Hawks fall with 0:07 left; East, Marshall recover
By John Gilbert
SAINT PAUL, MN.
Coming close doesn’t ever get satisfying for coach Bruce Plante. Nor does being the “public school” hockey champion. But Saturday afternoon’s stinging 5-4 loss to St. Thomas Academy in the Class A Minnesota state tournament championship game might have been the hardest to swallow for the veteran coach.
He’s had practice, too. This was the fourth straight time Hermantown (25-5-1) reached the A title game, and the fourth straight time the Hawks have come away unfulfilled — and the third time St. Thomas Academy had been the team to beat the Hawks in the final. It gave the Cadets (27-2-2) their third straight Class A championship to send them on their way into Class AA next season.
Matt Perry, a senior who insists he’s a shut-down checking center assigned to opposing top-line centers, scored the first hat trick of his life with a goal in each period — including the first goal of the third period to ignite a three-goal rally that overturned a 4-2 Hermantown lead. Henry Hart followed with the tying goal, and Tommy Novak blasted a 30-foot power-play slapshot with seven seconds remaining, to give the Cadets their victory.
When the game ended, Plante stalked across the ice to confront referee J.B. Olson, who had called a marginal holding penalty on Scott Wasbotten with 1:57 remaining and the teams locked in an intensely exciting 4-4 battle. Technically, the play could have met the strictest requirement of holding, and there are those who say every technical violation should be called. However, the worst was yet to come.
"If you're going to call that one," Hermantown coach Bruce Plante told referee J.B. Olson...
..."then you've got to call that one, too."
The Hawks were scrambling to efficiently kill off the penalty and get to overtime, but on the game-ending power play, a St. Thomas Academy skater trying to prevent Hawk defenseman Jake Zeleznikar from clearing the puck, accosted Zeleznikar in a far more flagrant violation that was not called, allowing the Cadets to regain possession in the closing seconds, and leading directly to Novak’s winning goal.
“I went after a loose puck on the half-wall,” Zeleznikar said. “But their guy had me in a headlock, and when I tried to chip it out of the zone, I couldn’t move.”
In the post-game interview setting, Plante said: “We got a penalty on one play, then they wrapped our guy up and got the winning goal when they didn’t call it.” Asked about the “discussion” he had with the ref, Plante said, evenly: “It was one-way. It wasn’t a discussion; it was one-way. I thought it was a great game, and I loved our effort…I don’t know if we can play any better. But to have a call like that, and a non-call, at the end of a game makes this one of the most disappointing losses I’ve ever had.”
That includes last year, when Plante acknowledges his team didn’t play very well in a 5-1 loss to St. Thomas Academy. The year before more closely duplicated this one, when a couple of controversial calls contributed to Hermantown losing a lead late in the game, and St. Thomas Academy won 5-4 in overtime.
Chris Benson scored on his own rebound to ignite a 3-goal Hermantown rally.
“Last year, we didn’t play our best,” Plante recalled. “But this time we played smart, physical — everything you have to do to win the game. Of course St. Thomas Academy brings out the best in us. So does St. Cloud Cathedral, Marshall, and Breck. These guys know you have to play your best to beat them.”
It was unfortunate that a tournament with such emotionally inspiring play would be dotted by some strange officiating, but worse, that a state championship would be influenced so heavily by such a close-order exchange of curious calls. Particularly because it was such an impressive game, with both teams exchanging offensive haymakers.
St. Thomas Academy came into the game on a streak that showed why the time has come to move the Inver Grove Heights private school up to AA. The Cadets had run up an eight-game winning streak coming into the title game, and while outscoring those eight opponents 76-2, the Cadets shut out Henry Sibley, Chisago Lakes and Totino Grace in Section 4, then blanked St. Cloud Apollo (12-0) and East Grand Forks (11-0) in the state tournament.
But Saturday, the Cadets faced the first team since January that could challenge them. They ran their consecutive goal-scoring streak to 24 in the state tournament and 43 straight goals since playoffs began when Perry scored at 15:12 of the first period. But at 15:54, just six seconds before the first period ended, Hermantown snapped those streaks when Chris Benson tried a wraparound that goalie David Zevnik blocked, but Benson scored on his own rebound foir a 1-1 tie.
Hawks celebrated Scott Wasbotten's goal for a 2-1 lead in the Class A final against St. Thomas Academy.
Aroused, the Hawks rushed out in the second period and took the action to the Cadets, jumping to a 3-1 lead with a pair of goals 18 seconds apart. Scott Wasbotten scored on a rebound at 9:38, and Neal Pionk rushed in from the left point and passed across the crease where Ryan Kero had and easy goal at 10:46. Perry’s secod goal of the game came on a power play at 15:07 to cut it to 3-2, but 37 seconds later Lane LeGarde scored with a shot that popped up off Zevnik and trickled across the line just as Hermantown’s Grant Sega crashed into the goaltender.
With a 4-2 lead, the Hawks looked pretty secure, but the highly skilled Cadets were far from done. Gunnar Regan fired a shot that Adam Smith stopped, but the rebound went right to Perry, and he put it away at 2:53 to make it 4-3. “We all knew we could come back,” Perry said. “And after we got that first goal in the third period, I felt we could do it.”
The Cadets tied it 4-4 at 9:05 when Henry Hart got a blocked puck in the slot, whirled and fired a shot off the right pipe and in. That sent the game on toward what looked like overtime, but then came the intrusion of the questionable penalties, leading to the Cadets fantastic finish and obscuring what a great game it was.
