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took a page from a pair of seniors, Brenden Kotyk and Dan Molenaar, the season before to help make things easier on the blue line. "When I was a freshman, those guys took me under their wing and helped me on and off the ice," Wolff said. "I was a little older of a freshman coming in, but just having a role model your freshman year really helps. It gets you comfortable with the team and col- lege atmosphere and really helped me out." West of Duluth on US Highway 2 sees Muck as a leader of a Beavers blue line that aims to be the hardest working team. One way Muck currently leads by example is by being a part of Bemidji State's penalty kill, which has spent much of 2019-20 statis- tically the nation's best. Going against other team's top players forces him to outwork them so they cannot make plays. "We pride ourselves (at Bemidji) on penalty killing. We want to outwork them. Specifically on the penalty kill, we want to outwork their power play and not allow them to set up and create (chances), get into the zone cleanly," he said. "If they do get into the zone, we have those pressure points and outwork them. Our personnel and the guys on it, myself included, take pride in outworking their power play." During their time in college, the Eagan High School teammates have gone on sepa- rate yet similar paths. Muck and Wolff faced each other their first two seasons—capped off by a 0-0 defensive stalemate in October 2017—but play in different conferences. That doesn't stop both from seeing how the other is doing, catching up whenever both get the opportunity with the bonds of community and hockey tying them together. "I know I follow up on him. He follows up on me," said Wolff. "We wish each other good luck quite a bit throughout the year and keep in touch. It's pretty special and cool that I was able to play with him (at Eagan) and we're both able to play college hockey in the state of Minnesota." Once the kids in the stands watching the state tournament, Wolff and Muck are now being watched by them. Muck said he didn't realize it until he left, but there are a lot of people who follow him back home. The experience of being a state tournament team, taking those lessons from Eagan in 2014 and putting them together in Duluth and Bemidji in 2020, is one neither will forget. Both are happy to give back to the next gen- eration watching, trying to figure out what it takes to be a leader from a pair who embody it no matter where they are in the state. "My advice would be, don't try to be some- one you're not," Wolff said. "If you try to be someone you're not, on the ice and off the ice, trying to be too much, do too much, you're not going to have success being a leader and win hockey games as well. Play to your strengths." "Have fun, but you have to lead by exam- ple. The things that you do day in and day out is ultimately the direction that your team is going to go," added Muck. "Hard work and having that mentality—it sounds a little cli- che that you have to be the hardest worker, but ultimately hard work is ultimately one of the biggest attributes a player can have. "If you're a captain in high school, you got your best buddies looking up to you and if they see you working hard, they're going to try working harder. They're your buddies. They want to beat you. They want to come out on top. Overall, it's speaking to them and lead by example and what to do day in and day out will lead you on the right path." M A R C H 2 0 2 0 | M H J ON L I N E . C O M 19 "You're fighting hard-fought battles and you don't want to do it with anyone other than your best buddies; especially those big games getting into the tournament, beating Eastview. Those are the memories you never forget and to do it with some of my best friends makes it better." – NICK WOLFF