Hornets Shutout Crimson Set up Rematch with Andover

St. Paul, MN - The magical season for the Edina Hornets continues as they dispatched the Maple Grove Crimson by a score of 3-0 in the second semifinal of the Minnesota High School Hockey Girls State Tournament.  The win insures that the Hornets will have a chance to earn their fourth straight Class AA state title on Saturday evening and will face off against the Andover Huskies, the only team to beat them 106 days ago to open the season.  

That game was won by Andover 1-0.  From that point on, Edina has gone on a tear winning 18 straight games as they improved their record to 28-1 on the season.  Commitment to the defensive end of the game and incredible goaltending have been the key for Edina.  Consider that Uma Corniea has turned in jaw dropping numbers for the season and she is just a freshman in her 3rd year at the university level.  Through 25 games played, Corniea has posted a 24-1 record with an astounding 0.64 goals against average and an even more staggering .969 save percentage.   

While Corniea is a big part of that, the Edina defenders led by Vivian Jungels, Lily Hendrickson, Sophia Doll, and Haley Maxwell have been incredibly efficient in their own zone and equally impressive offensively.  Jungels had a critical goal off a feed from Hannah Chorske to give Edina the 2-0 lead late in the game.  Tella Jungels started the play in the offensive zone taking a feed and finding Chorske who drew attention from the Crimson defense and subsequently handed it off to Jungels who deposited it to the back hand.  

Every hockey observer knows that defensive play doesn’t just include the goaltender and defenders and that the forwards are critical to the overall formula.  Edina has played in 27 games decided by one goal or less and aer 26-1 in those games.  Their remaining two have been decided by two goals.  They have posted 13 shutouts with Sarah Swann notching two during the regular season.  

Edina opened the scoring on a short handed effort by Tella Jungels at 16:50 of the first period on an assist from Emma Conner.  The Hornets added an empty net goal from Lucy Bowlby at 16:09 for the final margin.  The Crimson (21-6-1) had plenty of offensive zone time and scoring chances throughout the game but were thwarted by Corniea with some point blank chances.  

With a commitment to the defensive part of the game and goaltending that allows a player to make a mistake form time-to-time, it is clear why it is hard to defeat the Hornets.  They are in search of their fourth straight state title which would be a state record for consecutive titles in the Class A and AA of Minnesota GIrls’ High School Hockey.  

The Andover Huskies will have a say in that and the Hornets will look to earn yet another title to hang along the north end of Braemar Arena.  They will faceoff at 7pm Saturday night for a game that needs no introduction.