After a dominating Section 5 final victory over previously undefeated and No. 1-ranked Blake, Benilde-St. Margaret's (14-1) enters the state tournament as the overwhelming favorite. The Red Knights, ranked No. 2 in the state, received the tournament's No. 1 seed.

How good is Benilde-St. Margaret's? The Red Knights beat No. 2 seed Totino-Grace by a combined score of 24-12 in two regular season meetings.

Totino-Grace (14-3) had its problems with the Red Knights, but few other teams offered much resistance. The Eagles won their final four regular season games by a combined score of 58-11. Totino-Grace won each of its four section playoff games by four or more goals.

No. 3 seed Eagan (12-4) suffered three of their losses against top-ranked teams in Blake, Eden Prairie and Eastview. The Wildcats get scoring production from all sorts of sources -- five players have 19 or more goals and 25 or more points.

No. 4 seed Wayzata (11-6) has the most losses of any team in the state tournament, but three of those losses were by a goal. The Trojans haven't allowed more than seven goals in any of their four section playoff victories and, amazingly, haven't given up double digits in goals all season.

Benilde-St. Margaret's attackman Bailey Dodds, the newly crowned Mr. Lacrosse award winner, has more goals (73) than any other player in the state has points. Dodds is headed to NCAA Division I Sacred Heart (Conn.) next season, where he will be joined by high-scoring sidekick Ryan Butts (42 goals, 28 assists). Rounding out the state's best trio of attackmen is sophomore Christian Horn (32 goals, 11 assists), who also is a standout hockey player attracting Division I interest.

Big, strong Giuseppe Palermo (37 goals, 23 assists) and small, speedy Nik Colpitts (32 goals, 24 assists) are Totino-Grace's explosive "Thunder and Lightning" midfielder combination. While they handle the bulk of the Eagles' scoring, among other duties, five other Totino-Grace players have reached double digits in goals this season. The Eagles have one of the state's best one-two defenseman duos in Kyle Mork and Joe Hockert, both of whom were named first-team all-state.

Eagan's Will Hersman (41 goals) and Kyle Harren (33 goals) are two of the state's top snipers, and teammate Kyle Sturgeon (27 assists) is their main setup man. Like Totino-Grace, Eagan gets consistent goal scoring from a multitude of players (six Wildcats have scored 10 or more goals).

Wayzata super sophomore Eric Fong (35 goals, 23 assists) is the catalyst of the Trojans' offense and senior goaltender Hunter Stemmer (.662 save percentage, 6.62 goals-against average) anchors a brick-wall defense.

3 -- Newcomers to the state tournament. Eagan, Totino-Grace and Wayzata are making their first appearances.

0 -- Teams that have won more than one state tournament title. Benilde-St. Margaret's, which won the inaugural Minnesota State High School League state championship in 2007, has the opportunity to become the first team to win multiple MSHSL state championships.

6 -- Most goals scored by one player (Blake's Kip Dooley and Eastview's Andy Freeman in 2008) in a state tournament game. Dooley also holds the record for most points in a game with nine.

3 -- 2010 Minnesota All-Americans participating in the state tournament (Kyle Mork and Giuseppe Palermo of Totino-Grace; Bailey Dodds of Benilde-St. Margaret's).

The Red Knights are the heavy favorites, and rightly so. Their only loss was by a goal to No. 1-ranked Blake, a loss that was avenged in spectacular fashion in the form of a 13-3 section final rout of the Bears. An underrated but at times dominant defense makes B-SM impossible to pick against.

Wildcats played the toughest schedule of any of the state tournament qualifiers, so they are battle-tested. Will Hersman is their go-to guy, but Eagan has at least five more players who can provide consistent scoring.

2009 -- Minnetonka
2008 -- Blake
2007 -- Benilde-St. Margaret's