Steady Success: Proctor/Hermantown skates to third straight state trip under Coach Stauber

For the third straight year the Proctor/Hermantown girl’s hockey team will skate into the Xcel Energy Center as contenders for the top title in the state.

It’s become a dynasty built in-part by Mirage alum, now head coach, Emma Stauber who’s only missed one state tournament since taking over the bench in 2019.

“I’m very fortunate to be back here with this program,” Stauber shared. “Obviously coming through it, it’s very special to me. I think when you have continued success, and these girls are able to experience what it’s like to participate in the state tournament, it motivates them to work even harder in the off season. I think that’s one area that our girls do a really good job of.”

The Mirage prooved their grit in the Section 7A championship game last Wednesday rallying from a two goal deficit to defeat Dululth Marshall 5-4.

Now the state experienced squad is turning their focus to their quartefinal foe, a team they’ve yet to meet, 20-6 Mankato East.

“We’ll probably watch some video, look at them a little bit and you know, we’ll just come out hard, play our game, don’t play down to their level so that we’ll just keep going at them,” senior Reese Heitzman said. “I think we’re really deep so we can come at teams with all these lines and all these people so that they can’t really handle it. We just keep pressuring them and keep going at them.”

The 19-6-2 Mirage drop the puck on the Class A quarterfinals Wednesday at 11 a.m. in St. Paul. For the full bracket, Click Here.