The South Suburban Conference has once again proven to be loaded with talented teams, making the league title chase quite exciting as the regular season enters the final weeks.
Seven squads begin this week sitting within two games of first place in the conference standings. Eagan is the current king of the heap, while Eastview, which sits two games back of first, can shake things up with a victory when the contenders collide Thursday.
Eagan had been maintaining a comfortable distance ahead of their conference foes until stumbling last Thursday, when the No. 6 Wildcats dropped their first conference game to Shakopee 13-7. They followed that with 14-8 loss to No. 3 Benilde-St. Margaret's in a nonconference clash on Saturday.
The Wildcats (7-3, 5-1) can turn to Andrew Wilson to help stop the skid. The attackman has six hat tricks this season. Fellow senior Tanner Whipps has also been a key contributor, scoring in every conference game this season.
Eastview is also coming off a conference loss — a 13-8 decision to Rosemount on Friday — and hopes to avoid another to keep pace with the rest of the league.
The Lightning (5-4, 3-3) have stayed above .500 thanks in part to the offensive prowess of junior attackman Jason Hill, who has 37 goals this season, while goaltender Ethan Chilean has helped backend an Eastview defense that is allowing 6.67 goals per game.