Just five years after skating for Hill-Murray, former Pioneers hockey star Jake Guentzel will get a Stanley Cup ring.
Guentzel and his Pittsburgh Penguins teammates hoisted the Stanley Cup June 11 after defeating the Nashville Predators 2-0. The Penguins rookie center scored five goals and assisted on one in the 4-2 best-of-seven series win.
Guentzel, 22, emerged in his first NHL postseason with a team-high 13 goals plus eight assists. A 2013 third-round draft pick of the Penguins, he also stepped up in 40 regular season games with 16 goals and 17 assists. He had been called up from the Penguins’ minor league team in Wilkes-Barre, Pennsylvania, in January.
A Woodbury native, Guentzel starred for two seasons with Hill-Murray, a Catholic high school in Maplewood. As a sophomore, Guentzel netted 49 points in 28 contests and helped the 2010-2011 Pioneers to a Class 2A Section 4 runner-up finish. He posted 75 points in 31 games as a junior with Hill-Murray. He also helped the Pioneers reach the 2012 Class 2A state title game before falling to Benilde-St. Margaret’s.
Guentzel left Hill-Murray before his senior season to play junior hockey for the Sioux City, Iowa, Musketeers. After the Penguins selected him 77th in 2013, he opted to play NCAA Division I college hockey at the University of Nebraska-Omaha. Guentzel had 70 regular season points in three years with the Mavericks, and he helped the team reach the Frozen Four in 2015. He signed with the Penguins in 2016 after his junior season at Omaha.
