The Sue Ring-Jarvi Girls Player of the Year Award is named after one of the pioneering figures in girls and women's hockey in the state's history. The Roseville native organized and played on the first University of Minnesota Women's Hockey Club Team in 1974. Ring-Jarvi, daughter of Jane Ring, another matriarch of the girls' hockey scene in Minnesota, who helped form teams in Minneapolis, St. Paul, Minnetonka, Hopkins, Burnsville, Mounds View, Bloomington, and Roseville.

With so many great players to choose from narrowing it to six players was very difficult. With the addition of a Girls High School Player of the Year award, these nominations are reserved for only youth players who have demonstrated elite talent, strong leadership skills, and unbridled passion for the game.   

Coming into North Region play in early March, the Grand Rapids-Greenway 12A team had gone 1-3-1 in its last five games, certainly not the momentum horse the team wanted to ride into Moose Lake on. A 4-3 loss to eventual Region champion Thief River Falls marked the team’s fourth loss in its last six games, and provided the Lightning with a daunting challenge ahead of them if it hoped to punch its backdoor ticket to the 12A State Tournament. 

Enter Opal Anderson. 

The high-flying dynamo helped the Lightning to four straight wins in the consolation bracket, scoring 10 goals and adding four assists in wins over Bemidji, Hibbing/Chisholm, Duluth, and Proctor/Hermantown. In addition to the two assists she earned in the opening round against Thief River Falls, Anderson ran away with the North Region scoring leader with 16 total points in five games. 

Anderson and the Lightning now enter the state tournament this weekend, with the Lightning on that elusive hot streak, having scored 19 goals in its last three contests. 

Minnetonka is undefeated in the year 2023. Mark that down. 

The Skippers last suffered a loss at the hands of Alexandria on Dec. 31 in YHH’s Danglefest Tournament and, since that day, haven’t tasted the bitterness of defeat. Instead, the Skippers have known only sugar and spice for the last 17 games, going 16-0-1 and earning wins over perennial 12A powers Edina (four times) and Woodbury. 

At the center of the Skipper scoring battalion is Boss Krohn, who led the Skippers in goals in both the Dangelfest and the East Region playoffs.

During the Skippers’ run to the Danglefest semifinals, Boss Krohn notched five goals and seven points. She was even better in Region play, averaging a hat trick per game with nine tallies in three contests. Oh yeah, she racked up 10 more goals in Edina’s Cake Eater Classic in late November. 

Mentioned above was Minnetonka’s 17-game unbeaten streak. The next player up for this year’s award is a key member of the last team to defeat the Skippers, the Alexandria Cardinals. 

Maya Dutton tied for the 12A Division lead in scoring with three goals and eight points in Alexandria’s march to the Danglefest championship, in which the Cardinals put up a valiant effort in a 3-2 shootout loss to Edina. 

Dutton led Alexandria to a spot in the 12A State Tournament with a five-goal, five-assist performance in the West Region playoffs. After falling 9-3 to Centennial/Spring Lake Park in the Region championship game, the Cardinals bounced back with a 2-1 overtime win over Andover in the backdoor game, giving Dutton an impressive 2.5 points per game average in four games. 

Exactly zero people familiar with girls’ hockey in Minnesota would be surprised to hear that Talla Hansen tied for the scoring lead (eight points) among all 15A Region skaters. They would also not be surprised at the fact that Hansen led all of those same skaters in goals (six). And there’s no chance those people would be surprised that Hansen tied for the scoring lead at the Moorhead 15A/B Tournament in early December with 11 goals and 14 points. 

So it’s no surprise that Hansen makes her second appearance among the finalists for the Sue Ring-Jarvi Award after being named a finalist last year competing for Wayzata’s 12A team. 

Hansen’s Trojans have been one of the state’s top 15A squads all season, finishing as runners-up in December’s Danglefest. The Trojans will enter the 15A State Tournament having won 12 of their last 13 games, with the lone loss coming against Edina Green in the National Region championship by a score of 6-5 in overtime. 

Gianna Marchese was the best goaltender in 15A National Region play. 

That’s not personal opinion. That’s just what the numbers say. 

The Rosemount goaltender led the Region in minutes (187), shots faced with 102, posted a goals-against-average of 1.20, and a stellar .951 save percentage. Her GAA and SV% technically ranked second among Region goaltenders, but the leader (a talented goaltender in her own right) faced 66 shots. For those counting at home, it’s basically half.

(Note: goaltending stats were not tracked during Rosemount’s game against Wayzata Blue, a 4-0 loss for the Irish).  

Thanks largely to Marchese’s play, the Irish came within a goal of advancing to the 15A State Tournament. After losing to Region runner-up Wayzata Blue in the semifinals, the Irish battled back with wins over Orono-Mound Westonka and Rochester.

In the backdoor finale, the Irish fell just short against Prior Lake-Savage, with the Lakers winning 1-0 in overtime. Marchese stopped 46 of 47 shots in the tough-luck loss.

Only two players sit atop the state’s 12A Region scoring leaderboard. One is mentioned above in Grand Rapids-Greenway’s Opal Anderson. The other is Amelia Sutch, the goal-scoring machine from 12A powerhouse Centennial/Spring Lake Park. 

Sutch recorded eight goals and 16 points in three Cougar victories, cruising past Brainerd/Little Falls 7-1 before edging Orono-Mound Westonka 3-1 and putting an exclamation point on Region play with a 9-3 win over eventual backdoor champ Alexandria. 

In four events tracked by GameSheet, Sutch piled up 33 goals and 46 points in 17 total games. Her numbers in District 10 play are also awe-inspiring - 40 goals and 57 points in 16 games. Included in those District games are seven four-goal performances. 

Sutch’s play this season has helped a talented Cougar squad to a record of 42-8-4 entering the 12A State Tournament, and the Cougars have won 10 of their last 11 games.