Thursday is again jam-packed with state boys hockey quarterfinals in St. Paul, as the Class 2A teams take the ice to kick off their tournament.

The winner’s bracket will be played at Xcel Energy Center and will be aired locally on Channel 45 and streamed on prep45.tv.

Here are the things to watch this weekend:

Adding to history: Certainly Edina is a fixture on championship Saturday. The Hornets have won 13 state titles, with the most recent in 2019. Grand Rapids has won four state championships.

Rochester Century/John Marshall is tricky. Rochester won a title in 1946. Rochester John Marshall completed an undefeated season in 1977. Rochester Century has never won a title. The Century-John Marshall co-op is in this week’s field. So, for Century it’d be a first. For John Marshall, it’d be a second title.

But no one else in this Class 2A field has won more than one.

White Bear Lake and Chanhassen have never won a state title. The Storm are making their first state tournament appearance this week.

Rounding out the tournament field (with their title year in parentheses): Centennial (2004), Cretin-Derham Hall (2006), Elk River (2001).

So there’s ample opportunity for teams to truly leave their mark in their respective program history this weekend.

Wide-open field: It was mentioned during the section tournaments and is worth reiterating here: There are only two teams ranked in the top 13 of Let’s Play Hockey’s final Class 2A poll in this week’s state tournament field.

Edina and Chanhassen are certainly the class of the bracket. But the Storm are a Cinderella in their own right, making their first state tournament appearance after downing a Minnetonka team that may have been one of the most talented collectives in recent memory in the Section 2 final.

That opens the door not only for the Hornets and Storm, but everyone else. Edina lost four games this season. Chanhassen lost five. No one in the Class 2A bracket is unbeatable. Maybe this is a year for an unseeded team to make a run to the final. Or for White Bear Lake or Centennial to finally drive deep into the tournament. More on that next.

White Bear Lake looks to snap streak: Yes, this will be a talking point every time the Bears are in the state tournament until it’s snapped. They’ve been in 19 state tournament quarterfinals. They’ve lost them all.

Is this ‘the year’ the Bears reach the semis? It certainly could be. They were dominant in their run through Section 4 and since getting healthy at the end of the season look like a team with the ingredients — great goaltending and defense and a star in Nolan Roed who can make the big play — to make a run this week.

Big names, big games: While the absence of Minnetonka does remove a little of the star power this week, there are still plenty of high-end players capable of wowing the Xcel Energy Center crowd throughout the tournament.

Roed, Chanhassen’s Gavin Uhlenkamp and Edina’s Jackson Nevers are Mr. Hockey finalists. Chanhassen’s Kam Hendrickson is a finalist for the Frank Brimsek award given to the top senior goaltender. And Chanhassen’s Owen Buesgens and Edina’s Barrett Dexheimer are finalists for the Reed Larson Award given to the state’s top senior defenseman.

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