Marshall’s valiant bid at upsetting Benilde falls short by 3-1
ST. PAUL, MINN.—Grif Kilby had it in his mind what it would be like to skate out onto the Xcel Energy Center ice Wednesday night in the Class A state hockey tournament. And he wasn’t disappointed. The thrill will remain, in fact, long after the pain of falling 3-1 to tournament favorite Benilde-St. Margaret’s has ebbed away.
“I can’t describe the feeling,” said an exhausted Kilby after the game. “This was the first time I’d seen the place. I had an idea what it would be like, and it met up to all my expectations. It’s really got a high ceiling, but down here, the ice is just a hockey rink. No difference there. That’s what it all came down to.”
What it came down to was Marshall’s hearts were willing, but the legs just wouldn’t keep going, as the battered Hilltoppers fell to the swift and deep Red Knights, who proved to a second-session crowd of 4,476 why they are favored to win the tournament.
Benilde (20-9) used its depth well to wear down the Hilltoppers, but it still seemed like the Hopkins brothers — senior Ryan and junior Ricky — were on the ice all the time. Ricky Hopkins scored to give the Red Knights a 2-0 lead in the first period, and Ryan Hopkins clinched things on a two-man power play in the third after the ‘Toppers had closed the gap to 2-1. Both assisted on their brothers’ goals.
Marshall (16-13) spent every ounce of energy, their gold jerseys dark with perspiration by the third period’s exhaustion in the warm Xcel Energy Center. The Hilltoppers move over to Mariucci Arena today to play a 12:30 p.m. consolation game against Mound-Westonka, which lost to Fergus Falls in last night’s late game.
With only 17 players on the roster, instead of the allowed 20, Marshall had junior defenseman Josh Peterson braced up and trying to play with two separated shoulders. Peter Spreitzer was back from a skate cut on the back of his leg suffered in the 7A final against Silver Bay. And Swanson, the junior who is the top scorer on the team, was fighting a bad case of the flu for the 24 hours leading up to the game.
“I’m very proud of our kids,” said Marshall coach Brendan Flaherty. “Instead of going in the tank when we were down 2-0, we battled back. No question, toward the last five minutes, we didn’t have any gas left.”
There was no energy shortage in the first period. Both teams launched seven shots in an evenly fought session, which opened with Marshall’s Adam Balach getting a backhanded swat that goalie Jake Schuman stopped on the opening shift, and then the Red Knights struck at 0:41. Denny Charleston rushed up the right side, pulled up, and passed to the slot where junior defenseman John Paulson was moving in, and ripped a shot past Josh Rudolph.
The teams traded excellent rushes and scoring threats, but goalies Rudolph and Schuman prevailed, until the 12:13 point, when a faceoff popped loose at center ice, and Ricky Hopkins sped past the defense and zoomed in to score on the breakaway at 12:13.
Marshall needed some inspiration, and Kilby produced it, scoring at 0:20 of the second period. Scoring leader Darrin Swanson broke up the slot, and when Schuman came about 15 feet straight out to confront him, Swanson sent a perfect pass to the left edge where Kilby had a slam-dunk.
The ‘Toppers had some great chances to tie it up, but Schuman fouled a Balach-to-Swanson play at the crease. A curious twist came at the end of the period, however. Ricky Hopkins was being called for a delayed holding penalty, and on the delay, Ryan Hopkins ran over a Marshall player in clear view. Only the one penalty was called, with 32 seconds left in the period, and after the buzzer, the Benilde coaches held a conference with the referees.
When the third period opened, Balach was penalized at 0:16, and Ben Paul was banished at 0:40 for a questionable interference call, leaving the Hilltoppers two men short after the overlapping Benilde penalty expired. On the two-man power play, Ryan Hopkins deflected a Chris Wickersham blast past Rudolph at 1:47.
“We were in the game until what I really think was a suspect call to put us down 5-on-3 in the third period,” said Flaherty. “But that’s the way it goes. They popped one in.”
The Hilltoppers sagged a bit from the extra load of the two-man deficit, but they battled gamely to the finish.
“Being down 5-on-3 against a team like that can break your back,” said Kilby. “But we didn’t give up.”
