Klema’s 4 goals lead Roseau into finals
It was a great run for Holy Angels, making it to its first Class AA boys state hockey tournament, and beating Eden Prairie in an impressive debut. But Friday night, the Stars ran — Thud! — into Roseau, and the Rams, fueled by four goals from Mike Klema, romped to a 6-2 victory in the first semifinal.
“We played our best game today,” said Klema, the older of two brothers who play forward slots on the Roseau team. “I don’t know why; we just came together. We’re kind of on a mission. All the way up, in Peewees and Bantams, we’ve always been good, but we’d lose and never make it to the championship game. Now we have.”
The Rams (26-1) will face the winner of Friday’s late second semifinal between Elk River and Hastings in tonight’s 8 p.m. championship game.
“Our kids learned last year that they had to keep playing with intensity if they want to go to the next level,” said Roseau coach Bruce Olson. “We wanted to go in and forecheck ’em, but we weren’t getting there, so we changed to a more patient, one-man forecheck.
“It worked well. And we were able to play our fourth line a few shifts tonight. That should help us in the final game. Usually we get tired the third game in three days, but this should help. In fact, those TV timeouts hurt, because we wanted to keep it rolling.”
Holy Angels and Roseau had brought identical 25-1 records into the semifinals, but there were some differences. Roseau beat such AA powers as Moorhead, Hibbing, St. Paul Johnson, Grand Rapids, St. Cloud Apollo and Class A rival Warroad twice, while losing only to Greenway of Coleraine, 6-3. Holy Angels had beaten St. Paul Johnson and Apple Valley, but also Prior Lake, New Prague, Shakopee and Hutchinson, and Rochester Century.
The question was whether the Stars could play with the big, swift Rams, who clearly were the best team Holy Angels has faced this season.
On the opening shift of the game, Mike Klema was cruising up the left side in the neutral zone when Holy Angels defenseman Conner Phippen stumbled, lost the puck, and fell down. It was a complete accident, but Klema pounced on the puck and ripped a shot past goaltender Justin Eddy after just 33 seconds had elapsed.
If that put the Stars in shock, it would be understandable. If it didn’t, at 1:15, the puck took a crazy bounce off the Target Center boards and Phillip Larson reacted to pick it off, curl to the left circle, and snap a shot past the startled Eddy, short-side. Barely a minute in, and Roseau led 2-0.
“If they didn’t get those first two, it might have been different,” said Adam Kaiser, who set up Billy Hengen for the Stars second goal. “We scrimmaged a lot of good teams, but no question, they’re the best team we’ve played in an actual game.”
Kaiser deked through the defense for a great chance that was snuffed by Roseau goalie Jake Brandt, then Mike Klema came up with his second goal, at 11:30 of the opening period. That one, also, found Klema playing opportunist. A shot by Jesse Modahl was blocked, and as the rebound slid out from the goal, goaltender Eddy raced Klema for it. Klema let him win, pulling up, and when Eddy poked the puck, it went right to Klema, who stepped to his left and plinked it into the open goal.
“I was skating up for the puck and he tried to poke it past me,” said Klema.
Holy Angels came out much more forcefully in the second period, but Matt Erickson made it 4-0 at 1:00 of the second period, when he tried to pass across the slot then retrieved his blocked pass and scored with a backhand.
The Stars countered, finally, when Ryan LaMere scored with a blast from a wide angle to the left at 1:18, but Roseau wouldn’t let them get closer. Mike Klema completed his hat trick when he drilled a shot off Jesse Modahl’s 2-on-1 pass across the slot at 10:56 of the middle period.
Billy Hengen, Holy Angels’ offensive catalyst all season, scored with Kaiser’s feed to the crease later in the second period. But the only goal in the third period came when Modahl fed Mike Klema for his fourth goal.
“I got four against Cloquet last year,” said Klema, who now has 27 goals for the season.
But he wouldn’t say who has the harder shot, his brother or him. Coach Olson answered the question. “Both brothers shoot hard,” Olson said, “but I think David likes to hear his hit the glass. It makes a heckuva noise off the glass in the cold rink in Roseau.”
