2025 has been a year full of huge accomplishments for Brooklyn Park native Sophie Olson. Not only did the forward play a key role in winning Hill-Murray’s Class AA state title but she also recently committed to play Division I college hockey at St. Cloud State University. Needless to say, it’s been a busy and exciting past 11 months for the senior forward.

Olson grew up competing in the Champlin Park Youth Hockey Association prior to joining Hill-Murray for high school. Sophie, the oldest child in her family (with a younger brother and sister), remembers getting into hockey from a young age after watching Minnesota Wild games with her father. She starting playing the sport around age five and always wore the number nine during her first few seasons, taking after her favorite Wild player in Mikko Koivu.

Olson’s eventual first year up on the high school varsity roster was in 2022-23 with a talented Pioneers squad that went 23-3-1 prior to a section final loss to eventual state champion Gentry Academy. As a freshman forward, Olson netted a respectable 13 points through 28 games for Hill-Murray that season.

“I remember that we were such a close team that year, we would hang out all the time outside of the rink and obviously the state tournament was our end goal but even making it to the section final was honestly something that we were so proud of just because that season was a long one,” Olson told APX reporter Sydney Wolf. “I remember we beat Andover (the reigning state champion at the time) and that was a really big win for us, and I think that those wins throughout the season, those big ones, helped us keep going and stay motivated, that’s really when HMGH (Hill-Murray Girls Hockey) started to get better and better, that was kind of the start of it.”

The Brooklyn Park native also recalls having great senior role models on the team during her freshman season, such as Ellah Hause - who is now currently the top offensive defender at the University of St. Thomas.

“She would always talk to me about how I was feeling (before games) and I remember before my first varsity game she was just like encouraging me and I remember that helped a lot and I learned a lot that year and she was a great role model to look up to,” she said.

Things changed a lot for both Olson and for the entire Hill-Murray squad that offseason in 2023 as previous head coach Shawn Reid was replaced by John and Krissy (Wendell) Pohl and Olson also started to take her training much more seriously that summer as well.

“I think that’s kind of when I realized that I actually had to start putting more work in if I wanted to be one of the best players on the team, so I started training and I shot pucks almost every single day,” said the forward on how she really started to focus on becoming the best player that she could be in the months leading up to her sophomore season. She started to set more goals for herself and was learning more and more about her game.

All of that hard work that summer paid dividends almost immediately as Olson hit just shy of the point-per game marker the very next season in 2023-24 as she would go on to post 30 points through 31 games for a dangerous Pioneers squad that was one of the best in the state.

Hill-Murray only had three losses and one tie as they headed into section playoffs in the winter of 2024. The team pretty handily won their quarterfinal and semifinal match-ups against St. Paul/Two Rivers and White Bear Lake, respectively, before downing a talented Stillwater squad, 5-2, to punch their ticket to the Minnesota state tournament at the Xcel Energy Center. Olson herself actually scored what would be the eventual game-winning goal in the section final game against the Ponies.

“It was all just so surreal to us, I think there were only one or two players on the team that year that had played in the state tournament before,” said the forward about getting to participate in the state tournament as as sophomore. She added that it was an incredible moment getting to step onto the ice for the first time, at the home of the Minnesota Wild that she watched so much growing up no less, and that the team would look out at the arena from the benches and take photos there together and they just soaked it all in as much as they could.

The Pioneers pretty handily defeated Roseau, 8-2, in the Class AA quarterfinal match before Hill-Murray slipped past Andover, 3-1, in the semifinal round. That left one last task - the state title game against a tough Edina team, who the Pios had defeated by a narrow score of 2-1 earlier in the season.

“Going into that game we were feeling confident, our two games before that in the quarterfinals and semifinals we were playing really well,” she said about the team vibe before taking the ice against the Hornets. “We were just like ‘this is the most important game of the year, so let’s just go out on the ice and give it all we’ve got because there’s nothing really to lose here’.”

It was a tight game, and no goals were scored in the first two periods of play. Eventually, Edina broke through in the final frame and potted two goals in the third to win the 2024 Class AA state title, a heartbreaker of a loss that would make the returners on the Hill-Murray squad hungry for revenge. Olson and her teammates trained harder than they ever had that offseason to try and push themselves to the limit of what they could achieve because they knew that they wanted to get back to that state title game and they knew that they held the power to win it all.

From the get-go that fall, the Pioneers knew that it would be a long road to get back to state in 2025, considering that the team lost a handful of its top athletes to graduation that offseason and brought in a good amount of talented underclassmen in their place, but they knew that they wanted to win the state championship and that they could do it if they worked hard enough.

“During the season (in 2024-25, when Olson was a junior), we went through a lot of ups and downs, I think we lost two or three games 6-0, and that was kind of around Christmas time, and that’s when we took a step back and we were like, okay, we have to figure out what’s going on,” she said about the team’s mentality that winter. “Looking back, I think we’re all thankful that happened because that just made our team so much close and we learned to support each other and rely on each other more.”

