Mankato girls hockey set to renew rivalry, grow game together

MANKATO -- When hockey players in this South Central Minnesota town decide to begin their playing days as young kids, they start their journeys in the Mankato Area Hockey Association, known locally as MAHA.
Clad in purple and black, Mankato hockey has had plenty of success at state-level tournaments over the years, a level of play that is expected to rise even more after Hockey Day Minnesota comes to town and raises the profile of the sport even more.
Hockey is exploding in this part of Minnesota, with more kids playing the sport at all levels than ever before.

That's especially true for girls hockey.
Mankato has a unique system, however. Those kids that come up together playing the sport they love, develop a passion for it and create great friendships in it often end up on rival teams once they reach high school.
The Cougars-Scarlets rivalry is a big one in Mankato, especially so in hockey, where the two schools have often been at or near the top of the Section 1A rankings.
That rivalry will serve as the unofficial kickoff of the Hockey Day weekend on Wednesday night when the two schools clash in girls hockey at Blakeslee Stadium at 7 p.m.

East and West will play in boys hockey on Friday night at Blakeslee.
But unlike other sports, where that rivalry often goes beyond the lines of the field or court, these players have remained friends off the ice because of those long-term relationships cooked up over years of being on the same teams through the youth ranks.
Hockey Day - at least for one night - will stress those friendships.
"We've been looking forward to this for a long time, ever since we found out it was coming to Mankato two years ago," said West senior forward Emily Bloemke. "To go up to [Blakeslee Stadium] after watching football there just a couple months ago, and now seeing a hockey rink there. It's crazy."
While the competitive balance of hockey in Mankato at the high school level has tended to lean towards West in years past, especially at the boys level, East has been trending the right way for a couple of years now.
That's true on the girls side, where the Cougars have seen an increase in their numbers the past couple of years finally bear fruit. While they don't boast a large number of seniors, fifth-year head coach Amber Prange says they are long on experience and skill.
"We have a big group of juniors that have been with us since eighth grade," Prange said. "They are coming into their own and figuring out what that leadership role looks like for them."
East enters the game against West atop the Big Nine Conference, having won nine of its previous 10 games, including wins of 12-2 over Worthington and back-to-back 11-0 victories over Detroit Lakes and Rochester Century.
Also during the streak was a 4-3 win over West, a game which Prange said her team didn't respond well enough to adversity.
"We're just excited to go back and play them again," Prange said. "[Last time], they played us really hard and I don't think and we didn't adjust to that very well.
"We want to move the puck more, spread things out a little bit more and use more ice."
On the West side, even in a losing effort, the performance gave them confidence heading into the game on Wednesday. The Scarlets started the season with a pair of victories but have won just twice in 16 games since.
"We go from being on the same team for upwards of 10 years, to now, fighting for bragging rights in this city," said Scarlets junior forward Brooke Pockrandt. "It's always a super competitive game. [Wednesday] will be really exciting, especially coming off the game we just had against them recently. We only lost by one so we're really excited.
"It's a whole new rink, new idea. And it's anybody's rink. Outside, anything can happen."
No matter what happens on the scoreboard on Wednesday, both programs have the common goal of making hockey more accessible and popular in the community so that all boats rise in the future.
"On the ice, we're not friends. We're there to win," Pockrandt said. "But off the ice, we hang out, we talk after the game.
"We're still super close, but it's very competitive."
The hope is that an event like Hockey Day Minnesota will continue to develop and increase interest in the sport in Mankato and get more kids to come out.
There is talk of trying to build more sheets of ice in town because the two sheets at the community rink, All Seasons Arena, are booked solid.
The demand is there already, and Hockey Day coming to town is expected to shed a light on a sport that is gaining traction by the day.
"I grew up two blocks from [All Seasons Arena], when it was just one sheet of ice and they were talking about closing it down because there wasn't enough use and there wasn't enough players," said West girls assistant coach Kent Hays. "To see it come this far in my lifetime, it's wonderful.
"We don't have enough ice here. The youth programs now are huge."
On the girls side, Prange said she has a couple of girls in her high school program that have decided to try it for the first time only recently - a rarity in a sport like hockey. But because there are two high school programs in town, there is more than enough room on the rosters to accommodate the newbies into the program.
"If we were one [program], we wouldn't have that opportunity," Prange said.
And while those players might not become high school superstars, they'll eventually have kids someday, potentially stay in the community, and they'll put their children into hockey programs because of their own positive experience.
That's one of the long-term growth plans for the sport in a town like Mankato, along with the groundwork laid by girls in past years, who have the next wave of Scarlets and Cougars eager for what's to come next.
"We have girls in our high school programs that have been able to get other kids in our youth programs more excited," Prange said. "We have a big group of 12s right now that have been together since they were mites, maybe five or six years old. And they've stuck with it because when they were younger, girls from both East and West would show up at mite practices in their jerseys and get them excited.
"I feel like we're getting to the point now where we're going to be producing more and more players that will reach the next level, both on the boys and girls sides of the program."