Edina boys hockey defeats Chanhassen in MSHSL Class 2A championship game
ST. PAUL — The No. 1-seed Edina Hornets (26-4-1) defeated the No. 2-seed Chanhassen Storm (25-6) 2-1 in the 2024 Class 2A MSHSL state championship game on Saturday at Xcel Energy Center.
Down by one in the final five minutes, the Storm threw shot after shot at senior Edina goaltender Joe Bertram. And after each glove save or smothered puck, Bertram appeared on the jumbotron, and he had a smile on his face.
"Yeah I was feeling some tension," Bertram said. "In those moments you have got to just talk to yourself and just say, ‘You’ve been here before. It’s just like any other game you’ve played at Braemar [Arena]. You just got to build off the crowd. It’s fun to watch yourself up there."
On the bench, Edina head coach Curt Giles felt different about the final minutes.
"I’m glad he saw [the puck] like a beach ball because that looked like a peanut to me," Giles said.
Bertram made eight saves in the final five minutes of the game, and the Hornets took their 14th state title in Edina/Edina East history after scoring two goals in the third period.
After a stalemate in the first period—no goals and even shots-on-goal—Chanhassen looked the superior team in the second period. The Storm scored the only goal of the period when Tyler Smith deflected a shot from Ben Curtis, and the puck slid into the lower right corner of the goal.
It was part of a Chanhassen barrage that left it with a shots-on-goal advantage of 14 to five in the second period. But only converting one of those shots came back to bite the Storm in the third period.
"You get down one-nothing to a very good team that’s kind of smothering you, it’s very difficult to get started," Giles said. "They just hung in there. They just stayed right with it."
Edina tied the game when junior defender Robby Hoch shot a puck toward the net and Chanhassen goaltender Kam Hendrickson could not find it through traffic. Hoch, a junior defenseman, had only scored two goals this season.
"You look at the history of this tournament and look at some of the guys who score in this tournament, and do big things and do different types of things, sometimes its your second set of [defense], or your third line and your fourth line," Giles said.
Seven minutes later, Chanhassen senior Caden Lee tripped a Hornet, and Edina went on the power play. The Hornets scored six seconds into the power play when senior Bobby Cowan put a shot into the top corner.
"The shot [Cowan] made," Giles said. "There’s not many kids that can make that shot. I’m telling ya. From that spot, to beat a quality goaltender like that. It’s hard to find a kid who can shoot the puck like that."
Senior Jackson Nevers added: "Best shot in the state."
For Chanhassen, this was the first time the Storm played in the state tournament in program history, and a runner-up finish will be a high bar for future teams to hurdle.
"From the first game they played, two or three years ago now, they competed," Chanhassen head coach Sean Bloomfield said. "… A passion allowed them to learn the game really well. They embraced how to become a better hockey player on and off the ice. That’s why they got to where they did."
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- Jack Butler | butler@scorebooklive.com | @Butler917
