The granddaughter of Dean Blais (two time national champion as head coach at North Dakota) grew up surrounded by the sport. She remembers constantly being in or around a hockey rink, whether it was watching games that her grandfather was coaching in or playing on a backyard pond or at a local rink with her older brother. Otremba has been around the sport literally for her entire life. 

Growing up in the Lakeville area, the young forward made the varsity squad at Lakeville South High School in 2017-18 as just an eighth grader. That season, Otremba posted 12 points in 24 games and went to the Class AA state tournament with the Cougars. The team lost its state quarterfinal match, 2-0, to Centennial but then beat Hill-Murray in the consolation bracket and eventually lost in triple overtime to Andover for the Consolation Championship (funnily enough, the overtime goal scored by Andover was by Otremba’s future collegiate teammate Jamie Nelson). 

“It definitely was a little intimidating because I was still in middle school playing against girls in high school but the girls were super welcoming and I was like the baby of the team,” the Lakeville native said about her first season up on varsity. “I was lucky enough to have opportunities to play and my line towards the end of the year was me, a freshman, and a sophomore, so they called us the ‘diaper line’, but we did well thankfully and helped our team go to state so it was a good year.”

Despite being one of the youngest players on the team, the eighth grader showed a lot of promise out on the ice and started to receive recruiting interest from various college hockey teams before the NCAA officially changed the rule to push back the girls hockey recruitment period to not open until the summer before an athletes’ junior season (June 15, to be more specific). Otremba did have recruiting conversations with Minnesota State early on prior to the rule change but once the rule did change she was not able to connect with college coaches again until a few years later.  

Otremba then just about doubled her offensive output as a freshman but she really started to shine as a sophomore. In 2019-20, the forward tallied over a goal per game and netted 50 total points through 25 contests, averaging out to a two point per game average. She led the team in scoring again in 2020-21 as a junior but that year was the Covid-19 pandemic which included a limited high school winter sports schedule so Otremba’s statistics were a bit skewed for that season. 

“I just found my own confidence in myself after those first few years,” she said about her offensive explosion that truly started once she hit her sophomore year. “As an eighth grader and freshman, those years you don’t really feel old enough to take on a higher role and then after being on the varsity team for a while and trusting my abilities and improving my abilities over those years then once I reached my sophomore year it was like ‘Okay, I can really make an impact on this team,’.”

After an impressive sophomore season, Otremba’s recruiting process was then officially re-opened on June 15 prior to her junior season. She ended up committing to Mankato a few weeks after the recruitment period opened. The forward said that she had a lot of time in between when she originally talked to schools as an eighth grader to then being almost a junior that helped her figure out what she really wanted from her future team and school in the NCAA. 

“I enjoyed the coaching staff, I liked the size of the school with it not being too big or too small, Mankato is in the WCHA - which I would say is the best league and I think that is pretty important, and the facilities are great, so it just made for a good decision to come here,” she said about her decision to commit to the Mavericks. “It was just a mix of everything.” 

Lakeville South was a solid team during Otremba’s years on varsity but the squad was never able to return to the state tournament during her time there aside from her first year in 2017-18. As a senior, Otremba scored 58 points in 27 games and she captained the squad before the team eventually fell in the section final match to Northfield in a heartbreaking overtime loss that Otremba’s now teammate Ayla Puppe scored the game-winner of. 

Although many athletes struggle to make the jump up into college hockey as freshman, the 5-foot-5 forward from Lakeville had a very solid first season in the NCAA in 2022-23 by scoring eight goals and 12 assists for the Mavericks, which was tied for fourth in overall points scored on the roster that year. This earned Otremba the honor of being voted into the WCHA All-Rookie Team among many other current prominent names in the women’s college hockey scene such as Kirsten Simms, Laila Edwards and Caroline Harvey. 

“I think the biggest difference between college and high school is the speed of the game, not just physically but mentally. I think mentally I adapted quickly, I got used to it pretty quick and figured out what I could do,” she said about her freshman season. “I had a good group of girls which made things easy too but I think I had a lot of opportunities from the coaches to play and to just show off what I could do.” 

Otremba wound up posting a similar amount of points as a sophomore before slightly increasing her offensive output as a junior, sitting in fourth in overall scoring for both seasons. The Mavericks have finished in sixth out of eight total WCHA teams in each of the three years that the forward from Lakeville has been a part of the team so far. 

Now, Otremba is the highest scoring returner on the roster after leading scorer Jamie Nelson announced her intention to transfer to the University of Minnesota and both Madison Mashuga and Claire Vekich ran out of collegiate eligibility. The senior forward has been voted as captain of the squad now and feels good about the prospect of both her individual progress this summer and the prospect of what the team can do this season in 2025-26. 

“I’ve been working hard all summer to really elevate my game and I’m looking forward to upping my stats and putting more goals in the back of the net - but I’m really just going to take it one day at a time,” she said. Otremba plans on leading the squad by setting a good example for those around her, whether that’s by giving her all both on and off the ice or by encouraging her teammates to push themselves to their limits to become the best that they can possibly be. 

Minnesota State, voted to finish seventh in the WCHA in the recent Preseason Coaches Poll, lost six forwards, four defenders and two goaltenders either to graduation/out of eligibility or to the transfer portal this offseason but the team has added in nine freshman and one transfer to round out the roster. The Mavericks lost a large portion of its top scorers from last season, making Otremba its highest scoring returner, but a talented crop of young athletes will make the MSU team one to watch as the season progresses this winter. 

“I think this group of freshmen and what we have for upperclassmen is going to be good,” said Otremba on her outlook for the upcoming season. “They all work super hard [her teammates] and I think we’re going to be a team who is really going to push the pedal and people are going to have to work super hard to get around us. There are a lot of smart players here and I’m excited to see what everyone does.” 

The Mavericks have quite a bit of work ahead as they will face ultra-tough competition in the WCHA but the squad isn’t afraid of it. In fact, one of Otremba’s favorite memories of her time in college hockey so far came from a weekend series against Ohio State last season. Minnesota State lost the Friday game in overtime but ended up coming back and winning in regulation on Saturday against a Buckeyes team that was the reigning national champions at the time. 

“I ended up missing a very good opportunity to clinch that game [on Friday] and the adversity of going home that night, it was hard, and I felt disappointment in myself that I could’ve had that but Saturday came and I decided to use that energy to just try to play a great game,” said Otremba on what she remembers from that series. “We ended up beating them, I can’t remember the exact score, but I think I contributed three points, scoring one and assisting two and we ended up beating them in regulation and that win just felt satisfying in a way that you can overcome adversity and you can’t hold things against yourself. You can go from someplace on the bottom and still succeed in the end.” 

Otremba is excited for the 2025-26 season and can’t wait to hit the ice for the first official game of the year in just a few short weeks. The Lakeville native is currently studying civil engineering and has hopes to play professionally after her time is done at Mankato. 

Minnesota State opens its season on Sept. 19 and 20 on the road in a nonconference series against RPI before its home opener against Lindenwood on Oct. 3 and 4 at the Mayo Clinic Health Systems Event Center. Conference play starts the week after with a home series against St. Thomas.