Greg Zanon has had a grasp of what’s required to reach the state tournament since taking over as Stillwater’s head boys coach in 2019. Yet it had always eluded Zanon and the Ponies.

“Obviously, the state tournament is always the goal, and we haven’t been able to do that,” Zanon said. “We had some good teams along the way, and we had some unfortunate things happen in certain games.”

Sometimes it’s a bad bout of puck luck. Other times it’s an injury. Stillwater lost Cooper Wylie, now a key defenseman for St. Cloud State, ahead of the playoffs in 2020 as the then-senior battled stomach ulcers. Other players missed time for various reasons.The stars often have to align for a deep postseason run, and the Ponies time has finally arrived. Zanon has Stillwater in the state tournament for just the third time ever, and the first time since 2016.

The second-seeded Ponies will meet seventh-seeded Andover in the Class 2A quarterfinals at 11 a.m. Thursday at Xcel Energy Center.

“This year just really unfolded the way we’d hoped,” Zanon said. “Our players need, obviously, the most credit of all. They’re the ones that come every day and listen and put in the time to do what they need to do to make things happen. It’s been one heck of a ride, I’ll tell you that.”

One driven by a deep, talented crop of seniors. The Ponies have six players with 40-plus points this season, the top five of those — Brody Dustin, Trey Fredenberg, Blake Vanek, Matthew Volkman and Luke Myers — are seniors, with the sixth-leading scorer being junior Luca Jarvis.

Zanon said that scoring talent spread across two dynamic lines gives Stillwater “a little bit of an advantage” in that it’s likely at least one will produce on the scoresheet each time out, and it doesn’t matter which.

In Stillwater’s section final upset of Hill-Murray, it was the line of Frederburg, Jarvis and Volkman posting most of the production, with Volkman netting a hat trick, including the winner in the second overtime. But it could very well be the other line’s turn at some point this weekend.

“We’ve talked about this for a month or so — we don’t need one hero,” Zanon said. “Eventually, it turns into one hero, but we need the team playing like a group. One line going out there, and maybe you don’t score, but you’re setting up the next line for a possible opportunity, and just kind of rolling from line to line and making sure that, when you’re out there and it’s on your stick, you can deliver, and that’s what we’ve gotten out of our group this year.”

Zanon and assistant coach Thomas Vanek are both former NHL players, both of whom had stints with the Wild. Yet neither truly knows what to expect this week in St. Paul. The players have attended the tournament as fans, but you don’t get a true feel for the lights until the skates hit the ice.

But an advantage for the Ponies this week as they attempt to win three games in three days to claim the program’s first state title is the team’s adaptability, a likely product of a veteran-laden roster.

“We’re able to watch video on a team and go into a practice before a game and are able to teach them something new that might be able to help them, and we’re able to go and do it right away,” Zanon said. “This group of guys and their ability to adapt to situations and things we throw at them is just amazing.”

He wasn’t sure what to expect from his players at Monday’s practice, just a couple days removed from an emotionally-charged section final victory. Perhaps he shouldn’t have been surprised to find his kids were ready to work.

Zanon noted it was “pure joy” when Volkman potted the game winner on Friday. There was an immediate feeling of “Yes!” But neither he nor Vanek were ecstatic for themselves. They’ve had their own runs of hockey successes.

“(We) wanted it more for the kids than for ourselves, because we know the effort and the work that they’ve put in, and the demand we’ve put on them in practices and off-ice workouts,” Zanon said. “They don’t shy away, and they take everything that we tell them and they try to implement it. The joy that they get out of this is why we do this, is why we try to give back to our community after we played our time.

“Our time is done, and now it’s our job to just give back, and hopefully (the kids) have the greatest weekend of their lives.”