Prospect Notes: MN HS Girl's Hockey
SCSU recruit Kenzie Bourgerie leads the state going into the holiday, Minnesota and Clarkson recruits heating up
A look at a few top teams before diving into the scoring leaders:
The Lake conference — one of the smallest (five teams), often-strongest in high school hockey — has not really gotten underway where girl’s hockey play is concerned. Let’s Play Hockey has the Edina Hornets (12-1) ranked first in state with Wayzata (11-2-0) and Eden Prairie (8-1-2) joining them in the top seven. Minnetonka are flirting with a .500 record at 7-5-1, while Hopkins are on the other side of .500 at 5-8.
#3 Wayzata have already lost to Edina, the only Lake conference game thus far, in a 3-0 result where Dartmouth-bound ‘2000’ CC Bowlby had 2 goals and an assist on Lucy Bowlby’s second tally of the year. Minnesota recruits junior forward Tella Jungels (2A) and freshman defense Vivian Jungels (1A) also figured in the win. Vivian has 16 points in 13 games from the blue line this year.
Blake (#2-LPH) are scoring nearly four goals per game more than opponents, thanks to a spread-out group of juniors and seniors. Cornell recruit Lily Delianedis, a junior, leads the way with 14 goals in 12 games. Just behind her, fellow junior and Minnesota recruit Adelaide Burton with 18 assists. Scoring lines included below for: Izzy Daniel (senior forward, Cornell), Madeline Wethington (senior defense, Minnesota), Audrey Wethington (junior forward, Minnesota).
Blake’s rival Breck School (not ranked) have a couple stand-outs in late-2001 Olivia Mobley (Quinnipiac), Carly Beniek (2001/Holy Cross), and 2003 Gopher recruit Sadie Lindsay, a forward who has 20 points in 12 games.
Back to the Lake conference for a moment: coach Jess Scott’s #3-LPH ranked Wayzata team is 11-2, led by young Clarkson-bound talents Gretchen Branton (sophomore forward, Clarkson) and recent commit Sloane Matthews, who has nearly a goal-per-game as a freshman. Alexa Ocel (senior, Sacred Heart) has 15 goals on the year, Maddie McCollins (senior, UW - River Falls) has 14 points and uncommitted junior forward Sophie Urban has 16 points.
Prospect Currents: Scoring Leaders in MN Girls’ HS Hockey at the Christmas Break
SCSU recruit Mackenzie Bourgerie (02 F) lighting the lamp for North Wright County: 41 points this season to pace girl’s high school hockey in Minnesota, the junior for North Wright County doesn’t play the best schedule as they play in the Mississippi 8 conference, but the totals are impressive. She is getting on the board on point nights with their weaker schedule, but she’s also critical in the closer games. Against Rogers she had 2G1A in a 4-1 win, against Buffalo a 3-2 W, she posts 2 assists, in a 4-5 loss to Roseau she figures in all of her team’s points, including opening scoring and three primary assists. I dislike statistical analysis alone and I’ll try to catch her on video, but one has to like what she brings on paper.
Bourgerie’s North Wright County are 4-1-0 in their conference this year, behind a Cambridge-Isanti/Mora/Pine City squad that are 6-0 in conference play and have a fierce scoring group of their own (below). In addition to state scoring leader Bourgerie (SCSU) and uncommitted 01 junior forward Sydney Lemke (23 G / 13 GP), North Wright freshman 04 defense Chloe Finnerty leads the league in assists! Twenty-nine assists as a freshman in 13 games is pretty terrific, even if she has a talented team and a weaker schedule. Finnerty remains uncommitted, per mngirlshockeyhub.
Cambridge-Isanti/Mora/Pine City: Vermont recruit Madelyn Skelton has a 2.20 points per game pace, 11G11A in 10 games. She has only been kept off the board against EP and in their only other loss, she posted the lone goal against Grand Rapids/Greenway. Freshman defender Rilee Winters, a Minnesota recruit, has 18 points on the year, and she hasn’t been kept off the board once. She’s scoring goals and securing plenty of primary assists. Uncommitted senior Ashley Schintz has been prone to big offensive bursts, with a 4 point night against Duluth and another 4 point against Rogers, both 5-4 home wins.
Closer to the cities, junior forward Lacey Martin (2002/BU) has 16 points for a Minnetonka squad that aren’t ranked but only lost by one to #4 Forest Lake, which was the season-opener. Martin was held off the board in that one, and they went on to lose two on a trip up to Roseau and Warroad, where she posted two points over 2-4 and 3-4 results. Since then they’ve only lost twice, Martin had the game-winner against Benilde in a 2-0 win to get the badly-needed first victory, and they beat #5 Andover in a 2-1 result where Martin scored both goals on the road. Since that Andover win, she has 9 points in 5 games and the Skippers will look to secure some big conference results in 2019 now that they have the momentum going.
Uncommitted sophomore Emily Cronkhite (03 F) lighting it up in her third year with Eagan varsity. The Wildcats went into the break with an overtime win against Rochester Lourdes, meaning they haven’t lost since their season-opener, a 2-7 thrashing at #3 Wayzata. Cronkhite, who has 30 points on the year, was held off the board in that OT win as senior D Brooke Peplinski notched the GWG unassisted. Uncommitted 01s Julia Barger and Jenna Ruiz are also putting up real numbers this season. Eagan face #7 Eden Prairie on the 27th to keep the unbeaten streak alive.
South of the cities, Minnesota State recruit Jessica Boland (03 F) is nearing a goal-per-game in her third season for Northfield high school. Katherine Boland on defense actually leads that Northfield team as a senior, a Bemidji State recruit.
Gopher recruit Claire Enright (04 F) has 17 goals in 10 games on the year after already posting 19 in 26 as a 13 year-old last season. Her Farmington squad recently ran into Emily Cronkhite’s Eagan group, taking a one-goal loss where the young forward posted a primary assist in the come-back effort. The 2022 Minnesota recruit should be one to keep an eye on.
Another Gopher recruit, a 2004-born forward Madison Kaiser, at 14 has 13 points for an Andover team paced by prolific scorer Jamie Nelson (2002/MSU), Gabrielle Krause (2003/UMD) and fellow Gopher Peyton Hemp (2003/UMN).
Kamryn Van Batavia, an eighth-grader, has 24 points in 14 games for Luverne high school. Last time Luverne had numbers like that on their line-up, they had Jaxon Nelson on the boy’s team, who ended up committed to the Gophers. Van Batavia has started off strong, but as it was with Nelson and his talented squad, the strength-of-schedule has to be questioned.
There were a lot more players I sought to highlight, but I ran out of time. I’ll try to keep making the format better, I may make it more like Elliotte Friedman’s 31 thoughts, since I can only ever highlight so many players at once and I don’t want to go too in-depth. It will also make it simpler for listing age and arrival dates for recruiting purposes. Thanks for reading.