The section playoffs and the state tournament get most of the glory, but some of the truly great games are played far away from the bright lights and big stage of the postseason. 

Regular season meetings are ripe for tantalizing matchups, with teams duking it out for conference standing and for personal bragging rights across the state from late November to February. 

With all due respect for the fabled rivalry of Roseau and Warroad, this list features five games that have generally not received the coverage or the attention that Rams versus Warriors deservedly has in the past.

The rivalry scene is played out countless times in every nook and cranny of Minnesota's hockey landscape, and here are five regular-season matchups that should whet every fan's appetite.

When two groups of high school students are separated by just two miles and seven minutes, the development of a rivalry is only natural. In Lakeville, where players have been squaring off for their respective sides since childhood, that rivalry reaches a fever pitch by the time those athletes reach their prep careers.   

The annual battle for bragging rights in the southern suburb takes place twice per regular season, with each team hosting the other once. Only adding to the drama is the South Suburban Conference championship implications, which are usually still in flux when the teams meet, and the possibility of meeting once more in the Class 2A, Section 1 playoffs. 

While Lakeville North has dominated the recent postseason years, winning three of the past five section titles, Lakeville South thumped the Panthers 5-2 in the 2017 finals en route to a fourth-place finish in its first state tournament appearance since 2012. 

The win was the Cougars’ first over the Panthers since Dec. 20, 2012.

2017-2018 Dates: Jan. 16 (Ames) and Feb. 17 (Hasse) 

Throw out the fact that one team is the defending Class 2A state champion with an enrollment of approximately 972 students and the other has not made a state tournament appearance since 2001 while drawing from a pool of 269 students.

Actually, leave those facts in, sprinkle a dusting of close proximity and set the oven to 350 degrees for two hours and enjoy a volatile conflict pie.  

The northern battle usually draws a sellout crowd, packed into either the historic IRA Civic Center in Grand Rapids or the equally iconic Hodgins-Berado Arena in Coleraine. 

With fans stacked on top of each other, the volume of the building only compounds, where the whistles for the 18 penalties called in last year’s tilt (a 4-1 win for the Thunderhawks) could barely be heard.

2017-2018 Dates: Nov. 28 (Hodgins-Berardo)

Often overlooked by fans and media alike in favor of the historically-entrenched clashes of the northland, the southern quadrant of the state very quietly features one of the best rivalries in the state between the Cougars of Mankato East and the Scarlets of Mankato West.

The staffs at All Seasons Arena and the Verizon Wireless Center are fortunate that the roofs of both buildings are still considered structurally acceptable after these teams are finished putting on their show.  

The Big Nine Conference spectacle is played twice per season, and like their Lakeville counterparts, sometimes Mankato residents are treated to a third version of the game in the Class 1A, Section 1 playoffs.

The Cougars and the Scarlets split their regular-season matches last year, with each team winning once 2-1. Mankato East had the last laugh, downing the Scarlets 5-2 in the section semifinals.

2017-2018 Dates: Jan. 18 (Verizon Wireless Center) and Feb. 10 (All Seasons Arena)

This rivalry can be somewhat measured in numbers. 

The arenas are a combined 155 years old. The towns are just six miles from each other. 

One road connects the two; US-53. 

The Golden Bears and the Blue Devils have been traipsing up and down this highway to face each other since World War II, and in towns where neither population approaches 10,000, oftentimes civic pride is played out on ice. 

The game has been described by an Eveleth native as the Socs vs. the Greasers in a nod to S.E. Hinton's landmark work The Outsiders, with the Blue Devils playing the role of well-to-do socialites and the Golden Bears donning the cap of the working class.

Imagine if Norman Rockwell painted (another) portrait of Americana, and Jackson Pollock was allowed to splatter himself on the masterpiece in the form of physicality, grit, and tenacity.

2017-2018 Dates: Dec. 16 (Eveleth Hippodrome) and Jan. 27 (Miners Memorial) 

Despite Stillwater’s recent interruption of the steady diet of Section 4-2A finals decided between the Bears and the Pioneers, the longstanding bout between east metro powers remains one of Minnesota high school hockey’s preeminent rivalry games.

As the only hockey-power Catholic school on the east side, and boasting a decorated history, Hill-Murray has a tradition of winning and attracting the best players from the metro, including players who suited up for White Bear Lake during their youth careers. 

The prospect of dueling with former teammates is appetizing to most players, and this game is no exception.

To illustrate how big this game can be, let's tell a story.

I show up to the Vadnais Sports Center approximately 30 minutes before warmups prior to last season’s game between the teams, just two days before Christmas 2016, with my camera, backpack and press pass, full of gumption and Diet Coke.  

I am turned away by two different arena attendants on my first attempts to enter the rink, both of whom apologetically inform me that the arena is at capacity and that there is no more room.

I plead, I explain, I flash the press pass. No dice.  

With the help of two police officers and who I assume is the arena director, I finally find six inches of open space along the top row of bleachers next to no less than five grandparents of players, a handful of scouts, and a student section that has heaped its aspirations of victory on the bulky shoulders of their classmates.

Within two minutes I am made fully aware that media members and fans alike should show up earlier in 2017.

2017-2018 Dates: Dec. 23 (Aldrich Arena)