Eden Prairie 3, Chaska 2

Ask, and ye shall receive.

The tired phrase from days of yore still has its place in 2020, and Eden Prairie coach Lee Smith used it to his advantage on Wednesday night in the Eagles Class 2A, Section 2 championship win over Chaska.  

After a shot by the Eagles’ Drew Holt banged off the crossbar and out of the Hawks’ net, play continued as a referee waived the supposed-goal off. For a little over 60 seconds, the game continued, but at the next whistle, Smith asked. 

“It sure looked in,” Smith said of Holt’s shot after the game. “The light was on. But the play went on so long that I wasn’t sure they would go to him,” Smith continued, referring to the goal judge behind the Chaska cage. 

“When the whistle happened, it’s my goal is to ask them to talk about it,” Smith said. 

After several minutes of conferring, Holt’s goal was awarded and defending Class AA State Tournament runner-up Eden Prairie (22-5-1) began its harrowing march toward a place in the state tournament. 

“I (thought) ‘There’s no way they call this a goal,’ and then they did, and I was like ‘Oh my god, that’s crazy,’” Eden Prairie forward Jackson Blake said. “That goal gave us motivation and gave us the upper-hand.”


Jackson Blake scored the second goal of the game for Eden Prairie.

Blake scored seven minutes after Holt’s goal was awarded, and a third tally by John Mittelstadt put the Eagles ahead 3-0 entering the third period, which went swimmingly enough for Eden Prairie until Chaska ramped up the pressure.  

“They play with a ton of pride, and Dave’s a great coach, and I knew it was going to be a battle,” Smith said. 

Battle the Hawks, did, as Jimmy Snuggerud and Calvin Barrett scored in the final five minutes of regulation to make the score 3-2. 

“Even in the third, we tried to tell our kids, (that) this thing’s not over,” Smith said. 

“But it’s hard to tell kids that when they’re seventeen minutes away from St. Paul.”

Defensive softening aside, Eden Prairie goaltender Axel Rosenlund stood tall during the final nail-biting minutes and finished with 28 saves on 30 shots from Chaska (16-10-2). 

“We rode our two lines, they rode their two lines,” Smith said. 

“It was a battle of the top-six, and ours barely won.”


John Mittelstadt (center) embraces Carter Batchelder and Drew Holt after the Eagles held off Chaska for a 3-2 win on Wednesday night.