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In 2021, senior Jenna Lawry and juniors Dani Burgen and Dani Brunette led the Wildcat girls’ hockey team to its highest finish ever.  The Wildcats beat Mound-Westonka 4-3 in the opening round of the state tournament and lost 6-0 to Gentry Academy in the semifinals.  The third-place game was not played that year due to pandemic-related restrictions.  Lawry graduated and went to Division 1 University of Minnesota Duluth (UMD) in the fall of 2021.  The three players were reunited when Burgen and Brunette followed Lawry to UMD the next year.

We caught up with the three former Chisago Lakes stars as they approach the end of their college hockey careers.

Lawry received a bachelor’s degree in finance in the spring of 2024, after just three years of college.  She will graduate in August of 2025 with an MBA.  What has it been like for her at UMD?  Lawry said “It has been a great experience all around.  The welcoming atmosphere made the transition from high school to college easier.  I have been able to grow as a person and as a player.  It has been a great experience, and I wouldn’t change it for anything. And it was a big adjustment going from high school hockey to college hockey.  College hockey is a completely different game.”

There is a chance that Lawry’s college hockey career might not be over.  “The word out there is that they might be giving all college athletes a fifth year.  If they do that, I will probably come back to college hockey for one more year.  I also may go over to Sweden to play for a year.  Multiple players have said that was the experience of a lifetime.  It would be really cool to be able to go to Sweden for a year and play hockey.  After that, if I don’t get a “big girl” job in the business world, I am not sure what I want to do.  I may want to step into the world of youth or high school hockey.  And I could not do what I do without the support of my parents.  They have been to pretty much every game of my college career, home or away.”

Dani Burgen is currently working on a degree in business management, with a minor in health and wellness, and is planning to graduate this spring.  “I have liked playing college hockey,” said Burgen.  “It’s a whole different routine than high school hockey.  Everyone on the team is nice and super welcoming.  It’s a fun place to be.  If a fifth playing year is offered, I want to keep playing.  And I want to play after college, for a maximum of two years, and then settle down and figure out my career in the long run. I have always dreamed of having my own business. I want to come up with a business that mixes my major and my minor.   It could have something to do with nutrition, or movement of the body.”

Burgen’s father, Dave, was the head coach at Chisago Lakes when the Wildcats went to the state tournament in 2021.  He is closely following Burgen’s college career.  Burgen said “My parents have also been to pretty much every game.  I think the parents have more fun than we do on some of the away trips.  Our parents [Burgen’s and Lawry’s] have gotten close.  They road trip to games together, and that makes it easier for us to see them, too.

Dani Brunette played for two years at UMD and then transferred to Maine University, where she is an assistant captain for the Maine Black Bears hockey team.  Why did Brunette transfer from UMD to Maine?  She said “I totally love Duluth.  But it wasn’t really the place that I needed to be to grow into the person and the player that I wanted to be.  I feel like it was just automatically in my brain to stay in Minnesota.  But something that I've learned coming out here is living away from my family and everything that I know is normal is how you're going to grow. Just putting yourself somewhere that is unexpected and uncomfortable.”

Brunette is enjoying her time at Maine.  She said “it's really great. We have a great group of girls here. It's really amazing to be a part of building a legacy.  I feel like we're growing like each weekend, and it's just really cool to see, especially with our coaching staff the opportunity to be an assistant captain.  I love it here.”

Brunette is majoring in marketing, with a minor in international business.  She will study abroad in Italy this spring.  She said, “I'm really excited for my senior year, and I haven't really made a decision about what I want to do or if I want to play after college. I’m just going to wait and see what kind of opportunities I have and then make the decision later on.”

Brunette’s parents have also been supportive, both in her time at UMD and at Maine.  Brunette said “Yeah, my mom has flown out to Maine a few times.  My dad drove out here from Minnesota and he stayed for Thanksgiving week.  So, I've gotten to see them quite a bit.  It’s nice to have a piece of home visiting here and stuff.  I think they watch all the games online, too.”

The 2024-2025 season is over for all three players.  UMD (22-15-2) qualified for the NCAA tournament this season, beating Sacred Heart University 6-1 before losing a heartbreaker to Cornell University 1-0, ending just short of the Frozen Four.  And Maine’s (11-21-3) season ended after a 4-3 loss to Boston College in the Hockey East Quarterfinals.

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