With the holidays approaching, this week's games cut off on Thursday, denying us our usually array of Friday-Saturday matchups. No worries, there's still a mass quantity of rivalry games and top-ranked showdowns, including a whale of a finale to end the week Thursday night when No. 1 Class 1A Hermantown squares off against No. 1 Class 2A Cretin-Derham Hall. Below are some of the week's top games.

No. 12-2A Eden Prairie (4-3-0) and high-scoring Jake Luloff (8 goals), fresh off Saturday’s big upset victory over No. 2-2A Edina, faces No. 5-2A Wayzata on Wednesday at the Eden Prairie Community Center as the Lake Conference schedule begins in earnest. … As many as four or five teams appear to be legit contenders in Section 2AA, and No. 10-2A Minnetonka (6-2-0) and No. 14-2A Prior Lake (3-3-0), which meet on Wednesday in Prior Lake, are the highest ranked among them. … New Ulm (5-1-0) and scoring leader Braxten Hoffmann (18 points) take a break from their domination of Big South Conference opposition by hosting No. 16-1A Mound Westonka ( 4-4-0) on Wednesday at the New Ulm Civic Center. … Senior forward Joe Gronholz, who has recorded hat tricks in back-to-back games, and No. 13-1A Alexandria (3-3-0) travel to the Municipal Athletic Conference to face St. Cloud (2-4-1) on on Thursday.