If you are not familiar with these two clubs, Class A Northern Lakes is the combination of Pequot Lakes HS, Crosby-Ironton, Pine River-Backus, Aitken, and Walker-Hackensack-Akeley. Northern Tier, a Class AA school, results from a consolidated team of St. Francis, Cambridge-Isanti, and North Branch.  

Among the forwards, Northern Lakes returns with leading scorer in senior Riley Fogarty (17-12-29) and junior Rose Aldridge (12-13-25), while senior defenseman Megan Miller will lead the way for the Lightning’s blueline. In the crease, junior Katherine Stephens (8-11, 3.26 GAA) returns to provide experience and backstop Head Coach Chuck Deutsch’s club.   

The Northern Tier North Stars will feel the loss of star forwards Ashton Parnell (Hamline commit) and Jenna Kurkowski (St. Mary’s commit), but they hope to rebuild in an always tough Mississippi 8 Conference. On the attack, Northern Tier will look to seniors Jenna Hari (4-5-9) and Abygail Spitzer (5-4-9), as well as junior Marisa Miller (4-3-7), to lead the way offensively.

Senior Meghan Gibb returns to build on an impressive junior season. Gibb finished last year with a 2.32 GAA, a .925 save percentage, and six shutouts. All three numbers were tops in the conference among goalies that played at least 700 minutes. Gibb gives Head Coach Corey Denny’s team a chance to win each night and will undoubtedly get a good test in this matchup.