Greenway wins 5-4 as Sertich ties it late, Guyer wins it in OT
ST. PAUL, MINN.—The final first-round game of the boys Class AA state high school hockey tournament figured to be the best game of opening day. Then the game went beyond all expectations as Greenway of Coleraine gave Up North hockey fans a spectacular victory to rally behind.
Greenway needed a mini-miracle, and junior linemates Gino Guyer and Andy Sertich came up with two of them for the price of one.
Guyer skated up the ice, cut to his left and whistled a 35-foot wrist shot past screened Eden Prairie goaltender Dan Kuhl after 39 seconds of sudden-death overtime Thursday night, giving Greenway a 5-4 victory over powerful Eden Prairie.
But Guyer’s heroics wouldn’t have been possible if it hadn’t been for Sertich, who scored with only 12 seconds remaining in the third period, after goaltender Tom Sobtzak had gone to the bench for a sixth attacker. Sertich jammed the puck toward the net from the right side, and when Eden Prairie goaltender Dan Kuhl came out to cover it, the puck squirted free. Sertich found himself alone with the puck at the crease, and nothing between him and the net as he scored the dramatic equalizer.
The two crucial goals were the second of the game for both Sertich and Guyer, sending Greenway (23-6) into the Friday night semifinals against Moorhead (21-6-1)in an all-northern semifinal at 9:45 p.m.
Moorhead defeated No. 2 ranked White Bear Lake 3-2, also in sudden-death overtime, on Jeff Bernstrom’s deflection goal. The night session drew 17,127 fans to Xcel Center, with the afternoon session drawing 17,121, for a 34,248 day at the new arena. The finale was the most electrifying of the day.
“Nobody we’ve played is as good as Greenway,” said Eden Prairie coach Lee Smith. “Them and Jefferson. Jefferson might have more depth, but they don’t have anybody as dangerous as that first line of Greenway’s.”
The Raiders had shown their stuff by taking a 1-0 lead in the first period, as Joe Nielsen capitalized on a similar mistake by Kuhl, who had gone behind the net but had the puck skip off the heel of his stick and pop out to the unguarded crease just as Nielsen skated by for a 1-foot putt.
But Eden Prairie (21-8) stormed back in the second period, as Mr. Hockey finalist Mike Erickson took over the game. Erickson was sick enough to throw up between the first and second periods, missing the start of the second period. When he did go out, he scored on his first shift, raced up the right side and used a screening defenseman to rip a hard wrist shot past Tom Sobtzak at 5:32. Then he went to the bench and threw up again.
Two minutes later, goaltender Kuhl caught the Raiders on a line change and fired a 100-foot pass up ice to Ryan Anderson, who relayed it to Erickson for a 3-on-0 rush. Erickson skated right to the crease, then slid a soft pass to the left for Ryan Hawkins to convert at 7:37.
Guyer turned things back around by throwing a rinkwide pass that misfired, then hustling clear across the rink to regain the puck, using his speed to circle into the Eagle zone wide to the right, and he kept on going, around the last defenseman by enough room that he could veer out in front and beat Kuhl with a deke and a shot inside the left pipe at 9:05, tying the game 2-2.
“It was hot out there,” said Gino Guyer. “Hottest I’ve ever been in a game. The only thing I had left was adrenaline.”
Erickson countered again to open the third period, carrying in on a 2-on-1 and making a great move to get free for a shot to put the Eagles ahead 3-2 at 0:53. The game turned into an end-to-end, wide-open affair after that.
Andy Sertich broke up the right side at 2:32, pulled up and fed Mike Forconi, coming off the bench for a change. Forconi shot into a maze of traffic, and when everybody seemed to freeze, looking for the puck, Forconi kept on coming, and he found the puck in deep on the left, behind everyone, and stuffed his shot in behind Kuhl at 2:32 for the 3-3 tie.
It looked like overtime right then, but Dave Schneider cut in front to tip a shot from the blueline by Tom Berg. Sobtzak blocked it, but Schneider pounced on his own rebound and scored for a 4-3 lead with only two minutes left.
“What did I think when they went ahead with 2:00 left?” Gino Guyer said. “I thought, ‘Oh darn.’ But we had responded a couple of other times, and we’ve got great character on this team. But there was a little extra pressure when they scored with so little time left. A LOT of extra pressure.”
