Blake Biondi is a Mr. Hockey finalist, Aaron Pionk's brother plays for the Winnipeg Jets, but the most famous Hermantown Hawk on Friday may have been mighty Cole Antcliff. 

The 5-foot-7 junior made a modest contribution according to the scoresheet with a single goal, but his kamikaze-like forechecking and ferocity on the penalty kill helped spark the third-seeded Hawks (23-3-4) to a 6-2 win over St. Cloud Cathedral. 

"He's the kid you want to have on your team, and you do not want to play against him," Hermantown coach Pat Andrews said of Antcliff, adding that he's known as Hermantown's "little ball of hate."

"What you see on the ice is what he is one-hundred percent of the time. In practice, he pisses the guys off. In games, he gets the other guys going," Andrews continued. "He never stops."

The Hawks fed off Antcliff's goal, the first of the game, building a 3-0 lead on subsequent goals by Blake Biondi and Cayden Sunde. 

Nate Warner and Ethan Cumming scored in the second and third periods respectively for the No. 2 seed Crusaders (24-4-1), but three scores by the Hawks in less than five minutes clinched the win for Hermantown. 

With a goal and two assists, Hermantown junior defenseman and Minnesota-Duluth commit Joey Pierce earned the admiration of St. Cloud Cathedral coach Derrick Brown. 

"Numerous times, he killed us in the neutral zone," Brown said. "He stepped up. He makes plays. Our guys are used to making plays, (and) he took them out of the play. We literally had to change things (because) he would not allows us to do what we wanted to do."

Andrews is, understandably, already a fan of Pierce's.  

"I feel like he's been overlooked by some other names," Andrews said. "But I wouldn't want to start a team with any other defenseman than Joey Pierce. He showed today why he's the best defenseman in the state."

The large contingent of fans that saw Friday's semifinal between the Hawks and Crusaders were treated to a physical game loaded with talented players, an aspect of the game St. Cloud Cathedral's Brown attributes to the high schoolers returning to play out their senior seasons. 

Brown gestured to two of his senior Division I commits, Jack Smith (Minnesota-Duluth and Nate Warner (St. Cloud State), as prime examples of talents that can draw a crowd. 

"Did you see the lower bowl today?" Brown asked the media. "It was full, because of kids like this."