The winner of two of the past three class A girls hockey championships, The Blake School Bears, have never been beaten by St. Paul United. Tuesday night was about the closet United has come to ending the Bears’ dominance. United lost 3-2 in a game in which they were outshot in the opening period 18-2 but only found themselves a goal down at the break and were going against the second leading goal scorer in the state, Carly Bullock, whose last game against United was cut short because of her cheap shot hit from behind on senior Sena Hanson.

The first period was about as one sided as possible. Blake had sustained offensive pressure from when junior Clare Tipler was sent to the penalty box 4:03 into the period. United was barely able to exit the defensive zone and when they did, they were often jammed up in the neutral zone making a change or trying to recover from a sloppy pass. Having the defensive pairings switched up after Tipler’s penalty did not help either, as coach Nate Mauer swapped Tipler with sophomore Olivia Williams-Ridge because of the timing of the penalty.

Even with all of Blake’s zone time, they failed to capitalize on most of their chances. On several occasions Bear forwards missed wide open nets or had the shots taken away by senior goalie Catherine Johnson. In some cases even defenders came to the rescue. Most notable being Tipler coming from out of nowhere to block the Blake shot postmarked for the back of the net.

Even with all of these chances, Blake managed one goal that was somehow put into the back of the net from a mass of humanity off the stick of Blake senior Carly Bullock, the goal being her 40th of the regular season. In the first period, that was the only way a puck was getting past Johnson.

“I mean we couldn’t have done that without Cath,” Tipler said, “That period showed us how much skill we really have, even if we don’t get all of the shots on net, we still have the skill to back us up, an amazing goaltender (Catherine Johnson) to back us up and she really kept us in it.”

The second and third periods United looked like a completely different team. There were crisp breakout passes, sustained offensive pressure and United was getting pucks on the net. Phoebe Warner’s shorthanded goal after Blake was able to kill off the first part of a 5-on-3 wasn’t enough to faze United, who came back and cut the lead to one under a minute later. The goal came on another net mouth scramble, where junior Lauren Boettcher was able to put the puck past Blake goalie Anna Kruesel.

Blake quickly regained the lead and took a 3-1 lead into the second intermission.

Early on in the third period freshman Catherine Kerrin (Vis) was able to cut the lead to one, once again on the third powerplay opportunity of the night for United. The third period then proved to be one of the better girls high school hockey periods one could see. The puck was moving incredibly well, there was energy from both teams on both ends of the ice and it felt like everyone on the ice knew that this was a big game.

It all came down to a faceoff in the Blake end, to the right of Kruesel with eight seconds left on the clock. Sena Hanson won the draw, but Blake was able to take the puck away and a Blake forward coasted down the ice looking to make the game 4-2. However, in an act of defiance, in a game that was not going to be won, with second left on the clock, sophomore Sam Burke (Vis) dove and knocked the puck of the Blake stick. In an act reminiscent of Don Beebe chasing down Leon Lett long after Super Bowl XXVII was out of reach for Beebe’s Bills. Burke’s message was clear to Blake: “Not on my watch.”

“That’s just Sam,” junior Lauren Boettcher said, “She is the grittiest player that I have ever played with and it didn’t surprise me one bit that she did that.”

“You do what you gotta do,” Tipler added, “I think that we all buy in, we all want this so badly…and anyone is willing do to do anything that is the best for the team.”

If the first game against Blake was a “learning loss” as Tipler said, Tuesday’s loss sent a message to Blake and to the rest of the state that St. Paul United is not playing around and that this team is here to win a state championship.

“This game showed us that we can beat this team,” Boettcher said, and just like Sena Hanson two weeks ago, Boettcher closed the interview saying of Blake, “They’re nothing special.”

United’s next game is tonight, Jan 28, against #1 Breck and Grace Zumwinkle who represented USA at the U18 IIHF World Championships and won gold at the tournament. In her first game back against United, Zumwinkle netted a hattrick and led the Mustangs to a 4-2 victory.