The rivalry between White Bear Lake and Hill-Murray added another chapter to its body of work on Tuesday night, cramming virtually all of the game’s excitement into the last half of the third period and the ensuing overtime session on Tuesday night. 

After a lengthy stretch of, in the words of White Bear Lake head coach Tim Sager “feeling each other out,” the Bears carried a 1-0 lead into the final nine minutes of regulation. 

Perhaps feeling the drag of a team-wide illness and three periods of chasing Hill-Murray’s flying wings, the Bears broke down to surrender two goals to the Pioneers, who are ranked No. 2 in the latest YHH Class 2A Staff Rankings.  

“As the game went on, I kept looking in their eyes to see how much had they had in the tank,” Sager said after the game. “I thought from the get-go we were out a quarter of a step slow on our forecheck.”

Triston Tabucol snuck behind the White Bear Lake defense for Hill-Murray’s first goal, then senior captain Charlie Strobel knocked in a loose puck on the power play to put the Pioneers ahead 2-1. 

Billy Rose took an interference penalty to give the Pioneers the power play that led to the go-ahead goal, flipping a Hill-Murray player’s stick into the air with the puck away from the play and lofting it 15 feet from the Pioneer. 

“(I) got a little mad there,” Rose said of the play. “(I) tried to take it out on the puck when I buried that.”

The “that” which Rose is referring to is his game-winner at the 2:25 mark of overtime, where he did indeed bury a one-timer off a feed from Lleyton Roed. “We were dead-tired, but we had to bear down and get it done,” Rose said.

Sam Newpower tied the game for the Bears with 15 seconds remaining in regulation to force overtime. The same trio had nary a break from that point on.  

Fatigued as they may have been, Sager said there was no chance that Roed, Rose, and Newpower were coming off the ice with the man-advantage in the fourth period. 

“That’s our bread and butter, right there,” Sager said of his top line and first power-play unit. “We were riding them.”

The No. 5-2A Bears also rode the performance of senior goaltender Tyler Steffens, who stopped 19 of 21 shots during the win. Steffens also made the save of the game during overtime, denying Strobel with a clear chance on the White Bear Lake net. 

Steffens transferred to White Bear Lake from Hill-Murray for his sophomore year, adding another layer to the victory. 

“I had all sorts of people that I’m friends with at Hill-Murray giving me extra crap about the game beforehand,” Steffens said, adding that the trash talk was all in good fun. “It’s just nice to get the win in the end.”

After seeing limited action as a sophomore and splitting time with senior Evan Foss last season, Steffens has come into his own in his final year, playing every minute for the Bears (6-0-1) and posting a goals-against-average of 0.97 and three shutouts. 

“Steffs got a lot (of action) last year,” Sager said. “I think he was (named) honorable mention all-conference. He’s a senior. He’s been there. Steffs is a quality goaltender mand he proved it tonight,” Sager continued. 

The opportunity to claim the spotlight as the starter is not lost on Steffens. 

“For anybody, I think when it’s their last year, they always dig a little deeper and try to flex a little harder,” Steffens said.