“I’m just proud of our guys,” said St. Thomas Academy co-coach Greg Vannelli. “We’ve had a target on our backs all year.” Asked how Hermantown was able to score and challenge a Cadets team that many thought was invincible, Vannelli said: “They’re just a good team. They probably did what they’ve done all year.”
St. Thomas goaltender David Zevnik survived Nate Pionk's rush to the goal.
The Hawks had a much tougher bracket than St. Thomas Academy, as the tournament made it appear that the Cadets, the Hawks, and Breck were clearly the best three teams of the field of eight. Hermantown had to beat Marshall 3-0 in a neighborhood quarterfinal battle, then get past Breck 4-3 in two overtimes, while St. Thomas Academy was breezing to its 12-0 and 11-0 romps.
Marshall came back from that opening loss to beat Marshall, Minnesota, 4-1, and Saturday morning the Hilltoppers jumped to a 4-2 first-period lead and beat Rochester Lourdes 6-5. Connor Flaherty and Matthew Klassen scored twice each for Marshall, while Lourdes made it close with two goals in the last 1:12. Marshall gained a large measure of satisfaction from beating Lourdes, which had inflicted a 7-0 beating on the ‘Toppers in mid-January.
Disappointing as Hermantown’s fourth straight championship game loss was, the three Duluth schools at the state tournament went a combined 6-2, with the Hawks winning the runner-up trophy, Marshall winning the consolation trophy, and the East Greyhounds bringing home the third-place trophy in Class AA.
The Greyhounds, beaten 3-2 by Edina in the semifinals of AA to snap a 17-game winning streak, bounced back to beat Wayzata 7-3 in the AA third-place game. The ‘Hounds jumped to a 4-0 lead and cruised to victory behind a pair of goals by both Philip Beaulieu and Alex Toscano, while Jack Forbort, Alex Trapp and Nick Altmann also scored.
That victory gave East a final record of 25-5, while Wayzata finished 22-8, and it also provided extra satisfaction for the Greyhounds, who lost 1-0 to Wayzata in the third game of the season.
East falls 3-2; Hawks win in 2nd OT to gain final
By John Gilbert
SAINT PAUL, MINN.
Duluth East suffered from an overdose of the good-ol’ days Friday night at Xcel Energy Center, as Edina looked like the speedy Hornets of decades past while toppling the Greyhounds 3-2 in the Class AA semifinals of the Minnesota high school hockey tournament. By contrast, Hermantown found just enough reason to appreciate deja vu as they reached Saturday night’s Class A championship game to face St. Thomas Academy for the third straight time.
In the Class AA final, Edina (23-6) will find Hill-Murray (27-2-1), which rallied for two goals in the third period to beat Wayzata 2-1 in the second semifinal of a session that drew 19,351.
Earlier in the day, the Class A teams owned the Xcel Energy Center ice, and Hermantown (25-4-1) survived a long, high-speed classic to subdue Breck 4-3 in the second overtime — almost at coach Bruce Plante’s bidding. Zach Kramer got the winning goal, at 7:26 of the second sudden-death period to give the Hawks the third straight — and final — chance to beat the two-time defending champion Cadets (26-2-2) for the title. St. Thomas Academy beat the Hawks in the title game the last two years, after Hermantown lost to Breck three years ago, making this the Hawks fourth straight final.
This time, St. Thomas Academy is No. 1 seed, and reached the final by crushing East Grand Forks 11-0 in the semis, after blitzing St. Cloud Apollo 12-0 in Wednesday’s opener. St. Thomas Academy is moving up from Class A to Class AA next season, so this is Hermantown’s last chance for revenge.
Plante, colorful as usual, was asked about the huge play sophomore Nate Pionk made to set up Kramer’s winning goal. “It was the only thing those guys did all game,” Plante said. “I just got through chewing them out, big time, on the bench. I told them they had done nothing, and they were playing chicken hockey, afraid to carry the puck. I really jumped on them. So they go out and get the winning goal.”
Edina's Miguel Fidler hit the net behind East goalie Dylan Parker to erase East's 1-0 lead in the third period.
In the Class AA semis, Edina resembled the high-speed Hornets from back when Willard Ikola-coached teams dominated everybody with speed and depth in the 1960s and ‘70s, although the Greyhounds held a 1-0 lead through the first two periods. Edina’s relentless pressure overcame the Greyhounds for three straight goals in the third period, feasting on a sudden outcrop of turnovers to take a 3-1 lead the Hornets were able to protect until the finish.
East got an early goal from its big first line, as Jack Forbort dug the puck off the right boards and knocked it toward the slot. Alex Tescano, arriving just in time, moved in forcefully to gain possession and drill a 30-footer past Edina goaltender Willie Benjamin. That goal stood up through the rest of the first period, and the scoreless second period mainly because of East goaltender Dylan Parker and the Greyhounds four stalwart defensemen — Meirs Moore and Philip Beaulieu on one unit, and hard-hitting Andrew Kerr and Alex Trapp on the other.
Those defensemen were able to beat Edina’s speedy attackers and quickly and crisply pass the puck out of their zone. But the Hornets coaches stayed with their pressure game. “We knew East had a tough game yesterday against Moorhead (1-0) and that they are only playing four defensemen,” said Dave Langevin, the former UMD and New York Islanders defenseman who assists Curt Giles on an all-star Edina coaching staff. “Our forwards are so fast, and big, and we could see they were getting tired. We thought if we could keep going after them, we could wear them down. And by the end, they weren’t as quick making their outlet passes.”
