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Edina holds on against Benilde-St. Margaret's in physical battle

By Drew Herron, SportsEngine , 12/03/22, 6:30PM CST

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Edina starts fast, finishes strong to top Red Knights.


Benilde-St. Margaret's forward Drew Stewart charges the net while Edina goalie Robbie Clarkowski turns aside a shot in the third period. Clarkowski stopped 20 shots in the Hornets' 3-2 win over the Red Knights Saturday night. Photo by Drew Herron, SportsE

“Score a couple goals early, and miracles can happen,” Edina coach Curt Giles said. “We’ve had a hard time scoring goals through the first couple games. But I give the team credit, they kept with it and their attitude has been good. It was a good win against a good team.”

Snakebitten so far with a pair of shutout losses and just two previous goals to show for their efforts, the Hornets found their success driving them from the back to front.

The Hornets kept Benilde-St. Margaret’s many weapons in check by relentlessly closing gaps and taking away space consistently for three periods, and it left their opponents clearly frustrated.

It sprung the offense early, and it carried Edina through three periods of precision. Take away time and space, that was the focal point Saturday night.

“You have to with these guys,” Giles said. “They have a ton of skill, and if you give them any space at all, then you’re in big trouble and you’re left chasing all night. If you don’t shut their space off and close those gaps, you’re in for a long night against a talented team.”

Edina scored twice in the first period to take an early lead. Junior forward Jackson Nevers got things going just 6:38 in, then helped set up the team’s second goal by Robbie Cowan, and the Hornets were on their way. 

Against the Red Knights (0-1), ranked No. 6 in this week’s Class 2A coaches’ poll and playing their first game of the season, there wasn’t a higher priority for the Hornets than to play a relentless physical game for 51 full minutes. Defense would have to feed the offense if No. 13-2A Edina (1-3) was going to contain the Red Knights speed and multiple weapons. 

“Defense comes first,” Nevers said. “Defense creates offense, and our defensive corps is unbelievable. Our coaches work them to the limit in practice, and it starts to show and pay off in instances like this.”

Edina built a 3-0 lead in the second when John Halverson forced a turnover in the neutral zone, then skated it in for an unassisted goal before Benilde St. Margaret’s countered. The Red Knights scored once in the second period and another in the third to trim the deficit to one.

Physical play elevated the temperature in the arena, and no puck battle went uncontested. Edina expected this kind of showdown that featured 11 combined penalties. It’s something they face on a consistent basis, but against a team with the skill of the Red Knights, their could be no loss of focus should they find success.

“Being at Edina, everyone wants to beat you,” Nevers said. “You come to expect it…to get pushed around a little bit. But we love giving it back, and tonight we did an excellent job of that.”

“Tonight we played three full periods, and it paid off,” he added. 

Giles says the team didn’t do much different offensively, other than make a bit of its own luck.

“We’ve played this way for four games now,” he said. “They’ve been consistent with their play, but the biggest challenge just has been getting the puck in the net. It’s hard to beat teams when you score zero, zero and two goals.”

He praised the team’s effort, and was more than pleased with the result. 

“(Benilde-St. Margaret’s) is a very good team,” Giles says. “They eliminate people, they finish checks, and do all the small things.  I’m very pleased with the way we executed. It’s a big thing for the kids. We finally got a win against a very good team, at their place. Anytime you can do that, it should give you something.”

Nevers said the team will pocket this win, and enjoy a bit of affirmation before going back to work on Monday. The lean experience of the first two weeks is something that the Hornets will draw from.

“This past week, we’ve put the burners on and worked extremely hard as a group,” Nevers said. “It’s nice that it finally paid off with a win.”

“We’re going to be rolling, we’re going to keep the burners on,” he added. “Yea, it feels good to get that first one out of the way, but one win doesn’t mean anything.”


Benilde-St. Margaret's defenseman Maceo Phillips battles for the puck with Edina's Mason West during the first period Saturday night at the St. Louis Park Rec Center. Photo by Drew Herron, SportsEngine

First Report

Edina started fast and finished strong to hold on for a 3-2 win over host Benilde-St. Margarets’s Saturday night before a packed house at the St. Louis Park Rec Center.

Edina got the scoring started seven minutes in when Jackson Nevers buried a wrister and then assisted on Robbie Cowan’s goal a few minutes later as the Hornets owned the early part of the first period. 

The teams each added one in the second as John Halverson scored unassisted less than seven minutes into the period to push the Hornets’ lead to three. Benilde-St. Margaret’s would answer with 2 minutes, 42 seconds left when Ben Norris wiped away the goose egg following a close-range goal on a scramble in front of the Edina net. 

Benilde-St. Margaret’s Poul Anderson cut the deficit to one with a goal five minutes into the third, but that is as close as the Red Knights would come. 

The win is the first on the season for Edina (1-3), ranked No. 13 in this week’s Class 2A coaches’ poll. No. 6-2A Benilde-St. Margaret’s, playing in its season opener following a weather postponement earlier in the week, drops to 0-1.

Senior net-minder Robbie Clarkowski stopped 20 of 22 shots to earn the victory, while his counterpart, Mason McElroy, made 19 saves on 22 shots for the Red Knights.


BSM's Mason Stenger and Edina's Jackson Nevers get wrapped up during a puck battle in the neutral zone in the second period. Photo by Drew Herron, SportsEngine

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