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.”

Comments

• 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.
  
  For those who want to keep up with John Gilbert's view of sports, mainly hockey with a Minnesota slant, click on the following:
  
  Click here for sports
  
  

• Exhaust Notes:

  PADDLING
  More and more cars are offering steering-wheel paddles to allow drivers manual control over automatic or CVT transmissions. A good idea might be to standardize them. Most allow upshifting by pulling on the right-side paddle and downshifting with the left. But a recent road-test of the new Porsche Panamera, the paddles for the slick PDK direct-sequential gearbox were counter-intuitive -- both the right or left thumb paddles could upshift or downshift, but pushing on either one would upshift, and pulling back on either paddle downshifted. I enjoy using paddles, but I spent the full week trying not to downshift when I wanted to upshift. A little simple standardization would alleviate the problem.
  
  

  SPEAKING OF PADDLES
  The Mitsubishi Lancer Evolution has the best paddle system, and Infiniti has made the best mainstream copy of that system for the new Q50, and other sporty models. And why not? It's simply the best. In both, the paddles are long, slender magnesium strips, affixed to the steering column rather than the steering wheel. Pull on the right paddle and upshift, pull on the left and downshift. The beauty is that while needing to upshift in a tight curve might cause a driver to lose the steering wheel paddle for an instant, but having the paddles long, and fixed, means no matter how hard the steering wheel is cranked, reaching anywhere on the right puts the upshift paddle on your fingertips.
  
  

  TIRES MAKE CONTACT
  Even in snow-country, a few stubborn old-school drivers want to stick with rear-wheel drive, but the vast majority realize the clear superiority of front-wheel drive. Going to all-wheel drive, naturally, is the all-out best. But the majority of drivers facing icy roadways complain about traction for going, stopping and steering with all configurations. They overlook the simple but total influence of having the right tires can make. There are several companies that make good all-season or snow tires, but there are precious few that are exceptional. The Bridgestone Blizzak continues to be the best=known and most popular, but in places like Duluth, MN., where scaling 10-12 blocks of 20-30 degree hills is a daily challenge, my favorite is the Nokian WR. Made without compromising tread compound, the Nokians maintain their flexibility no matter how cold it gets, so they stick, even on icy streets, and can turn a skittish car into a winter-beater.