Minnesota fans rally around their teams in home games, especially is the team is on the rise.  New Prague is a rising team in a south central Minnesota town and their fans rallied around the team even though they were losing early 6-1.  It was a fascinating game to watch.  It was as if the fans were the noise bomb.  The Trojan’s were the “fuses”.

Pre-Game

Saturday’s game had significance in the State Class A Tournament seeding process.  New Prague is the favorite to win Section 1A; Hermantown is in a duel for the Section 7A title with Duluth Marshall.  The Hilltoppers just beat Breck 3-2 last week at Breck.  A Hermantown loss at New Prague would have dropped the Hawks in the 7A seeds.

More importantly, four of the other six leading Class A contenders for sectional titles (Breck, Luverne, Totino Grace, and Chisago Lakes) trail New Prague and Hermantown in overall rankings.  By winning Saturday, Hermantown put some distance between the Trojans or the Section 1A winner at Class A State Tourney seeding time.

At this point in the season, East Grand Forks is the favorite for the #1 seed in the Class A state tourney providing the win Section 8A.  Hermantown now has a case to claim the #2 or #3 seed in the State Tourney.  All the Hawks (and the Green Wave) have to do is win their sectional playoffs.

Hermantown is a veteran team with 8 seniors and 9 juniors on their roster.  The Hawks have the offensive firepower averaging 6 goals a game while holding their opponents to two goals.  Six Hermantown players (Ryan Kero, Nate Pionk, Scott Wasbotten, Kori Ochs, Wyatt Aamodt, and Cole Koepke) have posted 20 or more points this season.  Kero, a junior, leads the team with 34 points/14 goals.  Only three of the top nine Hawk scorers are seniors.  Two seniors, Jace Thomas and Adam Smith, have split the Hawk goaltending this season.  Saturday afternoon, Adam Smith started in the nets for the Hawks.  Smith has posted a 7-2 record giving up an average of 2.8 goals while stopping 88% of the shots on net including the New Prague win.

New Prague has 11 seniors and 7 juniors on its varsity roster.  The Trojans rely more on their defense to keep the game close, holding their opponents to an average of 2.3 goals a game.  Offensively, New Prague is putting an average of 4.1 goals a game on the scoreboard.  Four Trojans have scored more thant 20 points this season (Augie Isaacson, Seth Kriha, Alex Gregor, and Austin Kilian).  Three are seniors, only Gregor is an underclassman, a sophomore.  Junior Conner Wagner has been in the nets all season for the Trojans.  Wagner started Saturday.  He has a 13-3-3 record stopping 90% of the shots on net and giving up an average of 2.4 goals a game.

Both teams are leading their conferences.  Hermantown leads in the Lake Superior Conference with Duluth Marshall threatening.  New Prague is in a virtual tie with Farmington for the top spot in the Missota Conference. 

Period One

This first period opened with a shock for New Prague.  The Hawks’ Jonah Williams beat the Trojan defense to the outside along the right boards, skated towards the net, and misfired on a pass to a breaking Hawk wing on the weak side.  Instead of the puck flying past Trojans’ goalie Conner Wagner, it slid along the ice just beyond Wagner’s outstretched skate for a goal.  It was like a batter swinging for the frences on a knuckleball.  It caught the Trojans off guard.  The Hawks led 1-0.

The game developed a nice flow after the opening goal. For the next six minutes, the New Prague offense was catching Hermantown deep in the Hawks’ zone, but could not gain control of the puck.  At the 7 minute mark, the Trojans drew a holding penalty and Hermantown went to work on the power play.  Controlling the puck in the Trojans’ zone, the Hawks worked the puck to left end boards and hit Cole Koepke skating down the left end line towards the net.  Koepke caught the Wagner with his left shoulder slightly down leaving a small opening between Wagner and the left post.  Koepke buried the puck for a 2-0 Hermantown lead.

After that score, the Hawks attacked in waves.  Playing a high forecheck in the Trojan’s zone, Hermantown would turn the puck in the neutal zone and beat the Trojan defense creating rushes that would often develop low in the New Prague zone.

On one of these rushes, New Prague junior Ben Witt banged a hard pass off the right boards.  The puck was picked up by Austin Kilian in neutral ice.  Kilian busted through the Hawk defense, cut into the left face off circle and beat the Hawks’ goalie Adam Smith with a hard shot.  New Prague fans went crazy.  The Trojans had cut the Hawk lead to 2-1.  Witt got the assist.  The craziness lasted just 14 seconds.

The Hawks took the center ice faceoff, turned it into a rush with puck ending up on the end boards.  A Hawk fired a pass into the slot to a breaking Ryan Carlson.  Carlson buried the puck in the net to put the Hawks up 3-1. Ryan Kero got the assist.  Two minutes later, the Hawks Kyle Amundson scored a shot from the right faceoff circle.  New Prague’s goalie mishandled with his glove.  The puck climbed the catcher and continued into the net.

