Page 22 Lake Conference Hockey • Thursday , December 12 , 2024 sailor . com
EDEN PRAIRIE EAGLES GIRLS HOCKEY
Those ‘ young players ’ are finally seniors
JOHN SHERMAN john . sherman @ apgecm . com
There is a lot of experience on the Eden Prairie High girls hockey team this season .
Senior captains Ella Konrad , Addy Mitchell and Lauren Pottinger have a huge aggregate collection of varsity letters and are anxious to win some hardware . The
2 - Sophomore forward Peyton Ishaug 3 - Sophomore forward Jordan Elvecrog 4 -Ninth-grade forward Ella Anderson 7 - Senior forward Ella Konrad 8 - Senior forward Macey Haase 9 - Senior forward Lauren Pottinger 10 - Junior forward Allie Dahl 11 - Senior forward Addy Mitchell 12 - Junior forward Kate Petrie 13 - Sophomore defenseman Peyton Penney 18 - Sophomore defenseman Ella Abrahamson 19 - Eighth-grade forward Ava Moe 20 - Senior defenseman Cora Bukovich 21 - Senior defenseman Natalie McNeil 22 - Ninth-grade defenseman Dani Bukovich 27 - Junior forward Sara David 30 - Junior goalie Rylee Lorton 32 - Eighth-grade forward Campbell Elvin 34 - Senior goalie Nora Koehler 36 - Eighth-grade defenseman Tatum Elvin 41 - Sophomore defenseman Madeline Abbott 42 - Sophomore defenseman Emma Altman
Eagles have the misfortune of playing in one of the toughest conferences in the state . the Lake , and perhaps the toughest section as well . Minnetonka and Edina are always the top two in the conference standings . Then in Section 2AA , most of the recent championship games have pitted Minnetonka against the up-andcoming team from Holy Family Catholic .
Following a 2-0 shutout win over Wayzata in the recent Lake Conference opener , Eden Prairie captains Konrad , Mitchell and Pottinger praised junior goalie Rylee Lorton for playing a perfect game in goal , stopping all 16 of Wayzata ’ s shots on net .
“ Everyone on the team has put in a lot of hard work ,” Pottinger said . “ We are like a family .”
Lorton is in her third season as a varsity goalie and has the complete skill set necessary to compete against the best teams in the state . “ My teammates make my job a lot easier ,” she said after shutting out Wayzata . “ Games like the one today boost our confidence .”
Early in the season , Eden Prairie played Hill-Murray , the secondranked team in the state , and lost 8-1 .
“ For sure , we have improved since that game ,”
( SUN PHOTO BY JOHN SHERMAN )
Eden Prairie ’ s girls hockey captains for the 2024-25 season are , from left to right : Seniors Addy Mitchell , Ella Konrad and Lauren Pottinger .
Konrad said . “ We realized we had to pick it up with more effort and intensity .”
“ I am happy with the direction we are heading ,” Mitchell said .” And I ’ m happy we have Steve Persian as our head coach .”
Persian made trips to the state tournament at two previous coaching stops with Breck School and Orono High .
“ Steve has developed a good system ,” Pottinger said . “ He has helped us build confidence and he is close to every player on the team .”
Because the EP girls trust coach Persian , they are open to his suggestions . For instance , Konrad was a fixture on defense last year . This year she and the Eagle coaches agreed she could help the team more at forward . “ On the power play , I am still up top ,” Konrad said .
When the Eagles face Minnetonka and Edina this season , they will draw on the confidence gained from other wins . The Eagles have several quality wins over Alexandria , Fergus Falls and Eagan . And the victory over Wayzata was a great start to the Lake Conference schedule .
Pottinger said Minnetonka is Eden Prairie ’ s No . 1 rival . “ They are in our section ,” she emphasized .
“ We love to play against high-caliber teams ,” Konrad said . “ Because those games make us better .”
While the seniors are the core group for the Eagles , this is one year when the team is relying heavily on the development of younger players .
“ We have a lot of good sophomores on the team ,” Pottinger said . They have adapted quickly to varsity speed . Ninth-graders Ella Anderson and Dani Bukovich have moved up to varsity this season . Eighth-grader Ava Moe played on varsity last season has been joined by two other eighth-graders - Tatum and Campbell Elvin .
As a warmup for tournaments later in the season , the Eagles host their annual eight-team Mid-Winter Meltdown tournament Dec . 26-28 at Eden Prairie Community Center .