White Bear Lake has its team goals.

Win its conference, win its section championship and advance to the state tournament.

There is the grand prize of the state championship trophy, but another perk to getting to state involves something less gaudy.

"Got to get that free $10 t-shirt," Bears junior Connar Dehnert said.

Dehnert is referring to T-shirts emblazoned with rat caricatures of each state participant. For years the shirt was a staple at the boys' state hockey tournament and, for the first time last year, the version of "Lax Rats" was created.

"We made it to state last year and got them, which was pretty cool because we see the hockey tournament has them," Bears coach Brandon Husak said. "At practice this Monday our coaches wore the t-shirts and everyone got pumped."

The top-seeded Bears will get their coveted T-shits for a second straight year after an 11-8 victory against No. 2-seed Mounds View in the Section 5 final on Wednesday at Park Center High School in Brooklyn Park.

Dehnert did his part by scoring three goals, including a game-changer in the final second of the first half. After the officials huddled for a discusion, it was ruled Dehnert's goal counted, pulling the Bears to within one of Mounds View.

Dehnert was convinced his goal was good. 

"I knew it was in, no doubt," he said. "When I got the ball I knew I had 10 seconds to work with, and all I could hear was my teammates telling me to shoot. I just got it off in time."

"This game has so many momentum swings, and at times you need something to work off of," Husak said. "That was big because we go in at half and tell ourselves that we are only down one goal. Being down two is not impossible, but the mindset that you only need one to tie is something that you can really get your players going with."

The Bears carried that momentum into the second half and simply dominated.

They only allowed one goal and were much more aggressive than they were in the first half.

White Bear Lake's Hunter Peters tied the score at 7 in the third, but the Mustangs regained the lead 18 seconds later on a Mitchell LeMay goal.

Dehnert scored his final goal to tie the game once again, at 8-8, with 2:07 left in the third.

White Bear Lake scored three more times to lock down the win.

"It shows you how much heart we have," Dehnert said. "We had guys doing whatever it took to score goals or to shut them down on defense."

The Bears will begin state tournament play on Tuesday at Chaska High School.

"Never gets old going to state and getting that T-shirt," Dehnert said.

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