With less than minute left in the period, the Trojan’s took a frustration penalty.  The first period ended, but the Trojans must have felt “snake bitten”.  They left the ice trailing 4-1, being outshot 20-8, and would play the first minute of the second period a man down.

The Game Within The Game

Between the first and second period, the New Prague Blue Mites played the New Prague White Mites.  Both teams skated onto the ice between two lines of New Prague Varsity players.  Most of the mites had spent an hour standing at the boards in their hockey gear watching the festivities and the game and the crowd.  Two nets were placed end to end in neutral ice and the varsity players formed a makeshift set of boards along each blue line.  The Blue team scored first; the White team scored second.  Typical of Trojan hockey, it was a defensive game that ended in a tie.  The mite teams left the ice amid high fives from the varsity team. 

Period Two

Trailing 4-1 and a sitting on a silent crowd of fans waiting to explode on a good Trojan play, New Prague came out of the locker room and promptly gave up a power play goal.  The Hawks set up in the Trojan’s zone, moved the puck to Wyatt Aamodt on the right point.  Aamodt put the puck on the net beating the Trojan’s goalie high.  Zach Kramer and Ryan Kero got the assists.  The Hawks led 5-1 and went to line up for the center ice face off in front of a silent crowd and the music playing “let’s get it started…”.

The Trojans players were shell shocked.  A Hermantown penalty a minute later provided some relief for the Trojans, but New Prague failed to score on the power play.  A Hawk 5 minute major penalty at the 13 minute mark gave the Trojans more relief.  They started to make some good plays getting the puck into the slot area in front of the Hawk net, but Hermantown’s defense stopped the New Prague forwards.  They could not get a good shot off.  The Trojan power play never got organized.

After killing the major penalty, New Prague drew a hooking penalty.  On the power play again, the Hawk’s Cole Koepke scored; Luke Jacques and Aamodt got the assists.  The Hawks led 6-1 and again lined up for the face off in front of a silent packed arena to the strains of “let’s get it started….”.

At this point in the game, the Trojans started.  They picked up their game tempo and begin beating the Hawks in the races to the puck.  The Hawks responded by shifting into a higher gear.  Suddenly, down 6-1, there was a hockey game.  With just under two minutes left in the second period, the Trojan’s Casey Busch picked up the puck along the right boards and buried the puck in the Hawks’ net from the right faceoff circle to cut the Hermantown lead to 6-2.  The crowd exploded.

Now every positive Trojan play was met with cheers.  When the Hawks drew an interference penalty near the end of the second period, both the Trojans and their fans were into the game.  They trailed 6-2; but everybody saw what they had come for, a ray of hope.

Period Three

It took the Trojans less that minute into the third period to score their third goal.  The Trojan power play had just ended when Austin Kilian skated the puck along the right boards in the Hawk zone and let fly with a shot that beat the Hawks’ goalie and cut the lead to 6-3.  The fans and both teams were into the game.  At the 14 minute mark, the Hawk defense was pressing on the point in the Trojan defense.  They didn’t need to score.  They needed to get the heck out of that arena.

The New Prague forwards had been frustrated by the Hawk defense all day and they started to beat the Hawk defense in the neutral ice or off the side boards in the Hawk zone.  But the Hawk defense settled down and defended the area in front of the Hawk net well; playing like a pair of defenders, not individually.  When the clock got to four minutes without any more Trojan goals, the crowd relaxed.  The tension went out of the air.  Hermantown’s Cole Koepke scored a late goal to end the scoring 7-3.  Kori Ochs got the assist.  Koepke got the hat trick, scoring three goals.

What’s Next?

The Trojan fans support their team and they were a factor by not giving up on the Trojans when they were down 6-1.  New Prague (7-0-2) plays Farmington (7-0-1) in a game that will decide the Missota Conference Champion this Tuesday at Farmington.  Both Farmington’s home ice and New Prague’s home ice are similar venues and both teams are rated even.  It should be a close game in front of a full house.  New Prague plays Rochester Lourdes (5-13-0) in two weeks on another Saturday afternoon.  The game should be played in front of another 1000 or so fans.  New Prague will be out to beat the defending and perennial Section 1A champions Lourdes for the second time this season.  A loss would bury the Eagles in the Section 1A playoffs dropping them to a sixth or seventh seed.

As a general rule, sectional seeders value sectional games first, overall season records second.  Hermantown is 3-0 this season against 7A foes and has two games left, Duluth Denfeld and Hibbing.  Already holding a win over #2 Duluth Marshall and having beaten New Prague, the Hawks are the odds on favorites to take the 7A #1 seed and to go to state.  The Hawks will also host Totino Grace next Saturday in another battle of top sectional leaders.  Totino Grace is currently contending in Section 4A.  The Eagles are the highest ranked team in 4A, beating out Mahtomedi and St. Paul Academy.

Some people think of Hermantown as Duluth suburb, but over the years, the Hawks have become more of their own town, not part of Duluth.  Towns like Hermantown, New Prague, and Farmington epitomize a good part of hockey in Minnesota.  And like most Minnesota towns, they believe it is not where you come from, but what you make of the life you are given when you live there.