Good morning from high above the Xcel Energy Center in St. Paul, where we’re getting set to kick of the 2008 MSHSL Girls’ Hockey State Tournament.  My name is Jon Marthaler, and I’ll be taking you through the first two games of the Class 1A quarterfinals.  John Millea is also here, sitting next to me, where he’ll be producing podcasts from here in the press box. 

Our first game this morning is Alexandria, the Section 6 champions, taking on South St. Paul, the winners of Section 2.  Both of these schools are tournament-tested - this is Alexandria’s fifth consecutive appearance at State.  Only one other school has ever made it to five consecutive state tournaments - and that was South St. Paul (from 2002-2006). 

Alexandria is 24-1-2 this year, and have scored more than five goals per game while allowing fewer than one per night.  The Cardinals’ top line of seniors Abby Williams and Kathryn DelZoppo and sophomore Michelle Anez has combined to score 90 goals in 27 games this season, an impressive total.

South St. Paul is 17-11-0, but their record is slightly misleading: seven of those 11 losses were by one goal. First-line center Toni Simones, a senior, leads the Packers with 24 goals and 18 assists, and is playing in her fifth state tourney. 

The Zambonis are out on the ice following warmups, the fans are trickling into the arena, and we’re about 15 minutes from the beginning of the first game, right around 11 a.m. today.  It’s just about time to drop the puck….

This entry was posted on Wednesday, February 20th, 2008 at 10:45 am and is filed under Main. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.