A top line, theoretically, is made up of a hockey team’s best forwards. For Maple Grove, statistics supported  theory Thursday.

The Crimson got four goals from its top line and defeated Edina 5-2 in a Class 2A boys' hockey state tournament quarterfinal at Xcel Energy Center.

The third-seeded Crimson has received 48% of its scoring from its top line of juniors Landen Gunderson, Finn Brink and senior Joshua Giuliani this season. All three scored Thursday; Giuliani scored twice.  

“I think it’s just a chemistry thing,” Brink said. “We love playing together. We move the puck well together.”

Brink put the Crimson (22-6-1) up 1-0 early. Edina’s Eddie Revenig answered later in the first period, but Maple Grove took a 3-1 lead with Gunderson and Giuliani goals in the second.

Maple Grove coach Todd Bergland said the team works a lot on offensive-zone puck possession. That top line, he said, “brings it 18 steps further.”

“They make my job easy,” Bergland said. “You give them the basics, and they go from there.”

Maple Grove junior Blake Steenerson made it 4-1 early in the third period with “a snipe of a goal,” Bergland called it. That tally helped keep the distance between the teams and became more important when Edina got one back a few minutes later.

Edina (20-9-0) had gone four straight games without allowing a goal. 

“I don’t think we got to our game at all,” Edina coach Curt Giles said. “We missed a couple opportunities to slow them down a little bit, bog them down in the neutral zone.”