The Summer Festival came to an end Sunday with some great games and surprising outcomes. In the end, Grand Rapids held off upstart Delano 7-6 in a wild game that had five lead changes and many momentum swings. 

The Thunderhawks won three games in a five hour span, beating Orono 5-0 in a game that started at 9:00 am. Then at 10:30 they beat Eden Prairie 7-4 to gain the finals against the Tigers who knocked off Wayzata 5-0. By 2:00 pm there were 14 exhausted kids who were pushed to the edge by a highly skilled and well coached Delano team. 

Both teams have reason for optimism for the coming season - doing well in the Summer Festival likely raised that level even higher.

Blake McLaughlin, Grand Rapids - the junior forward had a fantastic tournament capping it off with a hat trick Sunday against Eden Prairie and an amazing behind the back backhand feed to Gavin Hain for the game winning goal against Delano. The Gopher commit has a very high hockey IQ to go with a very high compete level.