New Prague at St. Cloud Cathedral
7 p.m., Friday, Nov. 21

No. 8-1A New Prague and No. 7-1A St. Cloud Cathedral, as ranked in the Class 1A coaches preseason poll dated Nov. 12, faced each other in the last official game for each, so this is a rematch. All right, it was exactly 258 days ago in the state tournament's third-place game, but it was the last official game for each. In that one, New Prague scored four unanswered goals to beat the Crusaders 5-2 and bring home state hardware.

Many of the same key players will be on the ice Friday night, including both goaltenders — New Prague’s Connor Wagner and Cathedral’s Zach Fritz. The Trojans return three of their top six scorers in junior Alex Gregor and seniors Casey Busch and Ben Witt, who combined for 39 goals and 97 points a year ago. Cathedral lost its leading scorer (Will Hammer) to graduation but does bring back seven of its top nine scorers, led by Matt Fritz and Logan Neu, who combined for 36 goals and 80 points.