Hill-Murray picked up a lot of steam then in the second half of the season after the holiday break and were undefeated after January 14. The team wound up heading back to the Xcel Energy Center for the state tournament after posting victories over St. Paul/Two Rivers, East Ridge and Woodbury in the Section 4AA playoffs.

Olson and the Pioneers defeated Andover in the state quarterfinals, 5-3, before then winning again in the semifinals, 5-2, over Rosemount. And who else would Hill-Murray face in the state championship? Obviously, it had to be Edina.

The game wound up being incredibly close, which was a bit crazy considering that the Pioneers lost to the Hornets by scores of 6-0 and 6-3 earlier in the season. Olson and her squad dug deep though and kept pace with the reigning state champs and eventually the buzzer sounded and things were sent to not just one overtime, but double-overtime, tied at 4-4.

“It was just a really competitive game, going into the third period I think we were losing (by one goal) and we tied it up, went into overtime, went back in the locker room before going back out for OT and we actually all got together and we prayed and that was just a really special moment,” said Olson about how the team found peace in the storm and tried to keep their nerves in check.

In double-overtime, Olson just so happened to make a play over to defender Addy McLay who then shot the puck on net. The puck was then tipped into the Hornet goal by senior forward Ella Hornung to win the first Pioneer girls hockey state title since 2015.

“It was really special to be on the ice and to just be able to go celebrate and have that moment with my linemates and with the two defenders out there before everyone got to go on the ice,” she said about that moment. She also remembers enjoying the post-win celebration with two of her good friends in Regan Bergland and Josie Skoogman, who both graduated this past spring and are now playing college Division I hockey, since that would be the last official time that they’d all play together in Pioneer jerseys.

Olson ended up tallying 23 points through 30 games played in 2024-25 and is now set up to have a big senior season in 2025-26. State title aside, the Brooklyn Park native now has another accolade to add to the excitement in 2025 as well as she recently announced her commitment to play Division I hockey at St. Cloud State University.

“I am so honored and excited to announce my commitment to play Division 1 hockey and continue my education at St. Cloud State University! I am blessed to have the most supportive family, teammates, coaches and trainers who have helped me achieve this dream!” she posted to her social media pages. “Most importantly, I want to thank God for walking alongside me through my journey! ‘God is within her; she will not fail’ Psalms 46:5”

Olson said that the college recruiting process took a while for her and was tough to work through at times but that it taught her a lot about what hard work looks like in the face of adversity, to stay determined and believe in yourself no matter what, and to use your support system when you need it. The Huskies started talks with the now senior forward around the start of Elite League this fall and conversations quickly picked up from there until she eventually committed on October 4, so it didn’t take very long for St. Cloud to officially offer her a roster spot after the coaching staff reached out.

“I’m honestly so thankful that I ended up at St. Cloud, I wouldn’t want it any other way,” she said about making her decision to commit to the Huskies. She said that she loved the coaching staff and how they care for their players but also simultaneously push their athletes hard at the same time and that she also really enjoyed seeing the team culture and how all the girls on the team have a close bond and hang out a lot outside of the rink too. The competitive nature of the WCHA was a top selling point as well.

There will be a few familiar faces once Olson gets out to campus at St. Cloud State next fall too as she already knows Payton Remick a bit, a current freshman for the Huskies who is originally from Roseau, and she also knows current recruits Maddie Lee (White Bear Lake) and Jasmine Hovda (Roseau), who are both in the same graduating class as Olson, along with Katie Zakrajsheck (Benilde-St. Margaret’s) and Maddie Wolter (Centennial/Spring Lake Park) who are both 2027 grad years.

Once she eventually gets out to St. Cloud, Olson is considering studying something possibly related to business or marketing but isn’t quite sure yet.

For now, Huskies fans can get excited about the senior forward as a promising prospect at center. She enjoys helping out in the defense zone and takes pride and joy in killing penalties but she can also contribute offensively and likes to use her speed to her advantage. She is a self-described defensively-minded center.

Olson already has six points through four games so far of her senior campaign at Hill-Murray in 2025-26. The Pioneers only lost four seniors this past offseason to graduation so it’s safe to say that the squad is going to be very dangerous once again this winter and will be looking to win back-to-back titles in Class AA.

“We have such a good group of girls and we all have such similar values and morals and everyday at practice we always work 100%,” she said about the vibes of the team this season. “We all support each other and we all care about each other and push each other hard in practice and I think that’s what makes our team so special and what separates a good team from a great team.”

As of the time that this story is written, Hill-Murray is already 4-0 on the season with wins over Moorhead, Alexandria, Rogers and River Cities. You can catch Olson and the Pioneers at home up next on Nov. 20 against Eden Prairie and Nov. 22 against Maple Grove. The Class AA state title rematch game against Edina is also just on the horizon, set for Nov. 25 at Braemar Ice Arena.

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