When Sobtzak came to the bench for a sixth skater, things looked bleak for the Raiders, as the Eden Prairie skaters looked stronger in their quest to cover up and clear the dangerous slot. But then Sertich came up with his big play, and the Raiders had a mob scene on the bench for pulling out a 4-4 tie with only 12 seconds showing.
But nothing like the mob scene after Gino Guyer skated in and ended the game.
MOORHEAD 3,
WHITE BEAR LAKE 2
Moorhead coach Dave Morinville acted as if he didn’t know what all the uproar was about. Everybody kept asking about Jeff Bernstrom’s deflection for the winning goal at 3:31 of sudden-death overtime, to lift the Spuds past favored White Bear Lake 3-2 in the first night-session quarterfinal of the Class AA state hockey tournament.
“We work on tipping pucks all the time,” said Morinville. “That’s probably how 60 percent of all the goals are scored in the NHL. We work on tipping because you’ve got to be willing to get ugly in the trenches to win.”
No matter how much work and practice on tipping a team might do, however, Morinville hadn’t yet seen a replay of the winning goal, otherwise he might have realized it was something special. Bernstrom, the junior winger who scored the goal, knew.
“We do work on tipping a lot,” said Bernstrom.
How many goals like the winner has he ever scored, in game or practice?
“Ah, that would be my first,” said Bernstrom.
On the crucial play, Bernstrom was behind the net as the puck went out to James Marcy at the left point. A right-handed shooter, Marcy had a good angle by coming off the boards and then rifling his shot. His shot, however, was wide to the left of the net by about three feet. “Kind of right where I wanted it,” said Bernstrom.
Skating straight out at Marcy, with his back to the net, Bernstrom got his stickblade on the puck and deflected it about 30 degrees, between his own legs and past startled goaltender Eric Aarnio — the Frank Brimsek Award winner as the best senior goaltender in the state.
White Bear Lake led 1-0 on Shaun Wight’s goal at 5:34 of the first period. But Moorhead came out storming in the second period, and Mark Buchholz tied it with a slapshot — another right-handed shooting left point man. Kevin Smith put the Spuds ahead with a surprising shot, carrying up the right side and using a defender for a screen, Smith shot a hard wrist shot between the defender’s body and stick and the puck was like a radar-controlled missile as it tore into the short side from 50 feet.
The Bears (24-4-1) came back in the third period, pressing for the equalizer, and when the puck popped free to the slot, Brian Slattery moved in and scored with a 30-foot slapshot at 7:27.
That led to overtime, when Aarnio and Chad Beiswenger were set to duel long into the night, if need be. It looked like need would be, too, until Bernstrom pulled off a once-in-a-lifetime, back-to-the-net, between-the-legs deflection for the game-winner. Just like in practice.
Eustace jump-starts Bulldog rally to 3-1 victory over Gophers
There was prestige, the national rankings, next weekend’s Women’s-WCHA playoffs, and — probably most important — those were the Gophers on the other bench at the DECC. With all that as inspiration, the UMD women’s hockey team still needed a spark of ignition to get its formidible engine going.
Enter Joanne Eustace. Trailing 1-0 when the second period opened, Eustace played the role of sparkplug, which she does best, by whacking the puck past Erica Killewald at 0:23 of the middle period to tie the game 1-1. Typically, the Bulldogs immediately clicked on all cylinders, roaring to tie-breaking goal by Erika Holst two minutes later, and a power-play goal by Hanne Sikio a couple minutes after that.
Three goals in the span of 4:41 was all the Bulldogs could muster, but with Tuula Puputti’s solid goaltending that flurry produced a 3-1 victory for UMD over the Gophers.
With the WCHA season ending, Minnesota wins the league title with an 18-4-2 record, while UMD finishes 15-5-4, four points behind. The Gophers have a first-round bye in the league playoffs, starting next Thursday in, of all places, Rochester, Minn., while UMD will face last-place Minnesota State-Mankato in a quarterfinal, and will have to win three games in three nights to repeat as league champion.
