It proved to be far more fiery, far more competitive than the meeting between the same teams on the same ice sheet a year ago, when Edina tallied 11 goals in a shutout victory over Holy Family Catholic.
The final result, however, ended up in the same place.
The Hornets escaped with a 3-1 victory over the Fire on Friday night at Plymouth Ice Arena as they seized the win in the semifinal round of this year's Cable 12 Turkey Trot Tournament and carved out a spot in the championship game on Saturday night.
"It was a good showing," Edina coach Curt Giles said afterward. "We see that we have a lot of things to work on, but that is to be expected from a first time through."
With its top player, senior Will Garin, in street clothes serving a one-game suspension that carried over from last year's section tournament, Holy Family Catholic had to shuffle things a bit against an Edina team starting the season ranked No. 2 in the Class 2A coaches' poll.
The No. 16-2A Fire appeared to have the speed and skill to compete with the Hornets, but the bounces did not go their way, and Holy Family Catholic had to settle for a moral victory, of sorts, on this night.
"Will's a gamer, he makes a difference," Fire coach Noel Rahn said. "It would have been nice to have him, but I'm proud of the boys, they executed everything we asked them to do."
Garin, a Connecticut recruit, finished last year with 25 goals and 29 assists. But it was his leadership and presence that Holy Family Catholic may have missed most.
Edina got on the board first with 2:14 left in the second period when senior forward Garrett Malmquist seized control of the puck at the blue line near the Hornets' bench, then carried it into the zone and behind the net for a wrap-around attempt. Fire goalie Jared Moe stopped the initial push, but senior forward Ben Tucker was there to put away the rebound.
At the 4:41 mark of the third, Edina expanded its lead when senior captain Casey Dornbach buried a backhand above the glove of Moe, and the Hornets began to take control of the game.
Holy Family Catholic answered when Jack Michel converted on a breakaway attempt, a goal that - for a while - injected new life into the Fire with about seven minutes to play.
Down the stretch, however, Edina tightened things up and kept a lid on the Fire's developing chances.
Ben Copeland scored an empty-netter for the Hornets with 28 seconds remaining to seal the win.
Edina is looking to replace 12 seniors from last year's team. The Hornets also must address the big hole left by the departure of Garrett Wait, who was a captain last year as a junior and finished the year with 22 goals and 40 assists in 24 games. The Minnesota recruit is playing this winter in the United States Hockey League for the Waterloo Blackhawks.
Moreover, only seven players from last year's varsity are back.
Giles said this year's team is plenty talented but will be expected perhaps to grow on the job a bit more rapidly than some of his Edina teams.
"We've got a lot of new players in a lot of new positions, but this is a good group of kids that work extremely hard, and we've got high expectations," Giles said. "I think this is a group that will improve steadily throughout this process."
Giles added that simply playing through the schedule and gaining valuable experience is the best course of treatment.
"The big thing right now for our team is that they are thinking too much," Giles said. "They are not anticipating and they are not reacting, but they are thinking about what to do, and what not to do, and this game moves too quickly for that.
"We've got a lot of kids that don't want to make mistakes, and they want to make the right decisions," he added. "But in this game, what you really want to do is play the game as hard as you can and have a natural reaction to things."
Edina advances to the tournament final Saturday night, where they will face the winner of the semifinal game between Wayzata and Maple Grove.
