Edina, despite its No. 4 ranking the final coaches' poll for the regular season, entered Thursday’s Class 1A, Section 6 championship as a decided underdog to No. 2-ranked Prior Lake. The Hornets played the role to perfection.

Twice Edina (14-2) rallied from deficits to catch the Lakers, the second time coming back from five goals down late in the first half, and went on to beat Prior Lake 10-9 in overtime and secure the program’s first state tournament appearance. The Lakers (13-2) will miss the state tournament for the second consecutive season after participating in the season’s final week each year from 2015-21.

Prior Lake went ahead 3-1 before the Hornets came back to tie the game on Kaylee Idrogo-Lam’s goal with 14:13 left in the first half. But the Lakers responded immediately, scoring five consecutive goals over the next nine minutes to grab an 8-3 lead. Edina’s Josie Moe scored with 50 seconds left in the half to close the gap to four goals.

Edina reached the Section 6 final in 2021 but lost to Prior Lake, and the Hornets lost to eventual section champion Rosemount in last season’s semifinals. But Santoni, who scored four goals, and senior goaltender Uma Corniea made sure Edina made it out of the section tournament this season.

Corniea and the Edina defense tightened up in the second half, after the Lakers built an 8-4 lead in the first 25 minutes. The Hornets surrendered just one goal over the last 30-plus minutes and held Prior Lake to fewer than 10 goals for the first time this season.

Corniea made what could be looked at, in retrospect, as a series of game-saving plays in the final minutes of regulation. After Santoni’s goal with 9:21 left in regulation tied the game 9-9, the Lakers ramped up pressure on the Edina goal. Corniea made a save on a penalty shot and followed that up with a save on a point-blank shot from Britney Pinkowski, and then made three consecutive saves before Edina took control of the ball and called time out with 2:59 left in the second half.

“There were so many times I was saying thank you to Uma for saving our butts,” Santoni said.

Rachel Ward had three goals and Nina Winter and Megan Sporney each had two goals and an assist for the Lakers.