With only one game to go for their sixth championship in their 27th trip to the tournament, the Rams got one simple bit of advice from Olson: “Muck it up, dump it in, go get it…and put it in.”
Roseau stifles Hastings offense for title
Everyone anticipated a tight, tense state Class AA boys hockey championship game Saturday night. But nobody anticipated a shutout.
Roseau, however, weathered early offensive pressure by Hastings’ explosive offense, then skated to a convincing 4-0 victory over the Raiders in the tournament’s championship game.
With a crowd of 15,888 at Target Center and a statewide television audience watching, the Rams and goaltender Jake Brandt stifled the Hastings gunners, who fired the game’s first seven shots, but couldn’t keep it up against the smooth, relentless and poised Rams, who finished the season ranked No. 1 in the Up North Network rating, and take home a 26-1 season record. It was Roseau’s sixth state championship.
The Hastings 1-2 punch of Jeff Taffe and Dan Welch — who figure to place 1-2 in today’s naming of Mr. Hockey — had all the headlines coming into the tournament, but Roseau’s Rams proved the advantage of a total team effort.
Hastings (23-4) showed no indications of being tired from Friday night’s gruelling double-overtime victory over Elk River, at least not in the first period, when the Raiders stormed out and took a 7-0 edge in shots on goal. But Jake Brandt was sparkling in goal to prevent the heavy artillery of Jeff Taffe, Dan Welch and others from puncturing his domain.
Roseau, however, seemed almost content to spend the time in the defensive zone, weathering the anticipated early assault, and waiting for their chance.
The Rams came back for a few good chances, but settled for a scoreless first period. It became evident that the first goal could be significant, and it was.
Josh Olson drilled a shot off what started as a missed pass in the slot, scoring at 6:40 of the second period to give Roseau a 1-0 lead.
At 8:03, Hastings goaltender Matt Klein went down to block a shot, and as he groped to try to cover it, David Klema came by, poked the puck clear to the left, then slid it in for a 2-0 lead.
Hastings needed a break to get back into it, and Adam Gerlach almost provided it, picking off a loose puck and breaking in at top speed. His hard shot from the left circle, however, clanked the right post and the ricochet went harmlessly into the far corner.
Jake Majeski, Hastings rugged defenseman, took the game’s only penalty at 14:29 of the second period, and the game’s only power play overlapped into the third period.
The Rams made the Raiders pay, when Mike Klema scored with a 1-timer from the right side off Josh Olson’s pass across the goal-mouth at 1:27.
Mike Klema skated in alone but was saved. But the Raiders were back on their collective heels by then, as if the toll of Friday’s long game seemed to weigh heavily.
Matt Erickson scored the Rams final goal, at 5:24, when he glanced one in off Klein from the right circle.
Elk River takes 3rd on penalty shot
Amid all the excitement and drama that makes the state high school hockey tournament a cinch to be Minnesota’s premier sports attraction every year is that no matter how many unprecedented things that have occured over 54 years, there is always the chance for something new. Any game, any time.
On Saturday, after three days of amazing happenings, something new occured to decide Elk River’s 3-2 victory over Holy Angels in the Class AA third-place game at Target Center.
The Elks, spent from their double-overtime loss to Hastings in Friday night’s midnight special semifinal, had spotted Holy Angels a 1-0 lead on Adam Kaiser’s goal at 7:28 of the first period. That was a wake-up call that caused immediate response, and John Brumer tied it for the Elks at 8:52.
After the incomparable Paul Martin stickhandled in from defense to break the tie with an Elk River goal at 8:32 of the second period, Holy Angels came up with the equalizer, on Ryan LaMere’s goal at 3:25 of the third period. That set the stage, with Holy Angels coming back from being flattened 6-0 by Roseau to be headed for overtime with Elk River.
