Eden Prairie at Blaine
7 p.m., Wednesday, Dec. 23

The eve of Christmas Eve will bring plenty of opportunity for hockey fans who want to see two of the metro’s top individual skaters and two teams that appear to be in elite company.

Eden Prairie travels to Blaine in another serious test for two teams, each with the same lofty goals.

Moreover, the Eagles' Casey Mittelstadt and Blaine’s Riley Tufte might very well end up one day in the NHL, and right now they head up their respective teams that are deeply talented and playing at a high level.

Eden Prairie (7-1) cleaned up at the Edina Holiday Classic with wins over No. 17-2A Elk River, No. 9-2A Grand Rapids and No. 5-2A Edina. Mittelstadt (8-13-21) leads the team in total points, but the No. 2-2A Eagles have also got plenty of scoring from Michael Graham (8-9-17) and Nolan Sullivan, whose nine goals (9-9-18) lead the team.

The No. 3-2A Bengals need to put behind them an upset loss to Anoka (6-3) on Saturday and focus on a bounce-back performance against a very challenging Eden Prairie team.

Tufte has 16 goals and 12 assists in nine games and teammate Luke Notermann has 11 goals and 17 assists, as the senior captains lead Blaine with 28 points apiece.