Tyler Sheehy was skating at top speed toward the goal, which is saying something because Sheehy at top speed is mostly a blur, a vapor trail, a cloud of ice chips.

Then he was knocked off his skates. 

Then he was sliding face first toward the boards.

At about this time, Burnsville’s junior forward was contemplating his hockey future.  In Sheehy’s eyes, it was decidedly bleak.

“He told me that when he was going into the boards he thought that was going to be his last shift he ever played,” said Cole Borchardt, a junior who plays alongside Sheehy on the Blaze’s top forward line. “He thought he was done, because he was going head first.”

With no way of stopping or even slowing his momentum, Sheehy was the equivalent of a skydiver dropping from the sky without a parachute. He skidded into the boards with a loud thud.

Sheehy was slow to get up, but he was mostly just temporarily jolted. A little stirred, a bit shaken. This time the damage was limited to a small cut on his head. 

“I just wanted to finish the game,” said Sheehy, who scored a goal and had two assists in No. 7 Burnsville’s 5-2 victory over Eden Prairie on Tuesday, Dec. 4, at the Eden Prairie Community Center. “I was going real fast, and I really didn’t have any time to react. 

“I guess I just tried to keep my head up going into the boards.”

Sheehy was injured in a collision in the final minute of Burnsville’s season opener, a 2-1 loss to Hill-Murray on Nov. 29. He left the ice on a stretcher and was taken away by ambulance for treatment.

Sheehy’s slide into the boards came in the closing minutes of the Blaze’s upset of the Eagles. 

“I finally finished a game,” Sheehy said with a smile.

Sheehy had to be happy about his start, too. Diagnosed as having strains in his lower back after the awkward collision against Hill-Murray, Sheehy needed just 17 seconds to prove he was perfectly fine.

Barreling down the right side of the rink, he spotted Borchardt to the left and threaded a pass through the slot. Borchardt deposited it for a stunningly fast 1-0 Burnsville lead. Sheehy, who is being recruited by several Division I programs and has a visit to Wisconsin scheduled early this month, scored 1:26 into the second when he broke loose down the ice on a 2-on-1 with Borchardt. 

This time Sheehy faked the pass and instead drove straight to the goal, putting a move on Eden Prairie goaltender Jake Kielly before scoring from close range.

“He’s unreal,” Borchardt said about his linemate. “He’s such a good player. He’s so fast, and the puck always is on his stick.”

Sheehy now has a team-best four points in two games. He’s limited his DNFs  (Did Not Finish) to one.

“I went to the chiropractor and he said my hip was locked on my left side,” Sheehy said. “It was giving me troubles moving the left side of my back. It caused a lot of pain,” 

Funny the desire to play can overcome most anything. How did he feel against the Eagles? The answer isn’t a surprise.

“Not bad at all,” Sheehy said. “I didn’t think about it too much. I just went out there and tried to ignore it."

-- Loren Nelson, MN Hockey Hub editor

Eden Prairie’s defensive breakdowns in the its 5-2 loss to Burnsville could mostly be attributed to overaggressiveness. 

The Eagles were so anxious to start the rush into the Braves’ end, they forgot to get out of theirs first.

“I just think we had some really unnecessary risks,” Eden Prairie coach Lee Smith said. “As defensemen, we have to learn to play defense first, and then the offense will come. This isn’t the first time we’ve ever had to break that kind of habit. 

“We’ve got good players who can do that.”

The Eagles have two junior defensemen who have committed to Division I programs in Hunter Warner (Minnesota State) and Nebraska-Omaha (Luc Snuggerud). 

Eden Prairie (2-1-0) spent large chunks of time in the Burnsville (1-1-0) zone, but quality scoring chances were rare.

“We told our guys, ‘I think we were in their zone basically two-thirds of the game, but what did it get us?’ ”  Smith said.

Burnsville did most of its scoring on quick strikes – odd-man rushes into the Eagles end – or power plays. Meanwhile Eden Prairie played more of a physical, grinding style.

-- Loren Nelson, MN Hockey Hub editor

Early goals in all three periods helped No. 7 Burnsville to a 5-2 victory against No. 3 Eden Prairie on Tuesday at the Eden Prairie Community Center.

Burnsville (1-1-0) started fast on a goal from Cole Borchardt scored just 17 seconds into the game for a 1-0 lead. The Eagles evened the game 1-1 with less than three minutes to play in the first period on John Sullivan’s goal assisted by Tyler Leddy.

Getting on the board early once again, Burnsville went ahead 2-1 on Tyler Sheehy’s goal scored 1 minute and 26 seconds into the second period.

Sheehy had already set up the first Blaze goal of the game by blowing past Eden Prairie (2-1-0) defenseman Luc Snuggerud near center ice and feeding a pass to Borchardt. But when Sheehy took a penalty later in the second period, Snuggerud found redemption.

Showcasing his offensive abilities with a length of the ice rush, Snuggerud scored a power-play goal to tie the game 2-2.

Borchardt restored a 3-2 Burnsville lead with a 5-on-3 power-play goal later in the second period.

A third fast start in as many periods extended the Blaze lead. Anthony Rikberg got loose behind the Eagles’ defense a buried a shot for a 4-2 lead 1 minute and 58 seconds into the third period.

Brock Boeser also scored for Burnsville in the third.

Sheehy was shaken up after sliding hard into the boards in the third period. He was involved in a scary collision against Hill-Murray last week and got taken from the ice on a stretcher. Tests were negative and Sheehy later said he suffered only a sore back.

-- David La Vaque, Star Tribune staff writer

1. Tyler Sheehy, Burnsville
Bad back, you say? Hardly. Just days removed from a scary collision and trip to the hospital, Sheehy was again launching himself rocket-style all over the rink. He set up the first goal with a blurring rush and pinpoint pass just 17 seconds into the opening period and added two assists.

2. Cole Borchardt, Burnsville
The junior forward was a player for all periods, as he scored the game-opening goal, swatted home a power-play goal in the second and added an assist in the third.

3. Colton Schmidt, Eden Prairie
The junior who played in New Prague last season flashed an effective mix of hustle and grit. He notched an assist and was involved in several quality scoring chances.

-- Loren Nelson, MN Hockey Hub editor