With his matted hair, menacing eye black and sporting a small cut leaking blood, Mahtomedi senior forward Luke Posner had the appropriate appearance of a player emerging from a physical ordeal.

“I don’t know,” Posner said with grin when asked how to got the cut. “I either got hit or hit somebody,” Posner continued.

Posner wouldn’t be wrong with either answer. 

Mahtomedi and Thief River Falls kicked off Hockey Day Minnesota 2017 with a bruising performance, with the Zephyrs (9-7-0) blanking the Prowlers 3-0.

“I thought that we when we were moving our feet we bottled them up pretty well, and created a lot offense from just containing the zone,” Zephyr head coach Jeff Poeschl said after the game.

Mahtomedi, ranked No. 5 in the latest Class A state coaches’ poll, took a 1-0 lead over the Prowlers when junior forward Sam Lapadat notched his first career varsity goal at the 11:47 mark of the first period.

Junior goaltender Nick Corneliusen made 35 saves in the loss for the Prowlers (8-8-0). 

With the pomp and circumstance of the Hockey Day Minnesota celebration, a team could be forgiven for being out of sorts, a condition Poeschl avoided with his underclassmen-laden team.

“There’s obviously a lot of distractions, from the (being) outside, to the scoreboard to the you-name-it,” Poeschl said. “We just tried to keep it as simple as possible, remind them that the other team is doing the same thing.”

Posner scored two goals (including an empty-netter) in the win, and said the game offered the Zephyrs a chance to avenge a 6-0 loss to Metro East Conference rival Tartan last Thursday.

“We had a bad loss to Tartan, so we needed to bounce back and we did,” Posner said. “Everyone played as a team and no one tried to do it all themselves because they were on TV,” Posner said, adding that his bumps and bruises hurt a little less when coupled with victory.

“I’ll take the win, I don’t really care what happens to me."

Structuring a successful lineup in high school hockey is more often than not a process of trial and error, with certain players filling (or not filling) specific roles in an exhausting and sometimes unending adventure.

When the numerous moves coaches make during the season don’t work, the result is tumult and frustration. When the tweaking and tinkering transform a lineup from stagnate to dynamic, the result is ... Eden Prairie.

The Eagles downed Stillwater 4-1 on Saturday afternoon at Stillwater’s Lowell Park, scoring twice in the final period to put away the Ponies on Hockey Day Minnesota 2017. 

“Adding Spencer Rudrud with Casey (Mittelstadt), Tim Piechowski on the third line really changed our lineup a lot, (now) we can play four lines,” Eagles’ head coach Lee Smith said after the win.

Smith also lauded the play of senior goaltender Nick Wiencek, who stopped 28 of 29 shots to earn the win for the Eagles.

The sophomores Rudrud and Piechowski have made an impact in their abbreviated time with the varsity team, with Rudrud notching a couple of goals skating on the Eagles’ top line, and Piechowski totaling four points.

Piechowski scored an insurance goal for the Eagles in Saturday’s win, and said that soaking up the knowledge of team’s veteran players has helped improve his game.

“I’ve been focusing on learning from the captains and the older guys in practice,” Piechowski said. “(I’m) working really hard and working with my linemates, who are both great players,” Piechowski added. “I’m learning from anyone.”

An obvious example for Piechowski to emulate would be senior forward Casey Mittelstadt, both in his play and in his seasoned approach to the peaks and valleys of the season.

“Obviously we struggled a little bit around the holidays,” Mittelstadt said, referring to a two-week stretch in December where the Eagles won just twice in eight games. “We didn’t want that, but every team’s gotta go through adversity,” Mittelstadt continued. “I think we’re doing a good job responding to it.”

The Eagles (11-4-2) are currently ranked No. 6 in the latest Class AA state coaches’ poll, and picked up wins over No. 2 Edina on Jan. 19, and Saturday’s win over the No. 1 Ponies, extending their winning streak to five games.

Mittelstadt scored twice against Stillwater (14-2-0), with senior forward Hunter Johannes adding a goal as well.

Stillwater senior forward Matthew Stanton scored the lone goal in the loss for the Ponies. 

In addition to knocking off the No. 1 team, Mittelstadt said that the outdoor game reminded him of his earliest days on the ice.

“Every time you’re on the bench and you look anywhere besides the rink, you see you’re playing outside and it kind of brings you back to where you started,” Mittelsttadt said. “It’s definitely a special game and a special feeling.”