Mankato East/Loyola vs. Mankato West

7:30 p.m., Thursday, March 4

The Key City Showdown is always brimming with intensity, but the latest edition of the grudge match between Mankato’s intracity rivals should be especially contentious given they are playing for not only bragging rights but, in all likelihood, the Big 9 Conference title.

Mankato West (10-1-2) suffered its lone loss of the season to Mankato East/Loyola (9-3-0), a 4-0 setback on Feb. 4 that included a hat trick by the Cougars’ Jake Schreiber.

Senior speedster Layten Liffrig (13 goals, 21 assists) and Schreiber (11 goals, 13 assists) make for a potent one-two punch, but the offense doesn’t end there. Jacob Kanzenbach (23 points) and Brett Borchardt (18 points) also make major contributions for the Cougars, who have appeared in three of the last four Class 1A state tournaments but have never won a Big 9 title.

The trio of senior Brandon Swenson (32 points), junior Gavin Brunmeier (24 points) and Gage Schmidt (17 points) handle the bulk of the scoring for the Scarlets. Schmidt (11 goals) has been a revelation with his scoring touch and ranks third among the state’s freshman scorers.