then assisted on Senden’s shorthanded goal later in the period to stake the Pioneers to a 2-0 lead after one.

Dylan Godbout’s goal on a five-on-three power play bumped Hill-Murray’s lead to 3-0 after two.

Both Godbout and Gruba are finalists for the annual Minnesota Mr. Hockey Award.

Brendan Bonin and Senden added two more goals in the third to close out the scoring.

Nicholas Pettman made 29 saves for White Bear Lake (16-11).

Hill-Murray and the other fifteen teams qualified for the 2022 State Boys Hockey Tournament will learn seedings when the MSHSL reveals the brackets on Saturday morning.

“THE RIVALRY” – Hill-Murray vs White Bear Lake

• 28 Section Tournament meetings in 46 years since public/private combined tourney
  • 30 counting two games between H-M and White Bear Mariner
• 19 Section Championship meetings (H-M is 14-5)
  • 21 meetings counting two games between H-M and White Bear Mariner (H-M is 16-5)
• Five consecutive Section 4AA Championship meetings dating to 2018 (H-M is 4-1)
• Nine Section Semifinal meetings (H-M is 7-2)

Records courtesy of HMPioneers.net

ALL-TIME BOYS STATE HOCKEY TOURNAMENT APPEARANCES

• 34: TIE – Roseau & Edina (29 as Edina, 5 as Edina East)
• 32: Hill-Murray
• 28: South Saint Paul
• 24: Duluth East
• 23: Warroad
• 22: St Paul Johnson
• 20: White Bear Lake (19 as White Bear Lake, 1 as White Bear Mariner)

BOLD = qualified for the 2022 State Tournament

Click here to visit KSTP Sports’ Boys Hockey Tourney Central page