Hill-Murray wins the 2026 MN Class 2A girls hockey championship

The Minnesota Star Tribune

February 22, 2026 at 12:58 AM

With just over 12 minutes remaining in the Class 2A girls hockey title game, a third-period goal from Hill-Murray senior forward Sophie Olson seemed like insurance for the top-seeded Pioneers, who were chasing back-to-back state titles.

Hill-Murray had built a four-goal lead over Centennial/Spring Lake Park, but the St. Cloud State commit’s goal — set up by a hustle play from sophomore Taylor Miller — turned out to be the much-needed game winner in a 4-3 victory over the Cougars on Saturday, Feb. 21, at Grand Casino Arena.

Hill-Murray (26-3-1), behind a shutdown performance from freshman goalie Piper Tam, looked like it had snuffed out one of the highest-scoring offenses in the state with three minutes to play. No double overtime needed for the program’s fourth state title — not like last year.

The second-seeded Cougars (26-4-1) didn’t battle through their first two games in St. Paul just to watch their program’s first state title slip away that easily.

They pulled goalie Kaia Weiland on a power play before scoring three goals in the last 2:31, forcing a late scramble.

“Fighting until the end … I’m super proud of the girls," Cougars coach Sean Molin said.

But the runway was too short for a true comeback to lift off. Freshman forward Jozie Kelzenberg’s second goal came with 4.3 seconds remaining, but it only made it a one-goal game.

“We knew once we got that first goal, we could keep getting more,” Cougars senior forward Ella Perrault said. “If we had like another minute, I think that we could have sunk another one in, gone into OT.”

Otherwise, for nearly an hour, the Pioneers played like the deep, skilled team that had teams circling their name on their regular-season schedules.

Pioneers co-head coach John Pohl said junior center and Gophers commit Jaycee Chatleain, the team’s leading scorer, played the best defensive game of her career, in addition to opening the scoring less than three minutes into the first period off an assist from Wisconsin-bound junior Emily Pohl.

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Behind Chatleain, Hill-Murray’s blue line made quality looks hard to come by for the Cougars, while Tam took care of the shots that did make it through, racking up 33 saves. Centennial/Spring Lake Park outshot the Pioneers 36-29.

“[The Cougars] are a really good team,” said Tam, who backstopped the Pioneers’ 2025 state title as an eighth grader. “It was very nice to get some experience before this, so I felt a little bit more confident coming in, but with my team, I felt even better.”

Olson, Emily Pohl and sophomore Reese Unklesbay each finished with a goal and an assist for the Pioneers, who had the depth to roll out line after line without dropping off.

That depth contained plenty of underclassmen, too. The Pioneers, which graduated four seniors after last year’s state championship, will graduate two seniors this year — Olson, who had the game-winning goal, and goaltender Charlotte Oscarson, who missed part of the year with a broken arm but who Tam said “coached me throughout the season.”

“I’m just so thankful to be able to end my Hill-Murray career here at the state tournament,” Oslon said. “I’m really thankful.”

Once the Cougars began to light the lamp after Olson’s goal, the Pioneers coaching staff elected not to call a timeout, letting the clock be the final weapon in their bench’s deep arsenal.

“My feeling was calling a timeout just gives them more time to plan and more momentum and rest,” John Pohl said. “We knew if we played our game … we would have a very good chance.”

A good chance that Hill-Murray took, seeing out the final flurry of 4.3 seconds before gloves and helmets flew, and the Pioneers lifted their program’s fourth state trophy, and second in as many years.