Duluth Denfeld, Duluth Marshall and Hermantown high school boys hockey teams all are on the road to state, and will play in section championship games later this week. Below is a listing of the championship games and thoughts of some of the players representing each team:

Section 7A Championship
Duluth Denfeld vs. Duluth Marshall
7:30 p.m. Wednesday at Amsoil Arena

Hilltoppers sniper Matthew Klassen: “It’s going to be a phenomenal game. From the crowd, to the atmosphere, to the excitement on the ice, it’ll be one heckuva game. Both teams have some high scoring forwards along with solid goaltending. It’s going to be a battle to the finish.”

Hilltoppers power forward Connor “Caden II” Flaherty: “Looking forward to the well-deserved rematch. Two strong hometown teams are going head-to-head on Wednesday night, and only one will come out. They have a good team, and they took it to us the first time we played. They have excellent goaltending, but so do we. They have a lot of firepower that we’re going to have to try and match. I’m confident in our team. We’ve been there before, so expect to see nothing less but a classy, hardworking team on Wednesday night that’s hungry to defend their Section 7A title.”

Section 7AA Championship
Duluth East vs. Grand Rapids
7:30 p.m. Thursday at Amsoil Arena

Greyhounds power forward Wyatt “Baby Barney” Irwin: “The final should be a exiting game. I’m sure Rapids will bring their best, as they always do. We’ll need all of our guys going to get past them.”

Greyhounds burly defenseman Alex “Von” Trapp: “Grand Rapids is definitely a great team and there’s no doubt for anybody the game could go either way. For us it will be determined all by our preparation in the next three days of practice and if we start playing our game right from the puck drop. I’ll personally be shaking with excitement all week in school, and Thursday won’t arrive soon enough.”

Section 5A Championship
Hermantown vs. St. Cloud Cathedral
7 p.m. Friday at Champlin

Hawks standout defenseman Jake Zeleznikar: “The section final against Cathedral should be a great game. Our team has come a long ways since a few losses early in the season, especially defensively, and we are playing our best hockey right now. We’ve got a great group of guys that are willing to battle as hard as they can and leave it all on the ice, so you will see a high level of compete coming from the Hawks on Friday.”

Hockey Notebook

Dani Cameranesi, a senior forward on The Blake School high school girls hockey team, today was named the winner of the Ms. Hockey Award. The annual award is given to the top Minnesota high school girl senior player.