Dec. 12—In the weeks following a 3-2 overtime loss against Roseau in last season’s Section 8AA semifinals, Bemidji High School girls hockey players began to ponder a big question.
Who’s playing goalie next year?
The Lumberjacks were due to have a loaded group of returning skaters, with players like Bailey Rupp, Millie Knott, Megan Berg, Emma Greiner, Naomi Johnson, Mali McLean, Taylor Bjerke and more coming back. However, in each of the last two seasons, BHS saw senior goalies depart.
Two years ago, standout Payton Weidemann passed the crease to Ava Myhre, who played every varsity minute for the Lumberjacks the following season. Like Weidemann, Myhre was stellar for Bemidji, but aged out of playing in the high school ranks, leaving a vacancy in goal.
BHS head coach Mike Johnson had limited options. With the only junior varsity goalie on the 2024-25 team choosing not to play hockey this season, the sparse goaltending pool became even thinner.
However, for a team talented enough to make its first state tournament since 2007, with a gaping vacancy in the crease as this season inched closer and closer, a stroke of luck went the Lumberjacks’ way.
Lily Lauer enrolled at Bemidji High School.
“Goaltending was probably the biggest unknown heading into this year,” Johnson said. “Lily just fell into our lap, and what an absolute gift it was.”
Lauer, a junior, spent her 10th-grade season in Bridgewater, New Jersey. Before then, she played the majority of her youth hockey in Colorado at the club level.
While Lauer said youth hockey was similar to Minnesota’s in her previous state stops, one aspect of her upbringing on the ice was vastly different than her BHS teammates.
Lauer grew up playing boys hockey.
“I have two older brothers,” she said. “They played hockey as well. Growing up, I always just followed their lead. At the time, playing boys hockey just felt like the right thing for my development.”
That’s right. Not only is this Lauer’s first-ever season playing hockey in Minnesota, but it’s also her first time playing on a girls hockey team for a full season.
In her first game, Lauer made 17 saves in an 8-2 win over East Grand Forks on the road. That marks the last time she’s allowed more than one goal in any of her seven starts this season, leading the Jacks to a spotless 7-0 record so far.
“We introduced her to everybody and showed her our team culture,” Berg, a senior forward, said. “She fits right in. She’s definitely a key part of what we do. With Lily, we can go really far this season. She’s part of the reason why we are 7-0. It’s because of her.”
Lauer’s emergence at BHS comes with opportunity. But as she continues turning heads statewide, she’s found solace within her new team.
“I think it helps when people are just good people, when they’re genuinely themselves,” Lauer said. “Nobody has been disrespectful. We have such a great group of girls here who welcomed me. They’ve been incredible on and off the ice. We have a hard-working group that really cares about hockey.”
When Lauer was “around 10 or 11” years old, she approached her parents with a proposition.
She grew up in a hockey family, following in the footsteps of her older brothers. One of them was a goalie, and she wanted to give it a try.
“Of course, my parents were like, ‘No, don’t do that. You don’t want to be a goalie,'” Lauer said with a laugh. “But I wanted to try it anyway.”
Lauer always played with the boys growing up, and it didn’t change when she tried her hand in goal. Wearing the hand-me-down gear from her older brother, she fell in love with the position.
The Aspen, Colorado, native played club hockey with the Colorado Thunderbirds and Okanagan Hockey Academy. Last year, she moved to Bridgewater “for hockey,” still eyeing a spot on a boys team halfway around the country.
She found a temporary home with the New Jersey Rockets club team during her sophomore year of high school. But with the move came the added pressure of proving she could play with the boys in a new community.
“It’s always been like that for me, but I think that’s the case for any goalie, even a girl goalie playing on a girls team,” Lauer said. “You have to handle that pressure. But for sure, there was a little more when I played boys hockey.
“I think it might’ve been a shock to some other people. For me, just because I’ve done it and been in it, it wasn’t too different for me.”
