St. Thomas Academy was on nobodies mind last night.  The game was all about East St. Paul hockey and the rivalry.  Both teams played physically after the opening period.  At the end of the third period, the Titans were standing tall.  The game had little significance in the conference title chase or in the chase for the top seed in Section 4AA.  Both teams are in the middle of the conference trailing co-leaders Hill-Murray and St. Thomas Academy.  In Section 4AA, an eight team section this year, both teams are ranked in the lower half of the section trailing Hill-Murray and White Bear Lake.

Pre-Game

The Tartan’s had beaten North St. Paul 7-4 in early December.  Tartan’s leading scorer, senior Rusty Axtman (57 points/22 goals) had a six point game scoring a hat trick in that Titan’s win.  Senior Zach Ledman (#3 scorer) had a four point game, and senior Barry O’Sullivan (#2 scorer) had a three point game.  The top three Tartan scorers have posted 165 points (67 goals) in 19 games this season.  They are collectively averaging over 8 points (3.5 goals) a game.  Their defense, led by senior goalie Gabriel Splichal, has held opponents to an average of 3.5 goals a game.  Splichal was in the nets for Wednesday’s game with the Polars.  Ledman, O’Sullivan, Axtman, and Splichal all played for the Tartan Association’s peewee A team in 2008-2009.

North St. Paul’s top line consists of senior Jimmy Salava (#2) and the Oliver Twins (Tyler #5 and Justin #7).  The Oliver Twins will be graduating this year and have played hockey for North St. Paul’s Association since they were peewees.  Zach LaValle, Hill-Murray’s leading scorer last season as senior, centered the Oliver Twins on the 2007-2008 Polar peewees.  They made a run at the peewee A state, but lost in the regionals to a Wayzata team lead by Grant Besse.

The 2-5-7 line has posted 112 points/47 goals in 22 games this season for an average of 5 points (2 goals) a game.  The Polar defense is anchored by senior goalie Stephen Orme (3.9 goals a game).  Orme was a goalie on the Oliver’s peewee A team in 2008-2009.

Period One: All 2-5-7

The first period didn’t start, it exploded.  North St. Paul started the 2-5-7 line and they drove the puck to end boards behind the Tartan goal.  Maverick Meister picked up the puck near the blue line and made a neat pass to Justin Oliver low left.  Oliver one timed the pass to Jimmy Salava in the right slot who buried the puck.  North St. Paul led 1-0.  On the following face off, the puck was driven into the right end boards and picked up by a Polar forward.  He hit Salava in the slot for a quick one timed second goal.  The Polars led 2-0 with 24 seconds having lapsed in the opening period.

The Tartan defense was “gun shy” for the rest of the period.  Whenever the 2-5-7 line hit the ice, they would back off on the North St. Paul blue line early for fear they would get beaten by the Polar forwards speed and deft passing skills.  It was, in a way, a hockey fans’ dream to watch the skill the 2-5-7 line showed offensively in the first period.  Unlike Lakeville North’s Poehling Brothers line (by coincidence they wear numbers 3-4-7) who play a steady, tough style, of hockey; the Polars’ 2-5-7 is more flamboyant in their play.

The Tartan defense played it loose in the first period, but had their moments.  Their attacks on the Polar net would come close in the opening period, but failed until the 10 minute mark.  The Polars had just launched a furious attack the resulted in a long rebound off the Tartan net that was picked up by the Titan’s Derick Sievers along the right boards.  Sievers crossed the Polar blue line and fired a high hard shot on the Polar net for the score.  Zack Wydra got the assist.  That goal cut the Polar lead to 2-1 and got the Titans out of their “shell shock”.

With five minutes left in the first period, the Titans’ defense was playing aggressive, pinching down at the Polar blue line, when the Polar bench snuck the 2-5-7 line on the ice catching the Titan’s defense out of position and generating a solo rush on Titan goalie Splichal.  Splichal made the big stop.  It would be the first of many he faced in the remainder of the game.  The first period ended with North St. Paul leading 2-1; shots on goal favored the Titans 13-12.  Twenty five shots in one period is a lot of offense.

Period Two: The Pounding Begins

Clearly, from the second period to the end of the game, the Titans would hit a Polar and hold the check every time they could when North St. Paul player would touch the puck.  The second period turned physical with Tartan delivering and holding checks long after the play moved on.  No penalties had been called at first.  The Titans were living dangerously and caught a break when two players mixed it up in center ice and a Tartan dropped the Polar with a punch.  Both players were given minor penalties.