“Even though we were down 1-0 after two periods, we could see they were getting tired, so we stayed with what we were doing,” said Giles.
When Edina broke through for the first goal yielded by Dylan Parker in two games, it came when Edina defenseman Parker Reno blocked an outlet try at the blue line and threw a shot on goal. Parker stopped it, but Miguel Fidler, on the right side, scored by drilling the rebound into the far, left edge at 4:11 of the third period to tie the game 1-1.
Tyler Nanne, a grandson of Lou Nanne, was in perfect position 40 feet out in the slot to intercept another hasty outlet try, and he rifled a slap shot past Parker at 11:19. “I actually whiffed on my first shot and it went right to their D,” said Nanne. “When he tried to get it out, fortunately it went right on my stick. We knew East would be tough. When we played them at Christmas time, and the last couple of times we played them, they ran us out of the building. So this time we went after them.”
East goalie Dylan Parker stopped Edina's Dylan Malmquist (20) in Greyhounds 3-2 semifinal setback.
Just 19 seconds after Nanne’s goal, Dylan Malmquist circled the East goal and fed Andy Jordahl, who scored from the slot for a 3-1 lead.
“That third goal killed us,” said East coach Mike Randolph. “There wasn’t much time left, and now we had to make up two. We didn’t get to the point where we could play our game and shut them down. I was really pleased with Parker’s play in goal; every goal they got was on the wrong guy’s stick at the wrong time.”
Meirs Moore gave East new life when he stepped into a slap shot from the left point and blew it by Benjamin to cut the deficit to 3-2, but only 1:46 remained in the third period. “We knew it wasn’t over when I got my goal,” said Moore. “But there wasn’t much time left. I just wish I could have scored it a few minutes earlier.
“They played a solid game,” Moore added. “It got tiring getting hit all the time. They’ve got some big forwards finishing you every time you had the puck.”
That was a departure from the teams of the 1960s and ‘70s. “I remember that because I played against those teams,” said Langevin. This Edina team has similar speed and the ability to apply relentless pressure, and adds the physical dimension.
“We smoked ‘em pretty good in midseason,” Randolph said. “But I’ve watched them, and you could see they were finding their game. They’ve found their game.”
HAWKS OVERCOME BRECK
Both Hermantown and Breck had their moments in their pulsating battle. Hermantown led 1-0 on Chris Benson’s goal at 8:22 of the first period. Bo Gronseth broke through the Breck defense and got a shot away as he was hauled down. Goaltender Henry Johnson blocked it, but Benson was quickly on the rebound, pulling it wide, and then wider, to the left before snapping a shot into the short side of the narrowing angle.
Bo Gronseth (5) and Nate Pionk (6) went hard to Breck net in 4-3 overtime victory.
Thomas Lindstrom tied it 1-1 for Breck with a point blank set up against Hawks goalie Adam Smith with 14 seconds left in the second period, and Breck gained a 2-1 lead when Matt Colford, who had set up the first goal, broke in off the opening faceoff in the second period, and dropped a pass back to Jack O’Connor who scored at 0:12.
The Hawks big line countered for a 2-2 tie when Travis Koepke chased down a rebound and shot from the left, then pulled his rebound back and scored into a narrow angle at 5:56 — quite similar to his linemate Benson’s opening goal. But Breck regained the lead at 3-2 three minutes later when Colford raced in to score with a rebound.
That set the stage for another big goal by Hermantown’s prolific first line, as Gronseth peeled the puck off the end boards and threw a backhand pass to the goal-mouth, where Koepke one-timed it for the 3-3 equalizer.
Thomas Lindgren (16) peeled off after scoring to give Breck a 1-1 tie against Hermantown.
The frantic pace increased through the rest of the third period as the teams exchanged swift rushes and good chances. The Hawks had one of the best, when flashy defenseman Jake Zeleznikar filtered through the defense with a slick play, pulling the puck between his own skates and retrieving it in time to get off a strong shot. In the first overtime, the teams traded chances through all 8 minutes, without scoring. In the second overtime, the Hawks killed a penalty and then attacked, but when Lane LeGarde broke in, Andrew Keiser hooked him and sent him sprawling into the goal. The officials surprisingly called for a penalty shot. But Johnson stymied LeGarde’s attempt, at 6:31 of the 17-minute session.
The Hawks momentum carried on, and after another good chance, Nate Pionk — the sophomore half of the brother act — came up with a key play. Carrying up the right side 2-on-2, he barged between the two defenders, pushing the puck ahead one-handed and as he was hauled down by the two, he got the puck ahead to Zach Kramer at the top of the right circle, and his quick, hard shot beat Johnson to the far pipe and in, giving the Hawks their victory 4-3.
“I was just trying to throw it on net,” said Kramer.
Bruce Plante, his coach, took over from there. “He’s never scored a big goal in his life, so he didn’t know how to act,” said Plante. “Zach was our hero. Actually, we have no award for whoever is our hero every game. We’ll probably slap him up when we get him back to the locker room to keep him humble.”
Kramer was asked if he might have scored any big goals his coach didn’t know about. “No,” he said. “That was my highlight, for sure.”
Greyhounds nip Moorhead to gain semis
By John Gilbert
SAINT PAUL, MN.
