Minot United celebrates after winning the West Region championship game against Bismarck Legacy at the VFW Sports Center on Saturday, Feb. 21. Photo provided by Tanner Ecker/Bismarck Tribune

The team name, logo and uniforms may have changed from last year, as well as the names of some of the key contributors on the ice, but the results were the same.

In their first year of a rebrand from the Minot High Magicians to Minot United, the new-look squad from the Magic City once again were lifting hardware at the conclusion of the West Region Tournament.

Entering last season, Minot United hadn’t won a tournament title since the 2005-06 campaign when co-head coach Jordan Willert was a high school senior. Now, Minot United has won back-to-back WDA Tournament titles, blanking Bismarck Legacy, 2-0, at the VFW Sports Center in Bismarck on Saturday, Feb. 21, to earn the No. 1 seed out of the West Region at the state tournament. Cole Richeson and Michael Ell netted goals and Luke Richeson finished with 24 saves as Minot United captured its 19th tournament title in program history.

“There was a lot of people in the hockey world that had written this team off,” Willert said. “There was a lot of doubt from other people, but there was never doubt from us, never doubt from that group of kids. They had a lot to prove. We lost studs. There’s no doubt about it. We lost a lot of firepower, whether it was graduation or kids leaving, but we kept telling kids that it’s in here. It’s 100 percent in here what we need to compete and win.”

Along with the hardware, Minot United (21-4-0-0) also got some revenge in the process against the Sabers. Legacy was one of just two conference opponents to knock off Minot United during the regular season, scoring the game-winner with less than a minute remaining to snap their 13-game winning streak.

“Legacy had recently taken it to us up in Minot a couple weeks ago and that was fresh,” Willert said. “The kids were ready to go and it was a heck of a defensive game. Luke Richeson was lights out. Something people won’t see in the box score is kids blocking shots left and right, chipping pucks out. We executed our game plan, found a couple goals and were able to hold on.”

Luke Richeson kept the Sabers off the scoreboard in the rubber match. It was the first time all season Legacy had failed to score a goal. The Sabers hadn’t been held to under two goals by any opponent in their first 23 games.

Minot United provided their goaltender some cushion, with Cole Richeson scoring 2:51 into the contest on their first power play opportunity. After Legacy’s Carter Madison was whistled for cross-checking, Cole Richeson found the back of the net against Legacy goaltender Brody Krumwiede. Oliver Thompson and Easton Bradley had the assists.

Bradley assisted on Minot United’s second goal as well. Bradley fed a pass to Nick Christopher who found Ell for his first goal of the tournament at 12:36 of the middle period.

Minot United killed off all five of Legacy’s power play opportunities, including two in the third period.

The WDA Tournament champions didn’t face too much adversity in their opening two games on Thursday and Friday. Minot United opened the tournament with a 5-1 victory over Williston in the quarterfinals and routed Mandan, 7-1, in the semifinals.

“Over the past couple of years, Mandan has had our number at times and that’s still kind of fresh in our kids’ minds,” Willert said. “We were ready to go. You could tell there was going to be a different level that night and the kids elevated and played really well. Hockey is a game of momentum swings and emotions and our kids handled themselves really well. You find one and then all the sudden you find four.”

They never trailed at any point of the tournament, scoring the first three goals against the Coyotes and the first four against the Braves.

Nine different skaters recorded goals and 14 registered at least one point. Thompson and Bradley led Minot United with six points each in three games, both netting two goals and assisting on four others. Cole Richeson and Landin Slind joined Thompson and Bradley as Minot United skaters to score a pair of goals during the tournament. Nick Christopher registered three assists.

The biggest adversity they faced came from Mother Nature. With a winter storm expected to slam the area the day before the start of the tournament, Minot United was advised to shift their travel plans up a couple days.

“We didn’t know if we were going to their Thursday,” Willert said. “If that storm hit as bad as they were saying, I don’t know if we would have made it. We went down Tuesday and kids were able to acclimate. The running joke by the end of the week was that we were pretty much Bismarck citizens now.”

Luke Richeson was sharp from the opening faceoff of the quarterfinal round all the way to the final buzzer in the championship game. The Minot United goaltender made 61 total saves on 63 shots faced for a .968 save percentage and a 0.67 goals against average. He made 15 saves against Williston, 22 against Mandan and 24 against Legacy.

“There’s not a more competitive kid in that group of kids than Luke Richeson,” Willert said. “He doesn’t like being scored on and he’s just competitive and he’s fiery. He works extremely hard and he was steady for us. There was a breakaway early in the championship game and he stopped it straight up. We killed a 5-on-3 and your goalie has to be your best penalty killer and he was.”

Luke Richeson was one of five Minot United players named to the all-WDA team. He joined Thompson, Bradley, Cole Richeson and Blake Haaland.

The results were the same, but the path to a second straight WDA Tournament title looked much different this time around. Last season, Minot United was top-heavy on the stat sheet, with three skaters recording at least 47 points. Mackley Morelli (74 points), Easton Panasuk (59 points) and Rylan Roteliuk (47 points) led an offensive unit that scored 154 total goals and averaged 5.70 goals per game.

This year’s offensive production was more by committee, with only Thompson topping 40 points. Minot United had 17 skaters register a goal this season. Thompson (18 goals), Bradley (18) and Christopher (11) were the only three with double digit goals.

“They’re a very tight-knit group of kids,” Willert said. “There’s seniors, there’s sophomores, there’s juniors, there’s a good mix of everybody. Everybody gets along. They’re hard on each other but they care about each other and they know that. …Yeah, we were picked to win the WDA, but I just don’t think people thought we were going to have what we have. It’s kind of a different feeling.”

Minot United will play West Fargo Sheyenne – the No. 4 seed from the East Region – in the state tournament quarterfinals on Thursday, Feb. 26, at noon at Scheels Arena in Fargo. Legacy, Jamestown and Bismarck Century will also represent the West Region at the state tournament. Grand Forks Central, Grand Forks Red River and Fargo Shanley are the top three seeds from the East Region.