The larger goal remains out there, but the Stillwater boys hockey team achieved another objective while pulling away from East Ridge 5-2 on Thursday, Feb. 15 at the St. Croix Valley Rec Center to earn a share of the Suburban East Conference championship.
It marks just the third league title in the program’s history for the Ponies (14-2-0 SEC, 14-9-2), who matched White Bear Lake (14-2-0, 17-7-1) atop the standings and comfortably ahead of third-place Cretin-Derham Hall (11-5-0, 14-10-1) and Park (11-5-0, 15-10-0).
Stillwater’s only other conference championships occurred in 2016 and 2017.
“Winning the conference or losing it doesn’t get you to the state tournament, but it’s having a stepping stone and it’s a good thing for the kids to see,” Ponies coach Greg Zanon said. “We’ve played really well in the conference games and we know our conference is getting better every year.”
After losing to White Bear Lake in their conference opener, the Ponies reeled off 13 straight SEC wins — including a 5-0 victory over the Bears — until falling to Mounds View 3-2 on Feb. 13.
“It was kind of a letdown with the way we played against Mounds View, but even splitting the conference championship is a step in the right direction that we want to go as a program,” Zanon said.
Stillwater bounced back with the victory over East Ridge to clinch a share of the title. White Bear Lake won its last three conference games, including a 5-3 triumph over Cretin-Derham Hall on Feb. 17 to pull even with the Ponies.
“We showed that we are one of the top teams splitting it with White Bear Lake,” Zanon said.
The Ponies fell behind in the opening period of their final conference game against East Ridge, but Brody Dustin scored at 12:08 to even the score and Blaine Batchelor scored on the power play two minutes later to put Stillwater in front 2-1.
One of just four seniors on the roster for Stillwater, Batchelor also scored four minutes into the second period to build a 3-1 lead.
“The East Ridge game was Senior Night and the kids played with a lot of passion for the seniors,” Zanon said. “The boys just really stuck with it and we battled. Over time, we just kind of wore them down with our speed and I think it was one of those games we played all three periods.”
Brandon Muth scored on the power play for East Ridge at 10:51 of the second period, but the Ponies pulled away in the third with goals by freshman Luca Jarvis and junior Matthew Volkman.
Senior goaltender Alex Reedy finished with 17 saves for the Ponies, who held a 40-19 advantage in shots on goal.
East Ridge 1 1 0 — 2
Stillwater 2 1 2 — 5
First period — 1. ER, Evan Schmitz (Jack Werner) 11:58; 1. St, Brody Dustin (Luke Myers, Cal Grilz) 12:08; 2. St, Blaine Batchelor (Will Kane, Matthew Volkman) pp, 14:17.
Second period — 3. St, Batchelor (Carson Kingbay, Alex Oehlke) 3:50; 1. ER, Brandon Muth (Derek Seawert) pp, 10:51.
Third period — 4. St, Luca Jarvis (Trey Fredenberg, Batchelor) pp, 7:16; 5. St, Volkman (Jarvis, Fredenberg) 11:30.
Penalties — ER, 6-20:00; St, 11-30:00.
Saves — ER (JT Drum) 11-10-14—35; St (Alex Reedy) 5-6-6—17.
Stillwater 2, Holy Family 2
After giving up two second-period goals, the Ponies pulled even in the third to close out the regular season with a 2-all tie against Holy Family in a nonconference game on Saturday, Feb. 17 at the SCVRC.
“We played a good game,” Ponies coach Greg Zanon said. “We had chances to score and their goalie made some big saves and we also hit two posts. It was a good game back and forth and they’re a good hockey team that played hard.”
Volkman opened the scoring for the Ponies just 31 seconds into the first period on assists from Trey Fredenberg and Luca Jarvis.
Holy Family (15-8-2) pulled even with a power play goal from Bryce Wiitala five minutes into the second period and Drew Roelofs put the Fire in front 2-1 at 7:02 of the period.
Volkman delivered his second goal of the game and 10th of the season at 10:28 of the third to tie the game at 2-all.
“It was just a good play,” Zanon said. “We were able to get on a two-on-one and we have been stressing all year that we need to be a shooting team. (Volkman) looked over to pass but realized the shot was there and made a good shot on the low-blocker side. He made a good shot and had a good game.”
Stillwater outshot the Fire 9-6 in the third, but neither team was able to finish.
Adam Kimbrel turned away 36 shots overall for the Fire and Alex Reedy stopped 28 for the Ponies.
“We had some turnovers and gave up a goal on the penalty kill, but he made the saves he needed to make in overtime,” Zanon said. “They got a bounce goal on the second one, but the third period and overtime we were really pushing to get the game. They don’t always go in, but the boys were able to stay with it.”
• Stillwater received the No. 3 seed in Section 4AA behind top-seeded Hill-Murray (15-8-2) and the second-seeded Bears (14-2-0, 17-7-1). The Ponies will face sixth-seed Mounds View in the quarterfinals on Saturday, Feb. 24 at Aldrich Arena. The Ponies (0-7-2) are still looking for their first non-league victory following a challenging schedule of nonconference opponents that are a combined 161-50-14.
“We’ve had a lot of learning opportunities this year with the teams we’ve played,” Zanon said. “Minnetonka and Rogers were the only games we didn’t have a lead in, so we’ve taken those things into the latter part of the year and how do we hold onto those leads going forward. Those are learning lessons and it’s do-or-die hockey now and it’s a matter of getting prepared for Saturday and hopefully putting our best foot forward and we come out as good as we can.”
Holy Family 0 2 0 0 — 2
Stillwater 1 0 1 0 — 2
First period — 1. St, Matthew Volkman (Trey Fredenberg, Luca Jarvis) :31.
Second period — 1. HF, Bryce Wiitala (Holden Pajor, Carson Moe) pp, 5:19; 2. HF, Drew Roelofs (Adam Crosby, Cameron Dean) 7:02.
Third period — 2. St, Volkman (Fredenberg, Will Kane) 10:28.
Overtime — No scoring.
Penalties — HF, 2-4:00; St, 4-8:00.
Saves — HF (Adam Kimbrel) 8-7-12-9—36; St (Alex Reedy) 9-7-6-6—28.
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