Edina enters the 2018 Class AA girls’ state tournament as the No. 1 team in the state and in search of back-to-back state championships. The Hornets will be challenged by a strong field, including No. 3 Centennial, No. 4 Hill-Murray and No. 5 Andover. On the Class A side, the state’s top five teams this season – Warroad, Breck, Red Wing, Alexandria and St. Paul United – are set to battle for small school supremacy.

But what Minnesota girls’ hockey programs are truly the best, according to each season’s final rankings? To determine the top teams for each class, we looked at the final top 20, beginning with the 2001-02 season – the year the Minnesota State High School League established Class AA and A – and awarded 20 points for a team finishing No. 1, 19 points for No. 2, and so on. Those points for all seasons were then added together.

The results? In Class AA, Twin Cities power Eden Prairie takes the top spot over neighboring rival programs Edina and Minnetonka for first place in our rankings. In Class A, it’s Twin Cities private school Blake (now in Class AA) at the top, followed by Northern Minnesota power Warroad and top private school program Breck.

CLASS AA NOTES: 53 teams have been included in the final rankings since 2002 • the top 10 includes eight public schools and two private schools • Cloquet-Esko-Carlton, now a Class A program, is the only Northern Minnesota team in the top 20 • Eden Prairie leads the way with 14 appearances in the final top 20, followed by Edina and Roseville with 13, and Elk River and Blaine with 12  • 11 schools have appeared in the final rankings 10 or more times since 2002 •  Eden Prairie and Minnetonka are tied for first in Class AA state titles (4) • South St. Paul has the highest average final ranking at 2.0, followed by Minnetonka at 4.9, Eden Prairie at 5.0 and Edina at 5.46.

CLASS A NOTES: 49 teams have been included in the final rankings since 2002 • the top 10 includes eight public schools and two private schools • Blake, Warroad and Breck lead the way with 16 appearances in the final top 20, followed by Hibbing/Chisholm with 14, and Alexandria with 13  • 12 schools have appeared in the final rankings 10 or more times since 2002 •  Blake ranks first in Class A state titles (7), followed by Warroad and Benilde-St. Margaret’s (2) • Benilde-St. Margaret’s has the highest average final ranking at 2.25, followed by Blake at 2.75, Thief River Falls at 6.14 and Farmington at 6.67.

Photos: Christine Wisch/Mike Thill