Goaltender Dylan Parker had only three shutouts during the regular season, but he recorded his third in the playoffs by stifling Moorhead’s best shots Thursday to guide Duluth East to a nail-biting 1-0 victory over Moorhead in the opening game of the Class AA quarterfinals in the Minnesota Hockey Tournament at Xcel Center.
East goalie Dylan Parker got help from defenseman Alex Trapp to blank the Spuds.
The victory puts the Greyhounds (25-4) into Friday night’s 6 p.m. first semifinal against Edina, with their winning streak now extended to 17 straight, a string that started after losing to Denfeld in a 5-4 upset on January 8. It also was the fewest goals East has scored in that streak, during which the Hounds scored 81 goals, an averag of 4.8 goals per game. The Hounds were shut out twice in their first seven games, by Wayzata and by Breck, which were the only two games they scored less than on Thursday. But when the flashy scoring went away, the defense remained solid, and behind them there was Parker.
East’s offense will have to find its rhythm against Edina (23-6), which romped to a 9-3 victory over outmanned Lakeville North in the second semifinal.
Thursday night’s quarterfinals sent Hill-Murray and Wayzata into the second Friday night semifinal. Hill-Murray beat Eastview 6-3, jumping to a 4-0 lead before Eastview battled back to 4-2, and then 5-2 before it became 5-3, and finally settled by Sam Barker’s shot from the blue line that glanced in off a defenseman’s knee with 5:59 left. The Pioneers outshot Eastview 34-17, and got goals from six different scorers.
The final game was the day’s classic, as Wayzata slipped past Centernnial 2-1 in overtime, when Chase Haller threw a blind pass from behind the net to the crease, and when the puck glanced out to the slot, Chjase Heising put it past goaltender Patrick Munson at 4:01 of sudden-death. Centennial took a 1-0 lead on Adam Anderson’s goal in the first miniute of the second period. Wayzata goalie Aaron Dingmann fell returning to the crease from behind the net, just as Andrew Bertrand forced a shot that squeezed past Dingmann and the goal post, winding up on Andersoon’s stick for an easy shot.
Centennial appeared to make it 2-0 when Anderson’s shot was partially blocked, then covered by a sprawling Dingmann, who got his glove on the puck as it crossed the line. Several replays appeared to verify that the puck never quite made it fully across the line, but one view, looking into the goal, appeared to show white between the line and the puck, but the review staff disallowed the goal. That proved huge when Munson pulled out a half-dozen big saves and flashes of great luck. His best goaltending move was when Wayzata’s Akash Batra and Brian Machut came out of the left corner 2-on-0, but Munson poke-checked the puck off Batra’s stick. It appeared the 1-0 edge would last, but the puck popped free to the slot and Jalen Wahl’s quick move punctured Munson’s shutout with only 1:15 remaining.
The Trojans (22-7) may want to start scoring earlier if they hope to beat top-seeded Hill-Murray in the semifinals.
Duluth East’s first line has been a big-scoring unit all season, but the underlying reason for the Greyhounds success has been the always-solid and often-spectacular play of the defensive corps. That means It helps, of course, to have those goal outbursts to establish a margin, and that’s happened often enough that goaltender Dylan Parker gets overlooked.
But Thursday was a day the big line didn’t score, and while the defense and team defense was near flawless, it also was Parker’s day to grab the spotlight. Jack Kolar, who had played strong but with only four goals all season, scored No. 5 on a low 30-foot bullet early in the second period, and that was it.
Junior defenseman Philip Beaulieu made the critical play at 1:13 of the seconds period, rushing out of his end and passing to his left where Alex Tescano caught the pass and quickly relayed it back to the slot. The pass was just ahead of Beaulieu, but right on the tape of Kolar’s stick. He cut to his left and fired a low 30-footer into the short side.
“My line usually tries to shoot and go get rebounds,” said Kolar. “Our ‘D’ moved the puck up and I got it in the middle. I went left, and shot into the lower left.”
Ryan Lundgren (21) and Alex Tescano were stopped by Moorhead goalie Jacob Dittmer.
When Moorhead arose for a stirring rally in the third period, however, Parker was rock-solid, and the Greyhounds made the 1-0 lead stand up.
“I felt comfortable in the nets today,” said Parker, who has given up only four goals in his last seven games. He concluded the season with shutouts against Lakeville North and Tartan in two of the last three games, then blanked St. Michael-Albertville and Cloquet-Esko-Carlton in the Section 7 AA tournament. “It’s easy when you great team defense in front of you.”
Randolph wasn’t sure if it was Parker’s best day. “What did they have, five shots after two periods?” Randolph said. “Then they came on and he had to make some big saves. It’s very difficult for a goaltender to play that kind of game.”
“We were tight, Moorhead was tight, and really it was an ugly game. But we’re used to ugly games. And now we’re playing at 6 tomorrow — we survived, and we’re on to the semis.”
East nearly made it 2-0 with five minutes remaining in the third period. Kolar fired a hard shot from the left side, and Jacob Dittmer, Moorhead’s 6-foot-2 sophomore goaltender blocked the shot, but left the rebound right in the slot. East’s Tyler Sworsky grabbed the rebound and cut to his right, pulling the puck with a deft “toe-drag” wide to the right, then flipping a backhander low toward the open net. Suddenly, though, it was open no more, as Dittmer, sprawled, lunged to catch it in his glove. The force of the shot pushed his glove back almost to the goal line, but he held it out.