With 22 seconds remaining, Brumer, the same junior winger who had scored the first Elk River goal, took a drop pass and blasted a shot from the left slot. Goaltender Justin Eddy threw his glove up, the puck hit it at rocket force, and blew the glove off Eddy’s hand. The glove and the puck both popped up high and almost lazily flew just over the net, landing separately at the end boards.
Because there have been dozens of occasions when nets have been dislodged in the heat of battle in this tournament, many of them presumably intentional, and it never has been called as a penalty, Holy Angels’ Casey Garven made a calculated move to protect his gloveless goalie from facing another shot, and skated directly into the crease to jolt the goal off its moorings.
Referee brothers Pat and Jim Carroll made the call immediately. Penalty shot! The rulebook states that any player purposely dislodging the net in the heat of battle in the final two minutes of a game shall require a penalty shot be awarded to the other team.
On the Elk River bench, coach Tony Sarsland had some snipers to choose from. Paul Martin, Joey Bailey, Spanky Leonard.
“A good coach listens to his players, and I let the players decide,” said Sarsland. “I asked Martin who should take it, and he said ‘Let Johnny do it.’ I asked Joey Bailey, and he said, ‘Let Johnny take it.’ I asked Spanky Leonard, and he said, ‘Let Johnny do it.’ Those kids know, because we play showdown all the time in practice, and they know who has the best moves. The kids picked him, and they were right.”
So Sarsland let Johnny do it, picking Brumer — whose cannon shot had started the whole incident. Brumer skated in, not too fast, and Holy Angels goalie Eddy came out quickly, then backed in slowly. But Brumer made a quick move to his forehand and scored.
The penalty-shot goal, with 22 seconds left, gave the Elks their third-place trophy, and their highest finish ever.
BLAINE WINS CONSOLATION
Blaine, a stunning, last-second loser to Hastings in a 7-6 opening-round classic, won the Class AA consolation trophy with a 2-1 victory over Eden Prairie.
Fergus Falls won the third-place game in Class A, beating Blake 5-3 with three third-period goals. St. Thomas Academy captured the consolation trophy in Class A with a 3-2 victory, scoring the last three goals, two of them in the third period, with the winner, at 12:59, on a shorthanded goal by Bill Flikeid.
Riddle, power-play carry Benilde to A puck title
Try as they might to convince the world that their success is not wholly dependent on Troy Riddle, the Benilde-St. Margaret’s Red Knights needed Riddle to score two goals and set up another Saturday afternoon at Target Center to beat East Grand Forks 4-2 and capture the Class A state hockey championship.
Riddle, an elusive senior with a deadly shot, scored all three goals in the 3-2 opening game against Hermantown, then added two goals and two assists in Friday’s 6-0 semifinal blowout over Fergus Falls. His three points against East Grand Forks gave Riddle seven goals and three assists for 10 points out of the 13 goals scored by the Red Knights.
“We knew that if we kept our focus, as soon as we got some bounces to go our way we’d be OK,” said Riddle, who ends the season with 54 goals. At the end, Riddle had a chance for another goal turned away. “I wasn’t thinking hat trick, I was just thinking hurry up and end it.”
Benilde coach Ken Pauly, whose team ended 26-2, was soaked by a bucket of ice water his players dumped over his red blazer. “It’s colder than heck, but if I ruined the sport coat, that’ll be OK because my wife hates it,” he said.
The Red Knights stressed that they expected to win the game, but confident or not, it was the goal that Riddle had nothing to do with, early in the third period, that rescued a game that had been controlled for two periods by East Grand Forks — the Class A darkhorse, which had never won a championship bracket tournament game before this year, but was on the brink of the championship before ending 16-11-1.
At the start of the game, Andrew Alberts, a giant 6-4, 205-pound defenseman, was penalized for blasting a Green Wave skater into the corner boards. The call was checking from behind, which, in high school, is a 2-minute minor but carries a mandatory 10-minute misconduct.
The Red Knights killed the penalty, and took a 1-0 lead when Troy Riddle scored an opportunistic goal at 14:04. Riddle was skating up the left slot when his brother, Jake Riddle, threw a hard pass from the left boards across the slot. East Grand backchecker Neil Purcell slid to block the pass, and when the puck hit his shinpad it bounced straight back — right on Troy Riddle’s stick, and he put it away in an instant.
