If you scroll up and down The Blake School girls’ hockey roster, it reads like an all-star team. One by one, listed next to almost every one of them is the name of the college program to which they have already committed. These days, head coach Shawn Reid has bruises all over his body just from pinching himself.

Each and every time they step on the ice, it seems either another record falls, or the current streak they are on continues. Consider this: To date, the Bears have not lost a game since Dec. 22 ... of 2016. Senior goaltender Anna Kruesel has not lost a game since November of 2015. In addition, after finishing last season by rattling off their final 19 games without a loss while on their way to securing their seventh state title in school history, when Blake tied Wayzata two weeks ago, it snapped the team’s 27-game winning streak. During that stretch, Blake outscored its opponents 138-26. It’s becoming hard to find enough adjectives to describe the current second-ranked team in Class AA – almost as hard as it has become to score against them, or beat them.

“It’s incredible,” said Reid, now in his sixth season as the Bears’ head coach. “The girls are extremely motivated. They are very talented on the ice, but at the same time, they recognize that our team is successful because we have a team of incredible athletes, and it’s not just one or two players.  We depend on each other. It’s really a strong and deep team. It’s unusual and it’s unique.  Every day we are very appreciative of the opportunity to play together.”

Unique is a good word to use. It’s also a very accurate one.
Think about it. When was the last time a high school hockey team stepped onto the ice with 10 of the 16 players on its roster already committed to play college hockey? Players like Kruesel, who skates into the holiday break with an 11-0-1 record, ranking her first in the state in wins. An Amherst commit, Kreusel also ranks sixth in the state in goals-against average (0.98) and 14th in save percentage (.940) to go along with five shutouts through 11 games. Or players like junior defenseman Madeline Wethington who, along with her younger sister Audrey and forward Addie Burton, is one of three University of Minnesota commitments on the team. Madeline Wethington is currently fifth in the state in assists (15) and has only been held off the scoreboard twice in 12 games.

“Being at Blake as a defenseman, I go against some of the best forwards and players in the state every day, Wethington said. “That’s an advantage for us as a team – we get to compete really hard against each other every time we step on the ice. We are all very competitive and I love going against a lot of our forwards, taking those one-on-ones because they are so skilled. We kind of compete against each other and try to one-up one another. We look at things like who stopped who or who scored against who. It’s really unique.”

“Part of the reason why the team is successful is because the players are competitive,” Reid said. “They do treat practices very seriously. They come to practice and they want to improve because they have bigger goals than just being successful at Blake. A lot of them want to play in college and beyond. They know that with every opportunity they have on the ice, they have to push themselves and each other. That competitive atmosphere just keeps repeating itself every day, so it’s not hard to keep them motivated. Sometimes it’s hard to get them to take their foot off the pedal and put on the brakes. It doesn’t happen very often.”

If you look at the numbers, the pedal has been pushed to the floor for quite some time now. Back-to-back Class A state champions, the Bears have always been known for two things – balance and defense. Last season, Blake finished with nine players with double-digit point totals to go along with two goaltenders (Kruesel and Olivia Bizal) who both ended their season with 10-plus wins and a save percentage over 94 percent. 

Their defensive dominance didn’t just start and stop with their netminders. Thanks to an aggressive defensive system and a rink-load of talent, the Bears allowed just 26 goals during the entire regular season last year. and when it came to the postseason, Blake rolled through the section playoffs before outscoring their three opponents 13-3 over the state tournament weekend on their way to their fourth state title since 2013.  

Fast-forward eight months and it’s not just more of the same, it’s much, much more. The Bears graduated just three seniors from a season ago and returned nine of their top 10 scorers. One of their main cogs returning is Izzy Daniel who finished second on the team in scoring during the 2016-17 season with 39 points. Now a junior, the Cornell commit leads the 2017-18 Bears with 23 points, including 14 goals. Those 13 goals put her tied for 14th in the state. Of Blake’s first 12 games, Daniel has been held off the scoresheet just once and has registered seven multi-point games including five goals against Proctor/Hermantown on Nov. 24.

“Every team is a little different,” Daniel said. “Just the personnel – you graduate seniors and you get new players coming in. Every team I have played on has been unique and amazing in their own way. This year’s team, we have great leadership. Some are seniors and our captains and obviously we have great coaches. I think every year is special in its own way. Being a junior now, you just try not to take anything for granted. Your best friends leave, and sooner rather than later you are going to be a senior. You try to play for the seniors on the team now so you can try to make memories with the older kids.”