When Lauer moved to Bemidji in the fall, she had her eyes on joining the BHS boys team. However, there wasn’t a lane for her to get adequate playing time.
The Bemidji boys have two rostered senior goalies, including captain Christian Hill. Jack Norgaard, a junior, has also received some playing time at the varsity level this season.
Meanwhile, the BHS girls were on the cusp of either having to find a goalie in the youth ranks to prematurely bring up to the varsity level, dress a skater as a goalie or find another goalie outside of the area.
But after Lauer had some conversations with Bemidji’s captains, she was convinced to play girls hockey for the first time.
“In the beginning, I wasn’t in favor of it,” Lauer said. “After getting to know what the situation was and how the people are — all of the different logistics — it made me realize that I was in the right spot.”
Rupp was one of the captains lobbying to get Lauer on the girls team. Through seven games, she has no regrets in her approach.
“We did not know she’d be this good and be able to carry our team this much,” Rupp said. “She’s so awesome. She’s just so solid. She’s ready for every single shot. Every goalie lets in a weak one here or there, but Lily is up for every shot. Even when you give up a breakaway, it’s fine because you have Lily.”
To say Lauer is a good goalie would certainly be an understatement.
In her first seven games at BHS, the 5-foot-6 junior has a .955 save percentage and a 1.00 goals-against average. According to MN Girls Hockey Hub’s statistics, Lauer is the seventh-best goalie in the state in both statistical categories, regardless of class.
More importantly for Bemidji, the Lumberjacks are undefeated. They’re also the sixth-ranked team in Class AA and one of four unbeaten teams left in the top 20.
“She has a blue-collar mentality to her that you always love to see,” Johnson said. “We have so many kids who have that and come here to do a job, and she fits in. I know the forwards and (defensemen) really appreciate that she’s the last line of defense, because when they know she’s back there, it allows them to play more aggressively and take more chances.”
Lauer also has one shutout, a 37-save triumph over Class A rival Warroad on the road on Nov. 25. One even-strength goal from Rupp was all Lauer needed to bag a signature moment.
“That one felt good, yeah,” she said with a smile. “That was a game we knew we needed to win. We worked for that one. It feels so good to win games like that.”
Early on, Lauer had to adjust to the speed of girls hockey. Unlike other players making the jump to the varsity level, she had to slow her game down after playing a faster-paced style with the boys.
“It’s a different game in a lot of ways,” Lauer said. “Some of the things that transfer are just the similarities between the two games. One is a little faster and has checking in it. The other isn’t as fast but it’s more skilled.
“It felt like a big adjustment. As the game (against EGF) went on, I started to feel more comfortable, more used to it. I had to tell myself at times just to slow down and relax. The pace changes from game to game.”
After she graduates in 2027, Lauer hopes she’ll have done enough to earn a chance to play at the Division I level. She said she’s already had some conversations with college hockey coaches.
Rupp, a Minnesota Duluth commit and an Under-18 Women’s National Team member for USA Hockey, has seen the highest level of play for her age from around the country. From her perspective, Lauer has what it takes to extend her career beyond high school.
“She’s right there with all of the other goalies,” Rupp said. “It’s not just that she’s good, but she has a willingness to get better every day. That’s huge. If you want it, anything can happen, and Lily has that. She comes to the rink every day to get better.”
Johnson has seen it, too.
“We play some of these top teams with these committed D-I goalies when they’re juniors, but Lily wasn’t on anyone’s radar,” he said. “I think that’ll change. The first thing I noticed was how good of a skater she is. You watch how she competes, and it makes sense. She has such a big, good glove. She cuts down her angles so well. She’s had fantastic goalie training.
“To have her show up with her attitude, her energy and her compete level, I feel like I’m repeating these things to all kinds of people, but they’re true. It’s fun to watch her compete in practice and in games. She’s been an absolute blessing and everything we could’ve possibly hoped for.”
