Editor’s note: With the Minnesota high school girls hockey state tournament entering year No. 25, the Pioneer Press decided to commemorate the anniversary with a list of the state’s 25 greatest players. Each of the top five players will be featured in stories over five days leading up to Wednesday’s state tournament openers; those features started Friday. No. 1 will appear in the paper on Tuesday.

Natalie Darwitz most remembers the rivalries.

Nights when the Wildcats took on the likes of Burnsville, Apple Valley and, eventually, Rosemount stand out fresh in her mind. Each of the classic showdowns produced juiced crowds and packed arenas to create a hard-to-replicate atmosphere.

“There’s just something about the community rivalries that you can’t mimic really anywhere else in sports,” Darwitz said. “And then with the student body and the fans, it’s a whole lot of fun, it’s a great atmosphere to be a part of.”

Then, of course, there were the section finals with perennial power South St. Paul, a state championship quality matchup played before the state tournament thanks to sectional alignment. Good luck getting a seat at Veterans Memorial Community Center for that one.

“There was not an open standing-room spot,” Darwitz recalled. “There was literally not like an open seat in that space. And that’s what high school sections are. People sometimes, especially on the girls side, they remember those section final games, because the place is absolutely packed and rocking.”

Darwitz, No. 2 on the Pioneer Press’ countdown of the top 25 players to play Minnesota girls high school hockey, played four seasons at Eagan, tallying 312 goals and 175 assists. But those weren’t the traditional four years you’d expect. She joined Eagan’s varsity team as a seventh-grader, a campaign in which she notched 85 goals and 48 assists, including nine goals and three assists at state while leading Eagan to a runner-up finish, and stuck with the Wildcats through the her sophomore season in 2000, making three state tournament appearances in total.

Then the national team and the Olympics came calling, an opportunity Darwitz, the only high school-aged player on the team, couldn’t pass up. As a high school senior, she scored seven goals in the 2002 Olympics while leading the United States to a silver medal. She was named to the all-tournament team amid a field of players mostly five to 10 years her senior.

“You look at my story and my journey, everything really happened for a reason,” said Darwitz, who is now the head women’s hockey coach at Hamline. “I was playing in seventh grade with kids socially that were three or four or five years older than me. So fast forward to the national team, now the span is two years older to 10 years older than me. So I do think (playing high school hockey early) helped especially in the locker room and socially of just kind of maturing and growing up a little bit faster than most people have to.

“For me, pressure on the ice was on my shoulders because of what I was doing on the ice. So then when I went to the U.S. team, I was used to that pressure.”

And she was used to playing in front of packed houses.

“That’s a testament to high school hockey in Minnesota,” Darwitz said. “I played in front of people, where there’s a lot of kids high school journey or prep school journey where it’s their mom and dad, grandma and grandpa in the stands. And so I played in front of the loud rinks, the bands. And I think that all literally, looking back, prepared me for my story ahead of what was to come, which was pretty cool looking back to realize that.”

Darwitz knows she missed out on a few things by missing much of her final two years of high school. Sure, there was homecoming and powder puff football, but mostly it was the chance to build stronger connections with her high school friends.

But make no mistake, she wouldn’t trade her experiences for any of that. She often didn’t worry about what her friends were doing on a Friday night, because her mind was set on facing Team Canada the next day.

“I was experiencing extraordinary things, and it’s great, and I’m grateful for that,” Darwitz said. “It’s just kind of a double-edged sword in a way, but I’m extremely grateful and blessed of all the experiences that I’ve had.”

That’s what made Darwitz’s time with the Gophers in college so special. She was able to enjoy the sport, and her schooling, socially.

“I look back at those three years and and look at it and go, ‘Hey most of my good friends in college are still my good friends today, because of those reasons. It was just fun to be my own age, act my own age,” Darwitz said. “Kind of just mold into who I am in those age ranges I think is really important. A lot of people think college is their prime, their best years, and I look back and go, yeah, because I was able to experience a lot of normal things.”

The on-ice results were pretty good, too. Darwitz helped the Gophers win two national titles and was named the most outstanding player of the Frozen Four in 2005 after scoring the winning goal in the title game against Harvard. She was named an All-American in all three college seasons and was selected as the Bob Allen Women’s player of the year in 2005 by USA Hockey. Darwitz is third all-time on the Gophers’ points list, with 246.

Darwitz went on to win a bronze medal in the 2006 Olympics and a silver in 2010 with the U.S., a team she captained, to go with three world championship gold medals.

She was inducted into the U.S. Hockey Hall of Fame in December.

“There was nothing enjoyable about playing against Natalie, outside of the fact that you knew you were going to be a better player because of it, because there’s nobody that battled and competes harder than Natalie,” said Krissy Wendell, Darwitz’s teammate with the Gophers and the U.S. national team. “She’s the most competitive, best linemate that I’ve been able to play with. She’s just everything. She sees the game, she can shoot, she can skate, you name it, she’s got it. She’s just a naturally gifted kid who works hard and competes and cares about her teammates.

“She is the best. She’s the best, and it’s not even close.”