“We have five seniors right now which is the most seniors we’ve had on the team since my first year,” Reid said. “My first year, we had eight or nine seniors and after that it’s been two or three. This year, we are senior-heavy and we have five of them. Part of the reason we are successful is because we have that diversity of ages. We don’t graduate a ton every year, so we just continue to keep improving.”

That’s a scary thought. Despite the fact that it’s early, the Bears seem to be even better this season and the numbers prove it. Through 12 games, Blake already outscored its opponents 67-12 and have scored seven or more goals in a game six times. While their offense has been explosive, the Bears’ defense has blown their opponents out of the rink. Blake has held their opponents to 20 shots or less in a game nine times and have kept their foes under the 10-shot mark twice. As a team, the Bears are allowing one goal per contest.

“We have a mantra that we attack and we don’t contain,” Reid said. “We want to be first on the puck at all times in every aspect in the D-zone and the offensive zone. We have an aggressive mentality that allows us to have more possession of the puck. We also have a goalie who is incredible, so it’s hard to get the puck past her if you happen to get by our defense or our forwards. It’s been a real privilege to have that much talent up and down the line-up.”

“Speaking for Anna and the rest of the defensemen, we trust each other,” added Madeline Wethington. “We have that chemistry. It’s been special to build on that year after year, and we all continue to get better. As a whole, we have really developed over these past few years and we have focused on playing defense. That will lead to good offense.”

Yes, don’t forget about the offense. If you follow Blake closely, you quickly realize that each night it’s another player’s turn to grab the headlines. From top to bottom, the Bears sport one of the most balanced attacks in the state.  Along with Daniel, players like Lily Delianedis (Cornell), Sarah McClanahan (Dartmouth) and Burton (Minnesota) appear on the stat sheet with each and every goal Blake scores. Burton has already registered five multi-point games this season and has only been held without a point in a game three times. McClanahan has seven multi-point games and has registered six goals and 10 assists over her last eight games. Delianedis has been held without a point in a game just once.  

It’s a complete team effort. If you need more evidence, consider this: Of Blake’s 67 goals this season, only four were unassisted tallies. Just four. Going one step further, 38 of their 67 goals were goals scored with two assists attached to it.

“We have a pass-first mentality,” Reid said. “We know that to be successful we have to move the puck. We don’t have players who are going end to end and scoring on their own. It’s a success that runs through multiple players. When you have that mentality and you are leaning on each other, that produces the kind of results that we have had.”

“We have an extremely deep team where we trust every single player on the ice and we are lucky enough where we can roll three lines and six defensemen,” Daniel said. “We trust every player in every situation. It helps with team chemistry as well; everyone is contributing on the stat sheet and off the ice we are really a cohesive group.”

Ultimately, after dissecting all of the records, the win streaks, the goals, etc., it’s the team-first mentality that is most impressive. Everything about the 2017-18 Bears centers around the team. It’s arguably the one team out there that, if they wanted to, could sing the praises of the individual player all day long. However, this team refuses to play along. For Reid, when it comes to keeping his squad grounded and focused on the ultimate prize, he’s sees it as his squad’s greatest strength.

“We all know that the program was successful before any of us became a part of it,” Reid said. “We put the program ahead of any individual thing or individual purpose. When you have bigger ideas and bigger goals and a bigger purpose, I think that fosters an atmosphere where the team can be successful. I think the biggest reason why this team currently is successful is because the program itself has had a tradition of success for decades.”

“We know playing for the Blake program is a privilege and everyone who has played before us has set that path,” Daniel said. “We are just trying to continue the rich tradition that is Blake hockey. We try not to get ahead of ourselves; we always focus on that one day whether we are playing a game or at practice. We try to focus on the moment and not look too far ahead.”

Case in point: This season is the first for Blake as a Class AA program, meaning the road to the state tournament will be bumpier than ever before. When asked about how many times his team talks about the switch in classes, Reid stated that they never talk about it and don’t want to. To him, discussing that would mean he and his staff would be asking his squad to think about March when they should be concentrating on December. In the end, if his squad plays Blake hockey, the rest will fall into place.

“Whether you are talking about a college team or a professional program, they always talk about the process, and we talk about the process as well,” Reid said. “We know that we can’t affect what’s going to happen in the playoffs today, but we can take the necessary steps to keep improving every single day. We really just try to take it one day at a time and one period at a time. If we are playing a game where we might be the heavy favorites, we still find ways to work on little things, knowing that those things are going to translate down the road.”

The road continues with just one more game in 2017 (Andover on Dec. 28) before eight mores games in January, including a battle with top-ranked Edina on Jan. 20.

Andrew Vitalis can be reached at lphprep@yahoo.com.