But East Grand outshot Benilde 7-4 in the first period, and vaulted to a 2-1 lead in the second, when Shawn Bartlette scored with Jon Stordahl’s breakaway pass at 9:41 and Jonathan Hussey scored with Kyle Cash’s rebound at 10:04. The two goals in a 23-second span didn’t dampen Benilde’s confidence, as they came back for several good scoring chances, particularly on a late power play, when East Grand goalie Tommy White had to be solid.
On the first shift of the third period, Troy Riddle tried to break around the defense and Green Wave defender Hussey tried to stop him. As he cut in, Riddle appeared to step on Hussey’s stick blade and stumble. Hussey was called for tripping. Back after sitting out his 12 minutes in the first period, Alberts, the big defenseman, was sent up front to set up in front the East Grand net.
“I was really excited to get back out there after sitting so long,” said Alberts. “Sometimes I play up front on the power play to get a big player in front of the net. This time, the shot came from the point and I ‘yo-yo’d’ it around, then shot it in.”
With Troy Riddle stationed right at the crease, Alberts teed up the backhand, and snapped it off, high and hard. White, who had an outstanding tournament, was going down, but kicked his leg high. The puck glanced off his leg pad and in, for a power-play goal at 1:18. That tied the game 2-2, and injected the Red Knights with a new supply of energy.
Troy Riddle broke away from the last defender at center ice and scored on a breakaway to put Benilde up 3-2 at 4:08. And Adam Ahern scored Benilde’s second power-play goal at 5:54. Although the bigger Red Knights were the physical aggressor, East Grand Forks drew the only four penalties of the last two periods, and two of them produced power-play goals.
“No question the two power-play goals were the difference in the game,” said Jim Scanlan, East Grand’s intense but always gracious coach. “We did what we wanted to do for two periods, to make it a 15-minute game. Troy Riddle stepped up his game; he’s a smart player who has a high panic-level.
“But the biggest difference was their defense. They’re solid back there, and when they get a power play they have three of those defensemen on the ice.”
With the Alberts goal, that proved one too many.
Spehar’s 2 goals lead Gophers to 5-3 victory
MINNEAPOLIS, MN.—
The lure of tournament time was all that was required to awaken the special scoring touch of former Duluth East star Dave Spehar. The former state tournament scoring sensation regained his tournament-time flair by scoring his first two even-sgtrength goals of the season Thursday night, and assisted on another to ignite Minnesota to a 5-3 vict
After beating the Huskies before 10,128 fans at Target Center, the Gophers must come right back to face WCHA champion North Dakota at 7:05 tonight, after Colorado College and Denver meet in the first semifinal at 2:05 p.m.
“I couldn’t tell you what the difference was,” said Spehar, who has been criticized all season because his 10 goals had all come on power plays. “I sat down with the coach and we had a talk, and I wanted to lay it all on the line tonight.”
Spehar scored the Gophers second goal in the first period, set up the first of two Reggie Berg goals with a deft pass in the second period, and scored again in the third period for a 4-1 Minnesota lead.
As it turned out, the lead wasn’t as safe as it seemed. George Awada’s second goal and one by Lee Brooks brought the Huskies back to within 4-3, and forced Berg to score his second goal into an empty net to provide the final margin.
“David had eight good goal-scoring opportunities tonight,” said Gopher coach Doug Woog.Gopher captain Wyatt Smith didn’t let the crowd get settled into their seats after the national anthem before he was rushing up the left side and firing a slapshot from the faceoff spot past St. Cloud goaltender Dean Weasler.
It was not exactly the way the Huskies wanted to start the game, but Weasler, a freshman from Rosemount, came back to block 14 other Gopher shots in an inspired opening period.
