The Warroad boys hockey team is making their 23rd trip to the state tournament, and the second in the past three seasons. The Warriors posted a 24-3-1 regular season record and defeated Thief River Falls 4-1 in the Section 8A championship game.

Offensively, Warroad is led by forwards Daimon Gardner and Jayson Shaugabay, who have both scored over 70 points this season. The Warrior defense has continued to improve throughout the year and junior Hampton Slukynsky has emerged as one of the top goaltenders in the state.

A possible rematch of Warroad’s only Class A loss of the season, a 2-1 defeat to Hermantown back in January, could end up being the state title matchup, as the Warriors and Hawks both earned the top two seeds in the Class A tournament.

If the Warroad boys win the Class A state championship, they’ll join the Warrior girls hockey program as state champs. The Warroad girls hockey team won the Class A state title on February 26th with a 6-1 win over Proctor/Hermantown. Since the MSHSL began girls hockey state tournaments in 1995, there’s only been two occurrences where both the boys and girls hockey programs both won the state championships (Academy of Holy Angels in 2005 and Edina in 2019).

Warroad will open up the 2022 boys hockey state tournament with its quarterfinal matchup against Monticello on Wednesday, March 9th at 11:00 AM.

By — Chaz Mootz