Moorhead sophomore Jacob Dittmer came up with a save on Jack Forbort of East.
“I was just trying to get any piece of my body in front of it,” Dittmer said. “I realized how close to the line I was and I was looking for that post to make sure I stayed outside of it.”
Moorhead coach Peter Cullen, the cousin of current Wild and former St. Cloud State and Moorhead star Matt Cullen, is in his first year at the helm of the Spuds, and was asked about Randolph, who recently coached his 500th victory. “I have a lot of respect for a man who’s touched a lot of young men, and I hope I can do the same,” said Cullen. “I know it’s a bee’s-nest up there, with a lot of criticism, and players moving and all that. He deals with it, and keeps on doing well.”
Randolph, on the other hand, says this team is filled with a special cohesiveness. “Our locker room is solid, and this is one of my favorite groups,” he said. “There hasn’t been a lot of whining, and I can’t remember any other team I’ve had being so cohesive.”
Meirs Moore, one of the captains, and a frequent rusher from defense, reflected on his three straight years of state tournaments. “Our sophomore year, we were fortunate to make it to the championship game,” he said. “Last year, we pretty much dominated teams, and maybe we took it for granted we’d get back to the championship game. But we lost to Lakeville South in the quarterfinals. This year, I had mixed thoughts. We didn’t want to take anything for granted, and I didn’t want to go to Mariucci [for consolation games].”
Instead, the Greyhounds and Hornets will lock up in another of their usually intense battles in the 6 p.m. semifinal.
Hermantown blanks Marshall 3-0 in state opener
By John Gilbert
SAINT PAUL, MN.
Hermantown began its quest to be more than just the public-school champion of the Class A state hockey tournament by beating Marshall, its crosstown Duluth rival, 3-0 in a quarterfinal game Wednesday afternoon at Xcel Energy Center.
Hermantown’s top line of Bo Grunseth, Travis Koepke and Chris Benson scored a goal apiece, after a scoreless first period. Having conquered their nearby private-school rival, the No. 3 seeded Hawks (24-4-1) next play in the first semifinal at 11 a.m. Friday against another private school, No. 2 seed Breck (25-3-1) — a 6-1 victor over Marshall High School in Wednesday’s opening game.
Many Hermantown fans are anticipating a rematch in the final against No. 1 seed and two-time defending champion St. Thomas Academy, yet another private school. If such a scenario worked out, it would mean that Hermantown, which beat St. Cloud Cathedral in the 5A final, would face four consecutive private schools in quest of the Class A title.
St. Thomas Academy (25-2-2) unloaded on St. Cloud Apollo 12-0 in Wednesday night’s quarterfinals. The Cadets racked up the first 35 shots before Apollo got its first one, in the last minute of the second period,and outshot the Eagles 50-3. The Cadets will face East Grand Forks, a 3-2 winner over Rochester Lourdes in the final quarterfinal game. Two goals and an assist by Kolton Aubol led the Green Wave to a 3-0 lead in the first two periods, then they had to hang on to advance to Friday’s 1:30 p.m. second semifinal.
Hermantown hockey coach Bruce Plante is infamous at the Class A state tournament, where, after seeing his team lose in the championship game for the third straight time to a private school last year, said, “I guess we’re still the public school champs.”
He deflected questions referring to that, choosing instead to prais his all-senior top line. “We have a pecking order at Hermantown,” Plante said. “The older guys get more play and the younger guys follow along. They’ll get their chance. These three guys came to us as 10th graders out of Bantams. They were our third line, and we affectionately called them our ‘Diaper Line.’ They were the second line last year, and this year they’re our top line.
Travis Koepke (27) put a rebound past Marshall goalie Caden Flaherty to give Hermantown a 2-0 lead.
“I had no doubt they’d be a good line, and they’re fun guys to be around,” Plante added, after the threesome established a school record for goals in a season.
Hawks are far more than a one-line team, but that top line was impressive in their 13th straight victory. Junior Adam Smith, who wasn’t on last year’s tournament runner-up team, recorded a 17-save shutout in his first exposure to the event. His job was made considerably easier by his teammates, who fired 35 shots at the other end of the rink and applied enough pressure to prevent the Hilltoppers from threatening very often.
Marshall, which had come off a shaky midseason to play its best hockey down the stretch, including a 3-2 victory over Denfeld in the 7A championship game, was outshot 10-4 in the first period, but contained the Hawks pretty well. “I thought we had them off their game in the first period, and we had some looks,” said Marshall coach Brendan Flaherty. “But they made some adjustments. They played a suffocating defense and left no gaps for us to make plays. And their power play was very good.”
Two of the three Hawk goals were on power plays. At 3:34 of the second period, Grunseth fielded the rebound of Grant Sega’s power-play shot and put it past Caden Flaherty to break the scoreless tie. Koepke helped create his own goal at 10:41, skating in on the right side and leaving a long drop pass for Gronseth, then breaking for the net just in time to retrieve the rebound of Gronseth’s shot and deposit it at the left edge.
Chris Benson clinched Hermantown's 3-0 state tournament victory with a power-play goal.
The highlight-video third goal came on a third-period power play when the Hawks dizzying passwork left Marshall’s penalty killers flat-footed. The puck went from the left side to the right, to the right point, then the left point, and from Jake Zeleznikar in to Koepke in the right circle, and he sent it to the slot to Chris Benson, who had several seconds wide open to pick his spot and fire past Flaherty.
