Mahtomedi's first appearance in a Class A State Tournament championship game was in the works long before the team took the ice on Friday afternoon for a semifinal battle with No. 1 seed Warroad (27-3). 

Was it during the preseason team meeting and goal-setting session? Nope. Even farther back. 

The team's roots (and key players) extend all the way back to the Mahtomedi junior varsity team, an oft-forgotten piece of a high school program that develops the players not yet ready for the varsity stage. 

Senior forward Billy Buttermore, who scored the first goal of the Zephyrs' 5-1 win over the Warriors, said that with the exception of standouts Nikolai Dulak and Colin Hagstrom, the Mahtomedi core had played the last two seasons with the JV, building quite the bond together. 

"This group is the most tight-knit, (with a) family attitude," Buttermore said. "It's just so fun to be around. We just have a great vibe."

Cutting their teeth on the junior varsity team has apparently paid off for the fourth-seeded Zephyrs (22-8), who scored twice in the first period and then three more times in the second for their five goals. 

Mahtomedi also excelled on defense, bottling up the point-producing Warroad duo of Grant Slukynsky and Jayson Shaugabay. The pair had combined for six goals in the Warriors' 9-3 quarterfinal win over Hutchinson but managed just one score on Friday.

"They did a good job of taking away our time and space," Warroad coach Jay Hardwick said. "They did a great job of making it hard on us."

Mahtomedi goaltender Ben Dardis did his part, stopping 29 of 30 shots and frustrating the Warroad forwards. 

"Their goalie was unreal today," Shaugabay said.

Dardis's defining moment in the game could be the breakaway attempt he stonewalled shortly after Slukynsky made the score 3-1 early in the second period. 

"I knew I needed to stop it," Dardis said of the play. "If they would've scored again, that would've been a huge momentum swing for Warroad."

Instead, Dardis made the save, and Nathan Gruhlke and Adam Johnson potted goals in the final two minutes of the second frame to ice the win. 

And, yes, Gruhlke and Johnson both did their time with the junior varsity. 

"I give these guys credit because they stayed the course," Mahtomedi coach Jeff Poeschl said. "They worked hard, and they came in confident."