Burnsville at Hill-Murray
7:30 p.m., Saturday, Nov. 22

Two of the state’s “blueblood” programs take the ice on Saturday when Burnsville faces Hill-Murray, but both will look quite different than the teams we saw last winter. Each graduated most of its scoring, which should make this game interesting as we see which young players step forward.

Burnsville’s top returning scorer is fireplug defenseman Jack Ahcan, a St. Cloud State University commit who had seven goals and 30 points as a junior. He’ll anchor what should be a strong defensive corps in front of All-State caliber goaltender Dyllan Lubbesmeyer.

Defense will also be the calling card at Hill-Murray, which returns only one player who had more than 20 points last year (Zach Mills with 22 goals and 47 points). Veteran seniors Jacob Olson and Davis Zarembinski are strong defensemen who are good in all three zones, while Mikey Anderson is a precocious freshman who has already given his verbal commitment to the University of Minnesota-Duluth. There could be a tough battle in goal between senior Sean Wendlandt and superb sophomore Jake Begley, as well. The Pioneers have plenty of talented youth.