But overall, the Bulldogs and Gophers came into the series tied for the No. 2 ranking in the computerized power ratings, behind No. 1 Dartmouth. Coming on the heels of Friday’s 2-2 tie, the 3-1 UMD victory should solidify UMD’s position nationally, with a 23-5-4 record to Minnesota’s 23-7-2.
“I just thought it was pretty poetic that we came in neck-and-neck, so close in so many ways, and played to a 2-2 tie,” said Gopher coach Laura Halldorson. She was in a less-cheery mood about Saturday’s rematch.
When it was suggested the game was tough and hard-fought but lacked the end-to-end electrifying nature of the teams’ meetings last year, Halldorson said: “I disagree. I thought they were both excellent games.”
There were so many good chances, with UMD outshooting the Gophers 43-33, that a score of 6-4 might have seemed more appropriate than 3-1, which might have been testimony to how well Puputti and Killewald tended goal. “I think it was defense,” said Halldorson.
Maybe it was the intensity of the year-old rivalry that got to Halldorson. UMD coach Shannon Miller, in fact, learned something about what a UMD-Gopher series means.
“I thought Jessica Smith stepped up and played very well for us on defense,” said Miller. “She listens, and she works hard. In fact, a lot of our Minnesota girls stepped up — Jenny Hempel, Shannon Mikel, Jessi Flink.”
Smith, who has been steady but unnoticeable, was far more physical and on numerous times ran off Gophers who were coming hard as if to crash the net. The Bulldogs outshot Minnesota 10-8 in the first period, but trailed 1-0 when Courtney Kennedy, a large, rugged Gopher defenseman, scored with a screened shot from the right point at 11:30.
Fresh from the 2-2 deadlock the night before, the goal gave the Gophers their first and only lead of the weekend, and it loomed large when the second period started.
But on the first shift, Maria Rooth swept out front and left the puck. “She left it right for me,” said Eustace, “so I came around and knocked it in.”
It was the 14th goal for Eustace, who had scored the first goal of the game on Friday, too. On the next shift, Hanne Sikio passed out from behind the net and Holst deposited the puck into the right edge of the net from 5 feet out for her 19th goal. Then Stephanie Snow was penalized for interference at 4:45, and after 19 seconds of power play, Sikio scored her 29th of the season with a backhander from close range.
The Gophers, though, outshot UMD 16-10 in the second period, despite being outscored 3-0. But the Bulldogs forced play throughout the scoreless third period, outshooting Minnesota 23-9 to prevent the Gophers from putting on any pressure. Killewald was very good, blocking all 23 shots — defense notwithstanding — to finish with 40 saves while holding her team in the game.
“We created so many good opportunities, I can’t believe we didn’t put more of them in,” said Miller. “Puputti played well tonight, and was good last night, too. The funny thing about it, I thought we dominated by more last night, and wound up in a 2-2 tie, than tonight.”
Greenway of Coleraine trips Cloquet 4-1 to win 7AA crown
HIBBING, MINN.—Greenway fans are used to seeing junior center Gino Guyer score and set up goals to lead the Raiders to victory, but Cloquet-Esko-Carlton has found a way to harness the Raider star this season. Thursday night, the Lumberjacks did it again, but this time Gino’s little brother — sophomore defenseman Andrew Guyer — stepped up to set up three goals as Greenway upended Cloquet-Esko-Carlton 4-1 to win the Section 7AA hockey championship.
The victory, before a capacity crowd of 4,500 fans at the Hibbing Memorial Arena, sends Greenway (22-6) into next week’s Class AA hockey tournament against Eden Prairie in the 9:45 p.m. finale of Thursday’s quarterfinals.
It also avenged two regular-season setbacks Cloquet pinned on Greenway, by 3-1 and 2-0 scores. The Lumberjacks sped around the spacious Memorial Arena rink, and generated numerous break-ins and scoring threats, but sophomore goaltender Tom Sobtzak stopped 24 of the 25 shots by the Lumberjacks, who finish 21-7. Greenway, meanwhile, fired 35 times at the Cloquet goal, but the Raiders had to battle to pull ahead.
