(ABC 6 News) — Not since 2009 has Century/JM Boys Hockey been to the Boys Hockey State Tournament.

That changes on Thursday when the Panthers return to the Xcel Energy Center for the Class AA Tournament.

This season is the first time Century and John Marshall High Schools have played together as a co-op, the fact that the Panthers are in The Tourney is a big accomplishment alone. The way Century/JM reached State was equally as impressive, defeating Lakeville South, a team that had won the past five Section 1A titles in a 4-1 rout.

“Yeah, no, especially as a John Marshall kid and just having a place to play,” junior forward Ole Fevold reflected. “That was a big victory for us and just putting the program even more at an advantage is just pretty high.”

“It’s obviously our most complete win of the whole season,” senior forward Aiden “Doc” Emerich agreed. “We’ve played as a team for all three periods and I don’t think that we’ve done that up until that point. As a team, we played our best game up there.”

After completing a tall task in knocking off the Cougars, the Panthers have another test in front of them. Their first opponent is #2 Chanhassen in the Class AA quarterfinals, a program coming off an upset win of their own, eliminating previously undefeated Minnetonka in the Storm’s section title game.

Senior forward Bennet Pronk believes the Panthers can go toe-to-toe with Chanhassen, saying that Century/JM should be,”sticking to our systems, getting the pucks deep and hitting them — you know, they don’t play that much very often up there, they play a lot of skill players, so it’s a fast-paced game, I think we’re going to slow that game down and they’re going to have trouble adapting.”

“Offensively, just take our chances when we can get them but don’t look for too, too much. And then, defensively getting that puck out will really work well for us and then create some opportunities the other way down the ice for us.”

The Panthers and #2 Storm play their quarterfinal game on Thursday at 11 AM in St. Paul.

ABC 6 News will be airing the entirety of the Boys Hockey State Tournaments on its sub-channel 6.2 as well as on the ABC 6 News app and kaaltv.com.