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.
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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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