Amazingly, Guyer, who is the Up North leader in scoring among Class AA teams, failed to get a goal or an assist in all three games against Cloquet. His line, with Andy Sertich and Mike Forconi on the wings, remains the best line in the state. Sertich scored two goals — including an empty-net tally at the finish — while Forconi got one. But Gino Guyer got none, although he didn’t seem to mind.
As for his younger brother stepping into the spotlight, Gino said: “I’m used to him playing that well. He’s a great player. We train together in the summer.”
Big brother acknowledged, though, that little brother picked the perfect time for a big game.
“I’d say this was my best game,” said Andrew Guyer, who is a 5-foot-7 dynamo on defense. “We play better under pressure, and the difference in tonight’s game and the two they beat us during the season was that we came out and wanted it that bad.”
Obviously, the Lumberjacks wanted it just as bad. “They played really well,” said Dave Esse, Cloquet’s first-year coach. “They had the jump, and they finished. That was the difference in how they played tonight, they finished. They played great, and I wish them luck. I hope they win the state tournament.”
Cloquet, with its great quickness, seems to play best when it gets the lead, as it did in beating Greenway and Duluth East twice each, knocking off East 1-0 two weeks ago and 4-1 in the 7AA semifinals. But Greenway had other plans. Dan Mell, the star football quarterback at Nashwauk-Keewatin, who drives 40 miles one way to play hockey at Greenway, scored at 1:45 of the first period — off a slick pass from Andrew Guyer — called Drew by his teammates.
“We had the puck behind the net, and it went out to the ‘D’ while I went in front,” said Mell. “I waved my stick to Drew, and when I put my stick on the ice, the puck hit my stick and went in. He made a great play, and I thought if we got the first goal it might shut them down.”
The 1-0 game remained until midway through the second period. Then Andrew Guyer and Sertich collaborated to get the puck in front, and Forconi jammed it through Josh Johnson for a 2-0 lead at 6:21. Johnson, who made 31 saves for the ‘Jacks, held his team in the game the rest of the way, and it became a game at 2-1, thanks to Cloquet star defenseman Clay Wilson.
Wilson broke across the neutral zone with the puck, beat a couple retreating Raiders to get in the zone on the left boards, then bolted through another defender to get the puck behind the net, seeming to keep possession for 20 seconds or so. When he finally lost it, he whirled and regained control and zipped a pass to the crease, where Matt Brenner smacked it in at 10:52 of the second period.
“I saw the puck behind the net, looking over my left shoulder,” said Sobtzak. “When I turned back to the front, I had the bad feeling that a guy was right there, and sure enough, he put it through my legs.”
But the game took a significant turn when Cloquet’s Ryan Lee was called for slashing. It was significant because it was the only penalty of the entire swift, hard-hitting, but clean game. And it was significant because Greenway’s power play is virtually an unstoppable force.
The Raiders moved the puck with tape-to-tape efficiency, getting it back to the left point, where Sertich was stationed, while Forconi had his huge form at the crease to screen, and Gino Guyer was lurking in case of a rebound. There was none. Sertich cut loose with a hard shot that clanked off the right post and landed in the net at 12:10, and the Raiders were up 3-1.
“That was a beautiful shot, off the post,” said Gino Guyer. “We knew we had to take advantage of our power play, and Forconi did a great job screening.”
That was the 32nd goal of the season for Sertich, with No. 33 coming, but not until the Raiders spent the third period forcing play at the Cloquet end, and limiting the Lumberjacks chances, which were handled solidly by Sobtzak.
When Johnson came out for a sixth skater, the Raiders still held, and Andrew Guyer’s outlet pass sprung the puck up the right boards, where Sertich gathered it up, skated into the Lumberjack zone, and solidified Greenway’s state tournament trip with a flip into the empty net with 36 seconds to go.
Brian Cockerham helps Marshall notch first state tournament trip
DULUTH – It took grit for Marshall to get past Silver Bay 3-1 to win the Section 7A championship Tuesday night, and nobody typified that grit better than Hilltopper senior Brian Cockerham.
Playing after suffering three separated shoulders in the last three months, Cockerham was blasted to the ice with a heavy bodycheck by Silver Bay star defenseman Jared Conboy early in the first period.
“He’s a big guy,” said Cockerham, who is a resident of Superior, living in the Central Park area.
