Puppe named Minnesota Ms. Hockey

Northfield High School senior forward Ayla Puppe capped her legendary career with the Raiders girls hockey team by being named Minnesota’s Ms. Hockey for the 2023-24 season. She becomes the first Raider to receive this award, which is presented annually to the top girls hockey player in the state by Let’s Play Hockey.

Puppe was the state’s leading scorer with 61 goals, 50 assists and 111 points. She led the state in all three of those categories and also had 10 hat tricks to her credit in 2023-24. Puppe also scored four goals four times this season and scored five goals against Farmington this winter. In her career with the Raiders, Puppe scored 185 goals, 140 assists and had 325 points in 135 games played for NHS.

Puppe led the Raiders to a 27-3-0 record this season that included a Big 9 Conference title along with a first place finish in the Section 1AA tournament and a trip to the MSHSL Class AA state tournament this winter.

She is slated to continue playing hockey at the collegiate level at the University of Minnesota, which is a member of the Western Collegiate Hockey Association (WCHA) — the nation’s premier NCAA Division I hockey conference.

In addition to being named Ms. Hockey for 2023-24, Puppe was named to the 2023-24 Class AA All-State team along with teammate Grace McCoshen, a senior defender for the Raiders. NHS junior defender Mia Miller was also selected to the Class AA All-State team as an Honorable Mention award winner in 2023-24.

McCoshen will play college hockey next year at Ohio State University, which recently claimed the 2023-24 WCHA regular season championship and is currently ranked #1 in the nation among NCAA Division I teams. McCoshen posted 20 goals, 29 assists and 49 points this year while helping the Raiders outscore their opponents 187-52 this year. Miller ranked second on the team this season with 69 points and 48 assists and third on the team with 21 goals.