“The fireworks went off early.”

“That’s what she said.”

This exchange was overheard on a frigid TCO VIP deck at Hockey Day Minnesota last weekend. A technical error had triggered the post-game fireworks before the game was over. At the time of the glitch, White Bear Lake was winning 2-1 over Hill Murray with less than a minute to play in the 3rd period.

After the Grand “Not Quite” Finale prematurely lit up the sky, Hill Murray proceeded to grab the momentum, scoring both the tying goal and overtime winner before the smoke from the fireworks had cleared off the ice.

Folks on the Hill Murray side likely felt that karma played a role seeing the fireworks malfunction as payback for when a positive Covid test and the State High School League cost the Pioneers a trip to the State Tournament back in 2021. On the White Bear Lake side, people were disappointed once again, feeling like their archrival just crashed their wedding and stole their girl.

Some on the White Bear side asked a fair question, “Why was Hill Murray even here? It was our special day, who invited them to the party? Why didn’t we schedule a more favorable matchup like, say, East Ridge?”

Whether you’re wearing orange, black, and white or green, black, and white—the answer to these questions are not difficult.

White Bear Lake had to play Hill Murray on Hockey Day Minnesota, because it’s the hottest rivalry in high school hockey.

Yes, we know. We know the stories and lore of Warroad and Roseau, two teams that will likely square off on next year’s Hockey Day Minnesota. But when you really dive in, even Warroad Vs. Roseau doesn’t hold a candle to what the white-hot White Bear Lake Vs. Hill Murray rivalry has to offer.

Public Vs. Private

It’s possible to hear both a “Daddy’s Money!” and “That’s all right, that’s okay—you’re going to work for us someday!” chant at a White Bear Vs. Hill Murray game. Public Vs. Private adds a whole different dimension to the rivalry, as Hill Murray regularly plucks players out of White Bear Lake, and long time White Bear families send their kids to Hill for the private school experience.

The White Bear student section chants, “Where’s your city?” to the private school while the kids (shhh!) destined for Hill Murray worry they won’t get a fair shake each Fall as they try out for Bantams in White Bear. While some high school hockey fans have advocated for placing all the private schools in their own section tournament, the reality is public vs. private does add a Greasers Vs. Socials, if not Darth Vader vs. Luke Skywalker dimension to this already spicy rivalry as players are able to switch allegiances in real time.

Longevity

The White Bear Lake Vs. Hill Murray rivalry has been around . . .for a while. As one White Bear parent put it, “It’s really not about the kids playing now. It’s their parents—they put the weight of the rivalry onto these kids. It’s there at the dinner table each night, and car rides home from the rink at an early age.” Kids from White Bear have wanted to beat Hill Murray for decade after decade and vice versa. Someone could make a killing selling White Bear Lake Vs. Hill Murray Super Chexx bubble hockey games in the 651-area code.

The White Bear Lake Vs. Hill Murray rivalry has aged like a cast iron skillet, a skillet these two schools located just 11 miles apart would gladly hit each other over the head with year over year.

Section Finals

It wasn’t long ago that White Bear and Hill Murray used to finish most seasons trading paint at the State Fair Coliseum competing for the section final. When assessing the White Bear Lake Vs. Hill Murray rivalry, the fact that most years these two teams will square off to decide who goes to State must be factored in. For a rivalry to be great, you need to be consistently playing for the highest stakes. This isn’t the case with say Single A Warroad and Double AA Roseau.

In Minnesota the thing every high school player wants the most is a trip to the State Tournament. The fact that the only way to punch this ticket to State most years is to go through your biggest rival in Sections takes this rivalry to the next level.

While a different sport, the best surrogate for White Bear Lake Vs. Hill Murray is probably Ohio State Vs. Michigan in college football. Because not only do these two rivals play once during the regular season, they’re also quite frequently match up in the B1G 10 playoffs to determine who will advance to the biggest stage.

For every high school hockey player in Minnesota, a trip to the State Tournament is like Cinderella going to the ball. And it only accentuates the matchup when your biggest rival can turn the stagecoach into a pumpkin at midnight. Not only do White Bear Lake and Hill Murray have a chance to beat each other during the regular season, most years they also have a shot to end each other’s seasons. A good way to maximize the hate, have the team you dislike the most be the ones holding a pillow over your face at the Section Final until you finally stop kicking your legs.

The Hate

Okay maybe hate is a strong word, this is high school sports we’re talking about here. But, it must be said, one of the reasons the White Bear Lake Vs. Hill Murray rivalry is great because these two teams genuinely dislike each other. This is Civil War stuff, with neighbors turning against neighbors. The animosity has been turned up in recent years, and rest assured Katy Perry’s “Firework” will be on repeat at Aldrich Arena for years to come after this year’s premature celebration cost the Bears.

Whenever White Bear Lake plays Hill Murray, kids that used to play with each other are now playing against each other. And both sides are eager to show the world they made the right decision to stay, or the right decision to leave. All of this makes the White Bear Lake Vs. Hill Murray a whistling kettle of emotion ready to boil over.

But let’s be honest, it’s even weirder than that. Case in point, when a rumor started that the Hill Murray parents had rented out local White Bear Lake restaurant, The Brickhouse, for Hockey Day Minnesota—the White Bear parents half jokingly suggested a boycott. The assumption being that anyone trying to do business in White Bear needs to remember to take care of White Bear. Which means when Hill Murray calls to make a reservation, the right answer is “Thanks. But no thanks.”

Stories

At the end of the day, the thing that makes a rivalry stand the test of time are the stories. With the recent fireworks malfunction, we should probably call Netflix and get the White Bear Lake Vs. Hill Murray docuseries going already.

And that’s really the moral of the story here. Even though the White Bear Lake team may feel cheated by the technical malfunction that prematurely launched those fireworks, the reality is they’ll be telling that story for the next 50 years. As well the kids on the Hill Murray side. And that’s what it’s really all about. Sure some of these players will continue their hockey journeys post high school, but for most—this is the peak. Which is our reminder to occasionally step back from this simmering rivalry, take a deep breath, and remember that we’re all lucky to have it. White Bear Lake gives us something to talk about. And while it may not seem like it now, down the road even the players on both reams will swap stories about the rivalry at a bar someday. Just not at The Brickhouse.