Notebook: Lakeville North track teams look to keep their trophies at Mega Meet

Lakeville North’s track and field program will look to win back the boys and girls team championships at its annual Mega Meet on Saturday.

Twelve boys teams and 12 girls teams will compete in the meet, which begins at 10 a.m. Saturday at Lakeville North High School. Last year North’s boys won their meet by 61 points. The North girls were tied with Stillwater going into the last event, the 4x400-meter relay, which they won to take the team trophy.

Girls and boys teams from Apple Valley and Burnsville also will compete in the Mega Meet.

Admission is $8 for adults, $5 for seniors and students ages 10-17. Students 9 and younger will be admitted free, as will Lakeville youth track and field athletes and their parents. Food trucks will be on site.

National Letter of Intent

One of Lakeville North’s top boys track and field athletes, senior hurdler Tyler Christianson, signed a National Letter of Intent last week to compete for Augustana University.

Last year Christianson qualified for the state Class 3A meet in the 300 hurdles and ran the first leg on Lakeville North’s state championship 4x400 relay.

Also signing from Lakeville North last week was Ashley Miranda Limon, who will compete in swimming and diving at Concordia St. Paul.

Tennis under the lights

Burnsville High School is making a tradition of holding tennis matches at night, and that will continue Saturday when the Blaze boys team plays host to Forest Lake and Apple Valley.

The first two matches – Burnsville vs. Forest Lake at 4 p.m. and Apple Valley vs. Forest Lake at 6 – would take place in daylight, but the on-court lights should be kicking in by 8 p.m., when Burnsville faces Apple Valley in a South Suburban Conference match.

NHL playoff time

Several NHL players with ties to the south metro are involved in the first round of the Stanley Cup Playoffs that began last weekend.

Among them is former Lakeville North High School and current Carolina Hurricanes defenseman Brady Skjei, whose team won the first two games of its series against the New York Islanders. Skjei has three assists in the first two games and averaged more than 21 minutes of ice time. In the regular season he led Carolina defensemen with 47 points (13 goals, 34 assists).

Islanders forward Hudson Fasching, who played at Apple Valley High School and the University of Minnesota, appeared in the first game of the series, played about 14 minutes and had two shots on goal.

Another former Lakeville North player, Charlie Lindgren, was the Washington Capitals’ starting goalie for the first two games of their series against the New York Rangers. The Rangers, who won the President’s Trophy for most regular-season points, took a 2-0 lead over Washington with 4-1 and 4-3 victories.

Lindgren, who played in college at St. Cloud State stopped 50 of 58 shots in the first two games. He took over as the Capitals’ starting goalie this season, playing 50 games with a 2.67 goals-against average and .911 save percentage. He tied for the league lead with six shutouts. He is playing against his brother Ryan, a Rangers defenseman who played at Shattuck-St. Mary’s the U.S. National Team Development Program and the University of Minnesota.

Former Lakeville North, USNTDP and Boston University goalie Jake Oettinger played in the opening game of the Dallas Stars’ series against the defending Stanley Cup champion Vegas Golden Knights on Monday. He stopped 11 of 15 shots in the Stars’ 4-3 loss. In the regular season, Oettinger had a 2.72 goals-against average and .905 save percentage in 54 games.

Oettinger started 19 playoff games for Dallas last season, including all six in the Stars’ first-round victory over the Minnesota Wild.

Burnsville High School alum Brock Boeser is coming off a 40-goal regular season with the Vancouver Canucks, who split their first two games against the Nashville Predators in a Western Conference series. Boeser had one assist in the first two games while averaging 21 minutes of ice time.

The 40 goals in the 2023-24 regular season are a career high for Boeser, who has 179 goals in 479 career NHL games.