Both teams credit their arrival at the state tournament to a refocusing on team defense. “For sure, we all stepped up our game,” said Gronseth.
Adam Smith made his toughest save late in the game, a dazzler to rob Kris McKinzie at the net. He said it was “exciting, very exciting,” to get to play and get a shutout at Xcel Center. “It helps to have a great team in front of you.”
Wben Marshall threatened late in the game, Hermantown goalie Adam Smith came through.
His counterpart, Caden Flaherty — who is no relation to coach Brendan Flaherty — said the Hilltoppers knew they “had to be good on the penalty kill, because they feed on goals.”
Flaherty added that when Marshall shook up the lines late in the season, the players all were unified. “We knew we had to turn it around, or we’d be in the stands.”
The Hilltoppers definitely are not spending any time in the seats this week. Coach Flaherty said they intend to still win a couple games, starting with Thursday’s consolation semifinal against the other Marshall, from the small southwest Minnesota town.
East, Hermantown, Marshall return to state
By John Gilbert
Funny how it never gets old? Just like last year at this time, Duluth will have three schools represented at the Minnesota state high school hockey tournament in Duluth East, Hermantown, and Marshall.
This is the 68th hockey tournament, and Northland hockey fans obviously go into it with hope one or two of our teams can bring home a big trophy. More than that, we hope they play their best, win or lose, and represent all that is great about Duluth area hockey on the grandest stage of all. he state hockey tournament in Minnesota is the biggest sports event in the state, every year, and has become the event that defines the state.
Never mind the pros, or the colleges, or the other high school sports; they all must suffer from the ups and downs and inconsistencies of all teams. But despite the upsets and surprises on the way, the state hockey tournament is a constant, always reaching the heights of emotion and displaying astounding levels of competence. We like all our schoolboy sports in Minnesota, but our hockey players are closer to college and pro caliber than the participants in any other sport.
Duluth East's Alex Toscano (23) beats Grand Rapids goalie Hunter Shepard on a breakaway.
Duluth East has a shot at the Class AA title it last won in 1998, and before that in 1995 — both with 25-3 records — and before that in 1960, at 23-3, back when Herman and his town were an obscure wooded region near the airport, and hadn’t yet become the Edina of Duluth. Marshall, meanwhile, was located downtown and known as Duluth Cathedral, and not even allowed to play with the public school boys.
Hermantown, which won the Class A title in 2007 with a 29-0-1 record, defeated Marshall in the championship game that year. Now, after reaching, and losing, the title game three straight years, once to Breck and the last two in overtime classics to St. Thomas Academy, the Hawks wound up running directly into Marshall in the quarterfinals, by the luck of the first-round draw.
The Hawks had to fly south to win the Section 5A title, beating St. Cloud Cathedral 5-1. Marshall, and then East, took center stage at AMSOIL Arena to win their titles. Some are upset that while the top four are seeded in both tournaments, their foes are made by blind draw, but the two Duluth-area entries face off the first day. A better way to look at it is that one of them is assured of being in Friday’s semifinals. As usual, getting to state was half the fun.
HOUNDS HANG ON
East was top seed and Grand Rapids second, and it took everything the Greyhounds could muster to get past the Thunderhawks. Usually getting the first goal in such a big game is pivotal, but East got the first two, when Jack Kolar scored midway through the first period, and Phil Beaulieu moved up from the point to score midway through the second. But the Hounds didn’t have their usual rhythm. Maybe it was the great crowd of 5,630 at AMSOIL, but they quit moving the puck in their usual fashion, settling instead for one-man efforts the left a path open for Rapids.
Jake Bischoff led a Grand Rapids rally with a deflection goal past Duluth East goalie Dylan Parker, plus two assists.
At 11:05 of the middle period, Reid Holum scored from the slot to cut it to 2-1, but East came back when Jack Forbort carried up the right side, circled behind the net, and continued back out front on the left side bvefore firing high into the right corner with 28 seconds left in the second period. At 3-1, East seemed in command, but Jake Bischoff took the game over for Grand Rapids to lead a third-period comeback.
Bischoff, a Mr. Hockey candidate and already the winner of the Reed Larson award as the best senior defenseman in the state, was at center point to catch a pass from his freshman brother, Jonah, and ripped a screened shot. It sailed promptly in, but Holum had gotten a piece of it for a deflection goal at 1:10, cutting it to 3-2.
There was still time for a couple of enormous plays. First, in the face of Grand Rapids pressure, Beaulieu, a defenseman, flipped a pass out to center ice, and Alex Toscano broke free with the puck, sailing in on a breakaway to beat goaltender Hunter Shepard at 4:33, restoring East’s 2-goal lead at 4-2. East’s Andrew Kerr and Alex Trapp delivered huge bodychecks, and again it appeared the Hounds were secure.
But midway through the period, Jake Bischoff made a play the might be the single biggest bit of evidence about why he won the top-defenseman award. Having played almost the whole period, Bischoff came rushing up the middle of the rink. He spotted Holum on the right boards and passed to him at the East blue line. Holum turned, loaded up, and fired a slap shot that was deflected cleanly past Dylan Parker at the net. Amazingly, the deflection was delivered by Bischoff, who managed to pass before reaching the blue line, then raced to the goal in time to make a clean tip on Holum’s shot.
