In terms of sharing a special moment with a sister, playing together in a state tournament ranks very highly. For Edina, the sentimentality is quadrupled, with four sets of sisters on this year’s state tournament roster. 

One set of sisters, Annie and Jane Kuehl, played a particularly pivotal role in Edina’s 7-0 quarterfinal win over East Ridge, with Annie dishing out a pair of assists and spearheading a perfect penalty-killing effort, and Jane notching the game’s first goal and setting the show in motion. 

“Jane’s a great player,” Annie Kuehl said after the game. “I think it helps having an older sister on the team just to help show her the way,” Annie continued. “Today (was) probably one of the best games I’ve ever seen her play.”

Jane’s goal midway through the first period broke a scoreless tie between the teams and sparked the Hornets enough to score six more times in the win. 

“It’s a big deal, especially (because) I don’t get that many goals,” Jane said with a grin. “So to score the goal and motivate each other, especially having (an) underclassman motivate everyone, kind of gets everyone pumped up.”

Senior forward and Ms. Hockey finalist CC Bowlby scored the first of two goals in a four-goal second period for the No. 1 seed Hornets (25-4), with Evelyn Adams, Lucy Bowlby, and Katie Davis also scoring in the period. Olivia Swaim put the game into running time with the team’s sixth goal in the third before CC Bowlby netted her second of the contest. 

Lost in the impressive numbers of seven goals and 39 shots was the Edina penalty-killing units, which did not allow a goal in seven East Ridge power play tries. 

“That’s something we take pride in every game,” Edina coach Sami Reber said, adding that the killing off of three penalties taken within two-and-a-half minutes of each other in the second period played a key role in the win. “If East ridge puts one in there, it’s a different game,” Reber said.

A different game it wasn’t for East Ridge (19-9-1), but Raptors’ coach Kim McClintick is hopeful for where the program is heading after making its state tournament debut. 

“It’s huge for East Ridge,” McClintick said. “(In) our youth association, half will go to Woodbury, half will go to East Rudge because (the association) is combined,” McClintick continued, adding that splitting overall talent pool convinces some families that a private school may be a better option. 

“There’s a lot of well-off families in Woodbury that can afford to go to these private schools, and it’s huge to say hey, we’re a public school, and we can go to the state tournament without having to go off to a private school or hockey school,” McClintick said.

McClintick also said that the connection between the high school program and the youth association has never been stronger. 

“The youth girls have made signs for these high school girls, we’ve had a little mentoring program we got started this year, I think we’ve really started to try and build this bridge between the youth and the high school.”