The arena is beginning to fill up for the Class 2A state championship game, here in St. Paul.  We’ve already had some chanting from the students - including a few upper-deck folks that are apparently unattached - and the countdown is on to the Edina vs. Hill-Murray matchup.

Below, I’ve got some keys to this game - as usual, after the jump.

1. Will Hill-Murray be allowed to be as physical as they were last night?  The Pioneers had great success playing a very hitting-intensive game against Roseau in the semifinals, and there were some that felt it bordered on illegal.  It’ll be interesting to see if the referees call tonight’s game tighter, or if they again let the teams play.

2. Each team has an outstanding goaltender - Derrick Caschetta for Edina, and Joe Phillippi for Hill-Murray.  It’s likely that this will be a very even game, and the state champion could come down to which goaltender plays better tonight.

3. Edina, as the higher seed, is the home team and will therefore have the last line change on faceoffs.  It’ll be interesting to see if Curt Giles makes an effort to keep his top line - Zach Budish, Marshall Everson, and Anders Lee - away from Dan Sova and Bo Dolan, Hill-Murray’s top defensive pair.

4. Both Giles and Hill-Murray coach Bill Lechner are known as pretty good Xs-and-Os game planners; it’ll be a matchup of the minds on the benches tonight.  The Pioneers executed their game plan to perfection yesterday - we’ll see if they can do the same today.

This entry was posted on Saturday, March 8th, 2008 at 6:44 pm and is filed under Boys\' Hockey, State tournaments. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.