Tartan’s goalie Splichal had a good first period and started to come on strong in the second.  He needed to be strong.  In the first two minutes of the second period, Splichal stopped another breakaway and stopped a point blank shot from the left crease.  Tartan turned the puck off the big stop into their own breakaway.  O’Sullivan beat the Polar defense to solo down the right slot.  His shot, instead of leaving the ice, slid hard under Polar goalie Orme’s leg pads.  Tartan had tied the game 2-2.  Axtman and Brandon Ayde got the assists.

At the 10 minute mark of the second period, the Polars 2-5-7 line created a 2-on-1 rush with one of the Oliver Twins coming free with puck on the lower left side only to be tackled by Titan defender.  Tartan killed that two minute penalty, but with 4 minutes on the clock, a Tartan boarded a Polar forward behind the Titan net.  Tartan had finally gotten a 5:00 minute major.

Then NSP’s 2-5-7 line disappeared, they were on the ice together very little for the remainder of the second period.  It altered the game play.  Tartan’s penalty kill went to work and stifled the Polar power play.  In one of the key plays of the game, with the Polars in control of the puck in the Titan’s zone, Tartan’s Zach Ledman skated out of the Titan’s zone along the left boards and picked a pass from senior defenseman Zach Moore.  Zedman soloed down the slot and beat Orme with a high hard shot right.  The shorthanded goal put Tartan up 3-2.  Moore got the assist.

The Polars went back on the attack and with a minute left in the period, junior forward Maverick Meister drove the net cutting from left to right across the crease to finally beat Splichal on a hard shot from the top of the crease.  Meister’s power play goal tied the game 3-3 at the end of the second period.  Despite having a man advantage for 6 of the last 10 minutes of the second period, the Polars were outshot 13-8.

Period Three: Tartan Goalie Splichal Steps Up

The third period opened with Tartan on the attack in the first minute.  They established puck control in the Polar zone, worked the puck low and pounded Orme in the nets.  It took three shots to score with the Tartan forwards camped in a semicircle around the crease.  O’Sullivan got the goal; Axtman and Ledman got the assists.  Tartan led for 4-3.  One of the Oliver Twins drew a penalty two minutes later taking 2-5-7 off the ice for two minutes.

The Polars killed the power play and their offense started to strike back.  Officially, the Polars had just seven shots on goal in the third period.  It seemed like more, but the shots they had were tough to stop.  Splichal had to stop at least three point blank shots, one a weak side attempt that he somehow manage to recover and block.  The Tartan defense took out two rushes by checking from behind (two minute penalty) and a dive to knock the feet out of a Polar forward on the attack in the lower left crease.

With eight minutes left in the third period, the Polars put tremendous pressure on Splichal and he came up big with the puck rebounding to the blue line.  Two Tartan forwards picked up the puck, caught the Polar defense forward, soloed on the North St. Paul goal, and scored.   Axtman got the goal; Connor O’Sullivan and Brady O’Sullivan got the assists.  Tartan led 5-3 and Splichal came up big.

The game was over.  Splichal had broken the Polar attack.  Tartan added two more goals in the last minute of play to end the scoring 7-3.  Brady O’Sullivan scored again to get the hat trick, sophomore Dan Betz scored the other goal.

What is Next?

Tartan will play five games in the next 9 days and end their season hosting Hill-Murray and playing at Duluth East.  Thursday they play Simley at VMI.  The Titans have posted a 13-6-0 record this season.  Last season they went 20-5-1 and ended up with the #3 seed in Section 4AA.  The Titans lost to Roseville in the quarter final game played at Aldrich 6-5.  This year, they could get the #3 seed again especially if they do well against the Hill or the Hounds and win their other three games.  But it is a tough schedule this coming week.  If they could get to #3, they would draw a Mounds View or North St. Paul.  If not, they will most likely play Roseville again.

North St. Paul has three games left and finishes their season next Thursday hosting St. Thomas Academy.  Last season, North St. Paul was seeded #7 and lost a tough game to #2 White Bear Lake.  They are in the exact same position if they finish #7 this season.  If they could do well in their last three games, they could climb past Mounds View into the #6 seed and end up with a re-match with Tartan.

Cool?

There has been some interest generated out East in trying to understand what was “cool” in the middle of the last century.  “Cool” started with leather jackets and motorcycles (the big ones) and morphed into “ducktails, narrow belts (usually shinny), loafers or leather shoes in the winter (slid further), and drag racing on county roads with small v-8 chevs and fords.  Losing your “cool” was bad.  It didn’t equate to having your parents take your small v-8 chev away, that sometimes made someone “cooler”.  One lost their “cool” when they lost control of themselves in front of kids who respected them.  Wednesday, the Polars’ 2-5-7 line was “cool” for a period, than they lost “their cool”.  When cool, they are something worth seeing.