Hill-Murray and St. Thomas Academy are the 2008 state champions, and now, almost all is quiet here at the Xcel Energy Center.  It’s been a great four days of hockey, hasn’t it?

I’ve seen fourteen games in 83 hours, from the drop of the puck between Duluth Marshall and Mankato West on Wednesday morning, all the way through Joe Phillippi’s blocker toss tonight. As to why I’d want to spend 50 hours in the Xcel Energy Center over a four-day span, I can only quote something that St. Thomas Academy co-head coach Tom Vannelli said to me back in late November: “Hockey just gets under your skin, you know?”

After the jump, a look back at a few odds and ends from the tournament.

As I mentioned before, this is Hill-Murray’s first title since 1991, and the third in school history. The Pioneers were on an 0-for-8 streak at the state tournament - including title-game losses in 1993 and 2002 - but have erased some of their frustration with this win.

Coming into the tournament, everyone was buzzing about Roseau and Edina, and what a classic championship game it’d be if they met. Hill-Murray ruined the party by comprehensively beating both, the top two teams in the state. And since the Pioneers also beat Class 1A champs St. Thomas Academy twice this year, I think we can say without a doubt who this season’s top team was. Kudos to them for taking their #4 seed in this tournament and turning it into motivation.

Joe Phillippi won just about every award he possibly could have won this year: Senior Goalie of the Year, first team All-Metro, all-tournament team, the Herb Brooks character award… and of course and most importantly, a state title.  If they had named a tournament MVP, it would have been the Pioneers senior goalie.

Some random awards of my own:

Best Student Section: Has to go to St. Thomas Academy. The Cadets are not only the best-dressed students, they also put together the best combination of loud/witty/silly in the tournament. Witness their first-intermission Wave exhibitons as proof, along with today’s chant: “What’s a Top-per?”

Best Frustrated Chant: Has to go to Duluth Marshall’s students, for chanting “Sea-son’s O-ver” at St. Thomas Academy late in the third period. Technically, they were right - but the Cadets were busy finishing off a 5-1 win over Marshall.

Worst Chant: Goes to everyone who pulled out the “Pub-lic Schoo-ls” chant. It’s been done, folks.

Best pep band song: A tie between “Slow Ride” when the Zamboni is on the ice, and the “Pirates of the Caribbean” theme.

Worst pep band song: “Holiday” by Green Day. It just doesn’t translate to trumpet very well.

It’s been a great experience being here and blogging throughout. And so for one final time: that’s it for me. From the Xcel Energy Center in St. Paul - congratulations to Hill-Murray and St. Thomas Academy, and good night.

This entry was posted on Saturday, March 8th, 2008 at 10:19 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.