When asked if he’d ever been hit that hard before in a hockey game, Cockerham smiled and nodded. “I’ve been hit that hard before,” he said, “but I think it might have been by him.”
Cockerham picked himself up off the DECC’s shiny ice surface, however, went to the net, and seconds later he rapped in a rebound at 4:36 to give the Hilltoppers a 1-0 headstart before 2,000 fans.
There were a lot of other factors in the victory, of course. Most notably Darrin Swanson, a junior, who broke a 1-1 tie with his first goal, on a power play with 10 seconds left in the second period. Swanson scored again early in the third period, and Marshall goaltender Josh Rudolph and his defense made it stand up to secure the first trip ever to the public state hockey tournament for the Hilltoppers.
Before being renamed, Duluth Cathedral was the frequent private school champion and on several occasions could claim to be the best team in the state, but in those days private schools were not allowed in the big tournament. Some of the Hilltoppers knew that.
Marshall, 16-12, will play in the 7 p.m. game of Wednesday’s first round at the Xcel Energy Center in St. Paul, against the winner in Section 5A, where the three B’s of the state’s Class A powers all are congregated — Breck, Benilde and Blake. “We’ve played all of them,” said Rudolph.
The Hilltoppers lost to all of them, too, but they’re playing much better hockey now because of such a tough schedule. They pretty much prevented Silver Bay (17-10-1) from getting too close too often, although the Mariners had some excellent chances early in the game, and forced Rudolph to make most of his best saves in the last five minutes.
“I got hit right in the forehead on one of those shots in the last five minutes,” said Rudolph, meaning the forehead of his helmet, which deflected the missile over the net and out of danger. “Then in the last minute, I felt all warm inside, and I could feel it coming.”
Cockerham’s opening goal came after Benny Paul’s shot was saved by Silver Bay goaltender Alex Conboy, who is a sophomore, and one of nine Mariners in grades 8, 9 or 10. “The rebound came right to me,” said Cockerham.
Cockerham hasn’t scored much this year, because he hasn’t played much. He was a middle linebacker and guard on the Marshall football team, and he separated his left shoulder when Marshall lost in the section final.
“That caused me to miss the start of the hockey season,” Cockerham said. “Then in my first game, against Virginia, I separated my left shoulder again. Two weeks ago, I separated my right shoulder in a game against Two Harbors.”
All of that was forgotten by the time the Hilltoppers circled the DECC rink with their 7A trophy, taking it to their fans, who tossed sombreros over the glass to celebrate, in an odd tradition started by the Marshall basketball players when they came to cheer on their hockey classmates in the playoffs.
“I don’t know when it started,” said Cockerham. “All I know is this is a dream come true. I grew up in Superior, and I’ve been watching the Minnesota state hockey tournament since I was a little kid. Getting the chance to play in it is a dream come true.”
The dream was delayed when Jake Solberg tied the game at 13:42 of the first period, deflecting in Dan Timm’s shot/pass from center-point to the right edge of the net. Then it was Swanson’s time to shine.
As time was running out in the second period, Kevin McKibbon made a neat play, bouncing the puck off the right sideboards to himself, just inside the right point. That move eluded a defender, and McKibbon passed to Ben Paul, who ripped a shot that was blocked. Swanson converted the rebound from 10 feet.
At 3:17 of the third, Swanson took off and caught a long outlet pass from David Moline, speeding into the Silver Bay zone and blasting his shot in from the top of the right circle.
“We’ve played good defense,” said Marshall coach Brendan Flaherty. “Through the playoffs, we’ve only given up one goal in each of our three games.”
The Mariners, who had lost 4-1 and 3-0 games to Marshall during the season, never sustained the pressure they needed offensively. With a younger and bigger team, having to play the postponed semifinals Monday may have affected the Mariners more than Marshall.
“We needed to have a lead, but we never could get one,” said Silver Bay coach Mike Guzzo. “We gave up that goal with 10 seconds left in the second period, and that was a killer. Then we got a penalty with three minutes to go, so we had to kill a penalty right when we should have been coming at them. But give Marshall credit. It was a physical war out there. I’d have rather had a skating game, but it came down to battles along the boards and in the corners. We just didn’t have the legs.”
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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