There were sun dogs in Park Rapids yesterday morning and last night people freezing in -8 degree weather went to the Burnsville Ice Arena to get warm.  The joint was jumping.

The Burnsville Thanksgiving Classic had barely finished four days ago with a surpising Alexandria peewee A team winning.  Last night the joint was jumping as the Blaze hosted the #2 ranked Benilde-St. Margaret Red Knights in a game that will impact each team’s sectional seeding (Burnsville Class 2AA and Benilde Class 6AA). The Red Knights won in front of a raucous crowd of fans beating the Blaze 5-4.

The home team, Blaze, had lost twice this season before last night.  The two losses came at the hands of two teams that made it to the Class AA State Tourney last March, Hill-Murray 5-3 and Lakeville North 5-2.  The Blazes’ lone victory was a 10-1 beating of Rosemount.

The Red Knights couldn’t get past Wayzata in the Section 6AA finals last March, losing 5-2 to the young Trojans.  This year, the Red Knights are on a path to return to those 6AA Sectional finals.  They posted a 3-0 record going into last night’s game beating Rochester Lourdes 6-0, Denfeld 8-3 and Mounds View 11-5.  But a loss to Burnsville could have dropped the Knights to a lower seed and force Benilde to play tougher games just to get to the finals to most likely play the now year older Wayzata team.

The Burnsville Ice Arena is a great venue for high school hockey, a smaller arena with great views of the action and the Blaze get great fan support.  With the below zero wind chills outside silencing the night, inside, the arena was jumping, really jumping.

The Players Were Thumping

It was a physical game last night as both teams played aggressively and both teams did not back down in the corners or slow after a teammate took a big hit.  The first period had a number of hits that sent players cartwheeling.  So did the second period.  The third period had more than either of the first two periods as the game seesawed before the 1000 or so estimated fans.

The Red Knights’ forward held the edge in the opening minutes.  For most of the first period, their forwards were just able to beat the Blaze defense on rushes.  Five minutes into the first period, Benilde’s Mark Kaske beat the Blaze defense breaking down the left boards and fired a hard shot catching the upper right corner of the Blaze’s net to put the Red Knights up 1-0

The two teams seesawed after that goal as the play shifted from the Blaze’s to the Knights’ zone and back again.  At the 4 minute mark, Burnsville started to gain the edge and started to control the puck in Benilde’s zone.  That led to Knights' penalty and a Burnsville power play goal.

With less than a minute left in the first period and still on the power play the Blaze scored.  After Benilde had cleared their zone, the Blazes’ Jack Ahcan took a nice cross ice pass in the neutral zone left and skated through the Knight’s defense coming down the slot.  He broke free alone at the top of the crease and “top shelved” the shot to tie the game 1-1.  That ended the first period scoring.

This spot is more than hot in fact the joint is jumpin

The second period was wild.  It started as a downer for the local fans.  The Red Knights must have gotten an earful from the Benilde coaches in the locker room between periods.  They came out storming and stopped the place from jumping scoring three quick goals.

A minute into the second period, Benilde drew a tripping penalty and the Blaze power play relaxed.  It led to a shorthanded Red Knights’ goal.  On the penalty kill, a Benilde defenseman shot a wide clearing pass from the left boards to the right boards just inside the Blaze’s zone.  The Burnsville defense was slow to cover.  A Knight chased the puck down along the boards, beat the defense, and attacked the Blaze goal.  He was joined by a second forward.  Mark Kaske ended up with his second goa of the nightl; Carter Roo got the assist.  Benilde led 2-1.

The key plays in the game came at the 12 minute mark.  Benilde scored twice in less than a minute and took a 4-1 lead.  The first goal was a power play goal scored when the Knights took control of the puck and cycled under the hash marks looking for that good shot.  Spencer Naas got the opening and put the puck in the net.  Benilde led 3-1.  Forty seconds later, the Knights beat the Blaze defense on a 2-on-1 rush.  A hard shot on the Blaze goalie Dyllan Lubbesmeyer resulted in a loose puck in the left crease area.  Kaske, crashing the net, ended up with an easy goal and the Knights ended up with a 4-1 lead.

At this point, the joint stopped jumping.  But the Blazes Brock Boeser changed that.  At the 8 minute mark, Boeser picked up a loose puck off the right boards and skated into the slot.  He buried the puck to cut the Knights lead to 4-2.  Two minutes later, Boeser picked up a rebound in the “sweet spot” in front of Benilde’s net and buried the puck to cut the lead 4-3.  The roof was rockin. 

Check your weapons at the door, this place was jumping

The third period was just a great period of hockey.  As such periods go, it started slow.  The first five minutes were tense and the play tentative.  At the 12 minute mark, the Knights trapped the Blaze in Burnsville’s zone and started cycling low right.  This time Kaske got the scoring opportunity.  He buried the puck for a hat trick and a 5-3 lead.  It quieted the crowd for one minute.  That is how long it took for the Blaze to score.

The Blaze’s Eric Otto picked up a puck in the right corner and somehow managed to flip a hard pass to Will Missling coming down the shot.  Missling picked up the puck and skated it into the net.  The play happened so fast that the Benilde defense did not react; the goalie tried to make the save but could not recover.  It was an amazing play.  The roof was rocking.  Benilde led 5-4.  But there would be no more scores.

Over the last 11 minutes of the game, the players were thumping and the nets were flying.  Both teams skated a hard physical game.  Just as the Knights had faded at the end of the first and second periods, they faded at the end of the third period, playing defensive hockey.  They did not commit their forwards.  When Burnsville drew a penalty at the 9 minute mark, the Knights did not try to mount a power play.  They used the power play much like a timeout and simply dumped the puck in the Blaze's zone.

Burnsville pulled their goalie with a minute to go and got pressure on the Benilde net in that final minute, but the Red Knights’ defense held.  The arena quieted after the game ended.  The lights were dimmed as the fans were walking.  It was a bright, fun, spot to be on a below zero night.  The place was jumping.

The Players

Both teams have players on the roster that played peewee A.  The Knights' Ben Newhouse (team leader in scoring), Chase Jungles, and Mark Kaske all played on the Edina Peewee A team that won the 2010 State title at the tourney played in Faribault.  Will Duda was also in that tourney, playing for Eden Prairie.

In the District 6 2010 playoffs, Burnsville and Edina peewees battled each for regional seeds in three separate games.  The Blaze lost the first game 5-4, won the second 5-4 to force a championship game played on a Sunday only to lose 5-4.  The Blaze peewees then played Edina in a loser go home game in the regionals with the winner going on to the state tourney.  The Blaze lost 5-2.

Eight of this year’s Blaze (Jack Ahcan, Andy Schoen, Carter Dupre, Nolan Sawchuk, Cade Borchardt, Brock Boeser, Cole Borchardt, and goalie Dyllan Lubbesmeyer) played for the Blaze peewee A team that lost narrowly to the Edina peewee A’s.

Last year’s Blaze leading scorer, Tyler Sheehy, didn't play on the 2010 Blaze peewee A team.  And he didn't play last night.  This year, the potential Minnesota Hockey player of the year opted to pass on his senior year and play a year in the USHL for the Waterloo Blackhawks before going to Ohio State to play Big Ten hockey.  The Blaze’s Eric Otto and Dylan Weigel from last year’s bantam AA team have stepped in to help fill the scoring void left by Sheehy’s departure.  The two have posted a total of 9 points in the Blazes first 3 games.