Section 4A Final (2/29/24)- #1 Mahtomedi vs #2 Southwest Christian/Richfield

[ClassAGuy]

Mahtomedi advances to their 8th straight Section Final where they will face newcomer SWC/Richfield who will be making their Section Final debut on Thursday. Can the Stars pull the big upset or will the Zephyrs return to the X like normal?

[cjmhockey19]

Mahtomedi advances to their 11th straight Section Final where they will face newcomer SWC/Richfield who will be making their Section Final debut on Thursday. Can the Stars pull the big upset or will the Zephyrs return to the X like normal?

11th straight?? Pretty sure Totino knocked them out in the 2016 semis

[ClassAGuy]

Mahtomedi advances to their 11th straight Section Final where they will face newcomer SWC/Richfield who will be making their Section Final debut on Thursday. Can the Stars pull the big upset or will the Zephyrs return to the X like normal?

11th straight?? Pretty sure Totino knocked them out in the 2016 semis

Good Call
Mahtomedi advances to its 8th straight 4A Final

[ClassAGuy]

#1 seed Mahtomedi Zephyrs (16-11-0)
Mahtomedi enters the 4A Section Final for the 8th straight year. The Zephyrs have become the program within this metro east Class A section and they will look to head back to State for the third consecutive year and defend their State Championship. They have cruised through the first two rounds outscored the first two 4A opponents 16-0 and they have now gone (13-4-0) in their last 17 games and as is usually the case they are playing their best hockey now in the playoffs.

Zephyrs Leaders- Seniors #8 Jake Hodd-Chlebeck (24-20-44 pts), #22 Gene Wegleitner (11-21-32 pts) & #17 Patrick Egan (15-6-21 pt) and Sophomore #21 Jimmy Egan (9-34-43 pts) lead the forward group for Mahtomedi. On the blueline Junior #6 Sam Harris (3-21-24 pts) leads a veteran group of big defenders all are 6 '0 ft and above who take away time and space well.

Zephyrs Goalies- Senior # 30 Charlie Brandt (10-6-0) 3.23 GAA .898 SV% & Junior #35 Wes Strub (6-5-0) 2.07 GAA .923 SV% have split the net down the middle most of the year and the rotation has continued into the playoffs so far as both have gotten a start and shutout in their wins in net during their first two Section 4A playoff wins.

Zephyrs Section 4A Dominance- Mahtomedi lost in the 2021 Section 4A Final to Gentry Academy, who went on to win Class A and move to 4AA, and since that loss the Zephyrs have been dominant in Section 4A. Over the last 3 years they are 19-0 vs 4A opponents and have outscored section teams 147-17 in those 19 games which really shows just how far above the rest of the section they have been recently and why it points to them being the heavy favorite to win their 7th section title in the last 8 years.

Zephyrs Special Teams- The Power Play is at 23.6% and Penalty Kill is at 83.7%

Southwest Christian/Richfield Stars (17-10-0)
Southwest Christian/Richfield enters the 4A Section Final having made significant program history over the last week as up until this year they had never won a section playoff game and now they find themselves in the Final one game away from State. They have been able to take care of business on their side of the bracket so far and head into the 4A Final with a ton of momentum and really nothing to lose as on paper they are the underdog to the defending state champions and they will look to pull the big upset.

Stars Leaders- Seniors #15 Jared Greiner (16-34-50 pts), #91 Kaden Feltmann (26-10-36 pts), #2 Eli Hoffman (10-16-26 pts) & Junior #17 Paul Hornor (14-19-33 pts) lead a very deep offense that has multiple players with double digit goals and add to them Sophomore #25 Tate Hardacre (14-29-43 pts) who is one of the top young defenseman in the entire state for a solid core of Stars.

Stars Goalie- Senior #3 Jannes Kamp (17-9-0) 2.15 GAA .935 SV% the big 6 '7 netminder has been big all season in the net. He is a physically opposing goaltender and if he can get hot in this game he could be the key piece to Stars' upset. He picked up his 7th shutout of the year in the win in the 4A semifinals and he looks locked in.

Stars Reach New Heights- Regardless of how this game ends up going there is a lot to be said about this group of seniors for SW Chrisitian/Richfield as in their tenure within the program they have taken this program from a relatively unknown team to now competing in their 1st Section Final. They have a significant challenge in the Zephyrs but just looking at what they have been able to do in their career within this program and to see the progress they have made you shouldn't count these Stars out in this one.

Stars Special Teams- The Power Play is at 28.4% and Penalty Kill is at 84.4 %

[ClassAGuy]

SWCR takes the 1-0 lead 2nd perod!!

[ClassAGuy]

Mahtomedi ties it up 1-1 early third period

[ClassAGuy]

Mahtomedi leads 2-1 late 3rd period

[ClassAGuy]

SWCR ties it up late 2-2 late 3rd period