On the first shift of his varsity career, St. Paul Johnson freshman Joey Moberg took his pent-up nervous energy out on the first player to get in his way. 

Fortunately for Moberg’s teammates, that player was a St. Paul Highland Park Scot. 

“One of our captains was like, ‘who’s going to make the first hit,’” Moberg said. 

“And I was like, ‘I’ll take that’.”

Not only did Moberg dish out his first high school hit, he scored his first goal, notching the eventual game-winner in the final minute of the second period as the Governors defeated the Scots 2-1 to claim the first St. Paul Cup.  

“First shift of the game he went in and tattooed that guy and that set the tempo for the whole game,” longtime Governors’ head coach Steve “Moose,” Younghans said of Moberg’s debut.

The game would take on an ultra-physical tone, as both offenses struggled to put the puck past Johnson’s Aaron Lee and Highland Park’s Jack Branby.

Branby would finish the game with 44 saves.  

“We wanted to make sure we brought physicality, and we did that,” Younghans said. 

“We launched fifty-plus shots on that guy,” Younghans continued, praising Branby’s play.

“That kid’s a great goaltender and he’s a difference-maker.”

The Scots (2-1) opened the scoring with a Gabe Nelson breakaway wrist shot that beat Lee cleanly, a score that was quickly answered by Johnson’s Alex Campbell and Moberg’s aforementioned game-winner. 

Johnson senior captain Carl Fish also had kind words for Moberg’s willingness to buy into the Governor's physical philosophy. 

“What we pride ourselves on is taking the body,” Fish said. 

“For a freshman to come out like that and light somebody up and get the game going, it’s incredible.”

The St. Paul Cup features the last remaining St. Paul public high schools and adding a physical representation of victory only intensifies a rivalry born out of proximity and the animosity that comes along with it. 

Fish has given the trophy a different name following the win. 

“I’m holding the Johnson Cup right here,” Fish said with a grin, adding that he and his teammates feel a special kind of pride competing for their city. 

“It’s a huge honor to be playing for it nowadays (because) everything’s (focused on) the suburbs,” Fish explained. 

“We’re holding the tradition down in the inner-city.”