That closed the gap to 4-3, and the game took an odd and unfortunate turn at 9:09. Rapids rushed, and sniper Avery Peterson got open in the slot. As a pass from the left came to him, he pivoted to shoot off the pass. But before the puck arrived, East’s Toscano blasted him in the back and dropped him. It appeared certain that the Hounds would be shorthanded for two, and possibly five, minutes. But the referees watched in silence, and made no call. The Greyhounds immediately counter-attacked and rushed into the Rapids end. Ryan Lundgren, top line center, got to the puck first, but David Horsmann — possibly amped up on adrenaline at the non-call — blasted Lundgren into the end boards.
This time the refs didn’t hesitate, and properly gave Horsmann a five-minute major for boarding. East did nothing on the extended power play, but the major infraction wouldn’t have occurred if any kind of penalty had been called on the hit at the other end. Regardless, the 4-3 game percolated along to the finish. Rapids pulled goaltender Shepard, and East made a rush at the empty net, but a Rapids player blocked a long slap shot. It was Jake Bischoff, following up his dominant night by making a huge save. The game ended when East iced the puck with 4.1 seconds showing. Avery Peterson pulled the crucial faceoff back to Curtis Simonson, but Lundren dived to swat the puck clear and end the game.
“We beat a great team,” said East coach Mike Randolph. “And Jake Bischoff was a man possessed. He took over the game. Every time he carried the puck up the middle of the ice, I got nervous. We were in control in the first two periods, but in the third, we were guilty of playing on our heels. When we got that late penalty, I took a timeout. I told our guys, ‘We’re up by one, we’re not behind. Killing penalties is one of the best things we do, so go kill this one and we go to the state tournament.”
HILLTOPPERS STOP HUNTERS
There was a feeling as Marshall and top-seeded Denfeld came onto the AMSOIL ice for the Section 7, Class A final. The Hunters seemed to be looking around, trying to look poised, at being on the verge of making it to the big show; Marshall’s Hilltoppers zoomed through warm-ups as if they were comfortable with the by-now familiar chore of reaching the state tournament. Before the start of the game, three black-clad Hilltoppers gathered for a group hug near the Marshall bench. They were seniors Kris McKinzie, Matthew Klassen, and Connor Flaherty — three seniors knowing how much they’d been through, and how this could be their last game.
Kris McKinzie backhanded a goal for Marshall's 2-1 lead over Denfeld.
This was a markedly different Hilltopper team than the one Denfeld thrashed 8-3 at midseason. Coach Brendan Flaherty was pretty discouraged back then, because Marshall had also lost 6-1 at home to Totino Grace and 7-0 at Rochester Lourdes. “No question, in January we struggled,” said Flaherty. “We’re young and smaller, and we struggled against high-end players. So we changed some things. We moved Anthony Miller back from forward to defense, and went mostly with four older defensemen. We had some really good younger players, but we decided to lean on our senior class.
“We saw a turnaround at Cloquet, some cohesiveness. This game against Denfeld was a great game, and if it wasn’t our best, it certainly was one of them. When we went down and beat St. Cloud Cathedral 3-1, we also played this well. In the playoffs, we beat Hibbing 3-2. No question, we’re playing our best hockey right now.”
It showed from the start of the game. The Hilltoppers showed some dash, and the Hunters seemed tentative. A lot of too-soft Denfeld passes were easily picked off, and 5:53 into the game, three Marshall seniors collaborated to take a 1-0 lead. Michael Damberg forechecked to kick the puck free on the end boards, and Jeremy Lopez got it. He moved toward the back of the net, then sent a perfect pass out to the slot to Klassen, whose quick shot beat goaltender Zach Thompson for a 1-0 Marshall lead.
The Hunters came right back, and when Alex Thompson got in deep on the left, he misfired on his pass attempt, but it slid to Levi Talarico anyway, and Talarico jammed it in at the left edge for a 1-1 tie. A Hunter penalty followed, and when Luke Pavelich was checked off the puck in the slot, Kris McKinzie pounced on the puck, cut right, and scored with a backhander to restore Marshall to a 2-1 lead.
Denfeld's Ried Lemker (14) put the puck past Marshall goalie Caden Flaherty for a 2-2 tie.
While Denfeld never really got into its usual offensive rhythm — the sort of rhythm they had shown when a five-goal second period had buried Marshall 8-3 at midseason — Ried Lemker got a rebound and scored a power-play goal at 10:02 of the second period to tie it 2-2. But Marshall’s quickness regained the lead later in the second period. Cam McClure got the puck and stepped out front on the right side of the net, and with nobody challenging his position, he pulled the puck back and flicked it up and into the net high right to make it 3-2.
Denfeld charged to the finish, putting on some good pressure, but the revamped Hilltoppers weathered it. Caden Flaherty made some big saves in the closing minutes, but when the Hunters got a late power play and pressed, it was left to Jeremy Lopez to come up with the play of the game. In the made scramble near the crease, a blocked puck squirted out to the left side. Levi Talarico, the area’s top scorer, had one quick chance, with Flaherty unable to get over to cover. But as Talarico went to shoot, he got nothing but air. Lopez, backchecking intensely, lifted Talarico’s stick blade and caused him to miss the puck.
The senior forward who transferred from Proctor just this year played well, although there’s a question which was bigger: making a perfect pass on the first Marshall goal was no more significant than preventing Denfeld’s potential tying goal in the closing seconds.
