As playoffs beckon, Eagles frustrated by No. 3 Wayzata

Three days before Christmas, an undefeated Wayzata boys hockey team brought their 8-0 record to Eden Prairie Community Center to take on the 4-3 Eagles.

With Wayzata leading 2-1 in the third period, Eden Prairie senior forward Cole Saterdalen scored at the 12:12 mark to tie the game at two. 

Junior Alex Hall and senior Tate Bloch assisted on the goal, which held until the final buzzer, with senior goaltender Isaiah Paulnock posting 44 saves in a 2-2 tie.

Since that contest, the Eagles have stacked 11 wins and spent most of January and February in the top ten metro rankings. Their 11-3 run since ther first meeting with Wayzata was put to the test in a showdown with the Trojans at Plymouth Ice Center on Saturday.

But Wayzata – now ranked third in the state with a 19-2-2 record and losing only to top-ranked Minnetonka and No. 2 Edina – looked as impressive as their resume indicated against the ninth-ranked Eagles.

“They’re obviously a really good team. So I give them a lot of credit,” Eagles head coach Mike Terwilliger said. “We felt like we got outworked. And that’s usually one of our strengths to our team; our work ethic and winning stick battles and things like that.”

The Trojans outworked the Eagles enough to secure a 3-0 victory, controlling the puck for much of the game and finding opportunities to score throughout the first two periods.

Senior captain Tommy Moen said he and his teammates didn’t bring a strong effort to the game, which is uncharacteristic of their scrappy approach. When asked why it was missing, he searched for an answer.

“I’m not sure,” he said. “In the locker room, we thought everyone was happy; everyone was getting along and doing all the stuff we normally do. So I just don’t know if it’s the practice before if we gotta work harder, do more battle drills or something.”

Terwilliger said he felt Wayzata won most of the battles in the first and second periods but was encouraged by how the Eagles performed in the final 17 minutes.

“But at that point, it’s hard,” he said. “Too little too late, a little bit of that but give them credit, I thought they outworked us so that was the frustrating part of it.”

In their December meeting, Wayzata outshot the Eagles 46-17, but in Saturday’s contest, shots were even with 25 apiece. 

“We matched their shots. So I think we did a pretty good job in the D zone,” Moen said. “But it was just getting (the puck) out and in their zone where we couldn’t get it going.”

Wayzata scored two goals in the first period, the first coming just 3:25 into the game, when Paulnock made an initial stop on a shot from the point, but Wayzata’s Brittan Alstead abruptly put away the rebound. 

The Trojans scored again at 13:36 of the first, with a goal by Finn De St. Hubert. The two-goal deficit was not insurmountable, but against a top-scoring team like Wayzata, the climb back would be difficult.

“When we’ve scored the first goal I think we’ve only lost one game all year. So it’s hard, but that’s hockey,” Terwilliger said. “If you score the first goal, your chances of winning go up quite a bit. Especially against a good team so you’re not chasing the game.”

Wayzata scored at 5:14 of the second period to take a 3-0 lead.

Meanwhile, Eden Prairie missed a golden opportunity to get back in the fight, when Wayzata’s Rhys Wallin was called for a five-minute major penalty, but the Eagles couldn’t capitalize.

“We kind of picked it up in the third but in the first two periods, we weren’t really there,” Moen said. “We’ve just got to bring more fire to start the game.”

The 3-0 score held as the final tally. The Eagles (15-7-1) have two games remaining in the regular season, with top-ranked Minnetonka coming to Eden Prairie on Thursday, and the regular season finale on home ice as well, when the Eagles host Buffalo on Saturday.

Terwilliger likes finishing the season with formidable opponents to prepare for the upcoming section playoffs.

“We’ve got six periods next week, so we want to play really good, solid, playoff-type hockey,” he said. “We know we’re gonna get a good one on Thursday, and Saturday. Buffalo almost beat Edina this week, so that’s going to be one of the best goalies in the state.

“So the nice thing is, we’re going have two really good tests to prepare us for playoffs.”