skip navigation

'17 Squirtacular All Tourney Team & Video

By Tony Scott, 01/27/17, 10:00AM CST

Share

MVP Dallas Vieau and the Hermantown Hawks grab first team honors


The pin trading was amazing


Hermantown - Squirt A champs


Brodie Ziemer, Chaska Chanhassen


Cole Jackson, Dallas

When you host an event with 136 games, there are bound to be a few classics. In 2013, OMG beat Edina White in a semifinal shootout - Justin Janicke got the game winner. In '14 who could forget the Squirt C title game between Cottage Grove and Minnetonka...Tonka won in a shootout after an improbable last minute goal to tie it.

This year we had a few classic games - Hermantown beat four time champion OMG in a shootout and Woodbury beat Moorhead in the quarters in overtime after falling behind 3-1 in the third period. 

But the game that will last the longest in this writer's memory bank was Woodbury's shootout win over Chaska Chanhassen in the semifinals. Trailing 3-1 heading into the third period, Woodbury clawed back with two goals. First tourney leading scorer Ben Miller scored and unlikely hero Blake Kohnen buried a snipe from the point to tie it with 3:20 to go.

After both teams traded body blows at the end of regulation and overtime, neither was able to land the knockout punch, it came down to a shootout. With pending games in three other attached rinks a short walk away, word grew quickly that there was a barnburner in rink 3. The stands were packed, the glass around the rink was full of faces watching how this would unfold. 

Both goalies - Jett Strub (Woodbury) and Caleb Heil (Chaska Chan) - would stop the first two shooters to set up a do-or-die third round for both teams. Strub would stop Sam Scheetz and put his teammate Tanner Henricks on the stage to win it all for the Predators. The California move-in made a great shoulder fake and scored on the backhand to send Woodbury to the title game. 

One coach from another team said to me afterward, "that game is why this is the best tourney in the state...that was incredible."


Tanner Henricks shot sends Woodbury to the title game


YHH says Yes to this uniform

Recent MN YHH News