But Spehar got untracked in old Greyhound fashion at 15:10 of the opening session. Freshman defenseman Nick Angell, Spehar’s former East teammate, carried out of his zone on the left side and sent a bank pass off the left boards to Spehar, curling with speed behind the defense. Spehar gathered up the puck, dashed to the left circle and, being a righthanded shooter, had a better angle to shoot into the lower, far corner for his first even-strength goal of the season.
“I was extremely disappointed in our first period,” said St. Cloud coach Craig Dahl, who signed a new 4-year contract two weeks ago. “The first goal was a shocker, and that had something to do with it. And I’m aware that Spehar hadn’t scored at even strength all season. But I’m not interested in moral victories in the Final Five, and I was proud of the way our guys came back. Hauser made some huge saves…huge.”
Both Weasler and Minnesota’s Adam Hauser, a freshman from Bovey, came up with big saves in the second period, but the Huskies finally broke through for the first goal against Hauser in two weeks when George Awada scored with a power-play rebound, finding some room high to the short side from a wide angle near the goal line to the left.
That goal came at 15:27 of the second period; referee Don Adam penalized Keith Anderson of the Huskies 20 seconds later; and the Gophers regained the 2-goal margin at 16:29, when Spehar circled out from the left corner, got clear to shoot, but instead passed to the right side, where Reggie Berg had an easy goal on the power play.
“He’s trying to tell me he’s a playmaker, and I’m trying to convince him he’s a goal-scorer. That was part of our talk today,” Woog said. “This was a highly competitive game, and St. Cloud could have won it just as easily. Whoever won this one was going to earn it.”
Matt Noga was robbed by Hauser to open the third period, and at 6:39, Spehar struck again. This time, Berg went deep into the zone on the right end boards and slid a long pass out toward the blue line. Spehar, coming on for a line change, got to the puck, moved in a couple of strides and pulled the trigger on a wrist shot that caught the lower right for a commanding 4-1 lead.
The Huskies weren’t about to roll over, however, and Awada barreled up the left side, finding the far edge with a backhand from the left circle at 10:29 to cut the deficit to 4-2. A minute and a half later, the fired-up Huskies struck again. This time, Lee Brooks, a freshman from Bloomington Jefferson, moved in to the top of the right faceoff circle and drilled a screened slapshot past Hauser and in off the left post.
That forced Hauser to survive a frantic finish, right up until Weasler went out for a sixth skater, and Berg skated out of the Gopher zone and flipped a 70-foot backhander into the open net with 54 seconds left.
UND, CC DOMINATE
TOP WCHA AWARDS
WCHA scoring champ Jason Blake was named the WCHA’s player of the year, in addition to making the all-WCHA first team for the third straight year, as North Dakota, which ran away with the regular-season WCHA title, did the same with the annual league awards, presented before Thursday’s opening game of the Final Five. Sioux coach Dean Blais was named coach of the year, for good measure.
The Sioux and runner-up Colorado College had two players each on the all-WCHA first team, and the two combined for all six on the second unit. Blake (27-40–67), CC’s Brian Swanson and Denver’s Paul Comrie are first-team forwards, Scott Swanson of CC and Brad Williamson of North Dakota are defense, and freshman Gregg Naumenko of Alaska-Anchorage first team goalie and rookie of the year.
The second team had North Dakota brothers Jay and Jeff Panzer at forward, Trevor Hammer at defense and Karl Goehring in goal, while CC’s winger Darren Clark and defenseman Dan Peters also made second team. The third team had Wyatt Smith of Minnesota, James Patterson of Denver and Lee Goren of North Dakota up front, Jordan Leopold of Minnesota and Jeff Dessner of Wisconsin on defense, and Wisconsin goalie Graham Melanson.
Senior defensemen Scott Swanson of CC and Kyle McLaughlin of St. Cloud State, were co-winners of the student-athlete award, and Williamson was named the league’s top defensive player. The all-rookie team consisted of goalie Naumenko, defensemen Leopold and Wisconsin’s Dave Tanabe, and the forwards were Tyler Arnason of St. Cloud State, Jesse Heerema of CC and Steve Cygan of Alaska-Anchorage.
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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