HERMANTOWN CHALLENGE
Hermantown has the talent to make a run at two-time defending Class A champ St. Thomas Academy, but colorful Hawks coach Bruce Plante may be urged to repeat his comment after last year’s runner-up finish: “We’re the public school champ.”
The Hawks had to get past a strong St. Cloud Cathedral in the 5A title game, then faced Marshall in the Wednesday state tournament opener. After that, they could well have to face a powerful Breck team in the semifinals, and St. Thomas Academy in the final. Plante, and none of his players, are looking ahead that far for obvious reasons. But if that scenario plays out, Hermantown will have earned complete respect, having to face four straight private schools.
St. Thomas Academy is moving up to AA next season, fueling more speculation that private schools, which can attract students and players from anywhere, should play AA. Of course, if St. Thomas Academy and Breck both had followed Benilde from A to AA three years ago, Hermantown very likely would be the three-time defending champ right now — and everybody would be clamoring for the Hawks to move up to AA.
HOME-ICE DISADVANTAGE
UMD’s big series against Nebraska-Omaha this weekend is important to UNO in its quest to move higher in contention in the WCHA, and it’s important to UMD to get some momentum off last weekend’s sweep against Alabama-Huntsville for the league playoffs. Whatever happens, the games will be the last ones of the season for the Bulldogs at AMSOIL.
Tony Cameranesi (13) scored on diving Alabama-Huntsville goalie John Griggs in the 4-2 first game.
They have no chance to gain the top six and a home-ice berth for the final playoffs in the WCHA as we’ve come to know it. UMD beat Alabama-Huntsville 4-2, as Chris Casto had a goal and two assists in a strong game, while Tony Cameranesi, Cody Danberg and Justin Crandall also got goals. The next night, coach Scott Sandelin didn’t dress workhorse freshman goalie Matt McNeely, and entrusted the game to Aaron Crandall — who responded with a perfect 4-0 shutout.
The Dogs got a 1-0 lead on Cameranesi’s first-period goal, then Mike Seidel and AustinFarley both scored on a 5-minute power play early in the second. Wade Bergman scored midway through the third. Cameranesi and Farley each had two assists to go with their goals.
“We’re not there yet, but we will be,” vowed Alabama-Huntsville coach Kurt Kleinendorst. He took over the team after it reportedly would drop hockey, and three top players transferred without penalty before the school reconsidered and reinstated the program. It will move into the WCHA next season.
Klenendorst, a former star at Grand Rapids and Providence and in pro hockey, still comes home every summer to a place he owns on Lake Pokegama.
The UMD women, however, found that coming home isn’t always a good thing, and that the home-ice advantage they had worked so hard to attain wasn’t such an advantage after all. Getting the tie-breaker against Ohio State, the Bulldogs got a 1-0 lead, but couldn’t hold it. Ally Tarr and Paige Semenza scored in the second period for the Buckeyes, and when Vanessa Thibault scored a diving goal in traffic to tie it for UMD, Annie Svedin scored with a slap shot from center point on a Buckeye power play before the second period ended. It ended 4-2 when Hokey Langan hit an empty net.
The second game of the best-of-three found the final elements of this injury-filled season. Starting goalie Kayla Black returned to replace Karissa Grapp, who had started only her second game ever in the Friday game. But the UMD trainer informed coach Shannon Miller that Black was experiencing dizziness and had to come out. Miller’s long night started before the game, when fiery second-line center Zoe Hickel, just back from injury herself, was declared out of the second game when an injury late in Friday’s game persisted to knock her out Saturday.
Mintta Tuominen shot into the upper right corner on UMD goalie Kayla Black for a 2-0 lead as Brienna Gillanders and Bridgette Lacquette stood by.
Oh, and the Bulldogs were beaten 3-0 by the Buckeyes, who outshot UMD 34-21 and got goals from Tina Hollowell and Mintta Tuominen in the first period, and Hokey Langan in the third, with a bullet from the right circle against relief goalie Karissa Grapp.
“We fought through a lot of adversity,” said Miller, “but I felt our seniors deserved better than this, even if it was only one or two more games.”
It was the first time UMD had ever failed to win a quarterfinal series. Instead, it will be Ohio State moving on to face Minnesota in Friday’s WCHA Final Faceoff semifinals. Wisconsin and North Dakota clash in the other semifinal of the tournament, played at Ridder Arena in Minneapolis. Minnesota is 36-0 and ranked No. 1 in the nation, as well as in the WCHA.
“Our kids want to have an impact,” said OSU coach Nate Handrahan. “There are some things that haven’t been done in Buckeye hockey history. We’ll go into Minneapolis, knowing what we’re in for.”
As home-ice advantages go, Minnesota is undefeated wherever the Golden Gophers play, but they were at home for the final league series, and for the playoff quarterfinal series, and now for the WCHA Final Faceoff, then for the West Regional of the NCAA, and the Frozen Four? Also at Ridder Arena.
About the Author
John Gilbert is a lifetime Minnesotan and career journalist, specializing in cars and sports during and since spending 30 years at the Minneapolis Tribune, now the Star Tribune. More recently, he has continued translating the high-tech world of autos and sharing his passionate insights as a freelance writer/photographer/broadcaster. A member of the prestigious North American Car and Truck of the Year jury since 1993. John can be heard Monday-Friday from 9-11am on 610 KDAL(www.kdal610.com) on the "John Gilbert Show," and writes a column in the Duluth Reader.
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