East Grand Forks, tucked up in Minnesota’s northwest corner, is about a five-hour drive from St. Paul. But an outsider at Saturday’s Class 1A boys hockey title game might have thought it was just down the road.

Van Eps scored from a sharp angle 1:46 into overtime, and East Grand Forks beat St. Cloud Cathedral 2-1 in the Class A boys hockey final at Xcel Energy Center. Noah Schindele made 37 saves and Cooper Hills also scored for the Green Wave, state champions for the first time since back-to-back titles in 2014 and 2015.

No. 4 seed East Grand Forks, which improved to 14-13-2 on the season, scored two power-play goals and killed seven minutes of penalty time in the third period en route to a 3-0 win over No. 5 Northern Lakes in the state quarterfinals at the Xcel Energy Center.