“Teddy’s relentless,” Minnetonka coach Sean Goldsworthy said about the 6-foot, 185-pound winger. “He has a really big hunger to score goals, and he’s strong on the puck.”

Hungry? Yeah, that might be the one word that describes Lagerback the best.

“At the end of practice we always like to do shootouts and stuff," Glockner said. "We give each other grief, but at the end of the day it’s to better each other.

“It’s always a blast playing with Teddy.”

The Skippers dominated play through much of the first period and all of the second, but only had a 1-0 lead to show for their territorial dominance. Then Lagerback lifted his stick waist high just in time to deflect a James Miller shot from the point past Maple Grove goaltender Jack Wieneke.

Less than six minutes later, with Minnetonka leading 3-0, Lagerback whacked at a loose puck in front of Wieneke one, two, maybe three times before finally slamming it into the net. The Skippers led 4-0 heading into the third.

“He’s a handful,” Goldsworthy said about Lagerback, who has committed to play Division I hockey at Arizona State. “When Teddy plays with a pretty good pace, I think he can play with just about anybody.”

Last season Lagerback scored 19 goals (third best on the team) and added 19 assists as Minnetonka won its first big-school state championship. After playing almost exclusively with the uber-talented Bobby Brink and fellow sniper Jack Bayless last season, Lagerback has been mixed and matched with several Skippers’ forwards this season.

“We’ve been switching the lines a little bit,” Lagerback said. “I like playing with everyone. Everyone is good.”

The top-ranked Skippers’ depth proved too much for a Maple Grove team that entered the matchup ranked No. 5 in the state in the latest Class 2A coaches’ poll.

“We just played a really solid second period,” Goldsworthy said. “We wore them out. They were tired. When you do that you can get a lot of scoring chances in a short amount of time.”

Maple Grove (7-1-1) played its best in the third period, when it pulled to within 4-2 before an empty net goal by Minnetonka’s Mason Hendrickson with 54 seconds left clinched the victory.

“We only played one period of hockey, and you can’t take any periods off against the No. 1 team in the state.” Maple Grove coach Todd Berglund said. “Our compete level wasn’t there (in the first and second periods), and we learned a valuable lesson from that game.”

Berglund said Minnetonka is among the best teams Maple Grove has faced this season, comparing favorably to the likes of Edina and Blaine.

“They are polished,” Berglund said. “They move the puck well. They transition well through the neutral zone.”