State Title Last Remaining Goal for Roseville Girls' Hockey

Two down. One to go.

When Roseville girls’ hockey head coach Vic Brodt sat his players down at the beginning of the season, winning the Suburban East Conference and going unbeaten at home were two of the three main goals he laid out for the season. You can place two checks by those.

The third goal is still in play.

Not only did the Roseville girls’ hockey team protect their home ice by going undefeated, the Raiders also waltzed undefeated through the Suburban East Conference, something they’ve never done during Brodt’s six seasons at the helm, while compiling a 18-0 conference mark and earning their sixth straight conference crown under Brodt.

So what’s the remaining goal?

“We want to win the state tournament,” said Brodt shortly after downing rival Stillwater 2-0 Saturday night to wrap up the Raiders’ unblemished conference run. “That was a goal of ours from the onset. I told the players at the begining of the year that was a realistic goal. Sometimes you can set goals and some people might say ‘good luck with that.’ But I really think that one is realistic.

The road to state gets tough in sectionals where a possible showdown with No. 1-ranked Hill-Murray looms if both teams handle their side of the brackets. Roseville is ranked No. 5 in the state and is the second seed in Section 4AA.

Roseville opens Section 4AA play on Friday with a 6 p.m. match-up against North St. Paul at the . Assuming the Raiders get by North St. Paul, they’ll get to scout potential state tournament road block Hill-Murray in person. The Pioneers who play their Section 4AA opener at 8 p.m.

Roseville has used a free-wheeling offense and a disciplined defense as a recipe for their success. 

“Pretty much offensively it’s do what you want for the most part,” said Brodt. “The discipline comes in the defensive side of things. So let them be creative and do what they want offensively but when the puck is in our zone we’ve got special rules and everyone has to make sure they’re doing them. They’re doing them well.”

But Brodt says the key to Roseville’s dominant 2011-2012 season has been defense.

“We’ve been playing pretty well defensively and that comes from the heart a little bit,” said Brodt.  A right wing, for example, they don’t get on the stat sheet for keeping a goal off the scoreboard. Maybe the goalie gets it or it looks good for the defensive players, but our forwards buy into it as well. That’s an important factor in us winning.”

Indeed the Raiders have clogged up the lanes to their own net effectively throughout the year and having only surrendered 21 goals in 25 regular season games.

Senior goalie Erika Allen has been a virtual brick wall in front of the net in compiling a 0.91 GAA in 24 games. Allen was recently named as a Top 10 finalist for the Senior Goalie award by Let’s Play Hockey.

Roseville has also scored 118 goals led by forwards Kate Flug and Hanna Brodt and offensive-minded defensive players Lee Stecklein and Lexi Slattery. Brodt, Stecklein and Slattery are all seniors and Coach Brodt says that will be important during Roseville’s quest for a state title.

“We have a big senior class and we lean on that quite a bit, which I think is important come playoff time,” said Brodt. “No matter how good your sophomores and juniors are, seniors have more of a sense of urgency and you usually win with your seniors. I had a large senior group two years ago and we wound up winning the whole thing. I see a lot of similarities between the two teams.”

Part of the similarities Brodt sees may be that Hanna Brodt, Stecklein, Flug and Allen also played key roles on Roseville’s 2010 state championship squad. Hanna Brodt and Stecklein are also among the Top 10 finalists for the Let’s Play Hockey Ms. Hockey award meaning Brodt has a wealth of talent to try to secure his second state title in three years. 

But first things first. That means a date with North St. Paul on Friday.