Edina is a public school in the heart of the west metro while Hill-Murray is a private school on the east side. Putting those minor details aside, these teams are in many ways mirror images of each other right down to their green-dominated color schemes.
Both programs face state-championship-or-bust expectations from their fan bases each season, both regularly assemble the type of talent that can meet those expectations and both have old-school coaches with low tolerances for on- or off-the-ice shenanigans.
Edina might be the one team in the state that doesn’t do the fist-bumping bench area fly-bys after goals. Bass-heavy jams cranked to 11 are noticeably absent from Hill-Murray’s locker room.
It’s no surprise that Curt Giles, in his 23rd year leading the Hornets, and Bill Lechner, is his 24th year as the Pioneers’ head coach, are good buddies. Their respect for one another is such that they have inserted an annual two-day, home-and-home series against each other into their respective schedules.
Given how evenly matched these teams always figure to be, it’s a statistical and competitive anomaly that Hill-Murray has shut out the Hornets in each of their last four meetings. The Pioneers won last season’s games 1-0 and 3-0 and, in 2019-20, won by scores of 2-0 and 3-0. The teams split the series in 2018-19, with Edina winning one the first of the two games by shutout.
Shutouts seem unlikely this season with both teams featuring high-scoring potential Mr. Hockey finalists in Hill-Murray’s Dylan Godbout (19 goals) and Edina’s Trey Fechko (15 goals).