The Pre-Game

New Prague and Mankato West have been headed on a collision course to play this game for the past two months.  The only real question as regular season ended is which team would be wearing white in last night’s game.  New Prague, as the #1 seed, had the white.

Each team had a good season in their conference.  New Prague finished second in the Missota Conference; Mankato West easily won the Big 9 title, going unbeaten in 18 games.

The Trojans posted a 20-4-3 record before last night’s game.  After losing two mid-January games (to Hermantown 7-3 and to Farmington 4-3), New Prague had strung a 7 game win streak together.   The Scarlets came into last night’s game on a 14 game winning streak with an overall 25-2-0 record.

New Prague’s offense ended the regular season with eight players posting twenty or more points in the 25 game season.  The Trojan’s averaged 4.4 goals a game while giving up 2.5 goals a game.  New Prague’s top goal scorers are senior Augie Isaacson (52 points/23 goals), senior Seth Kriha (45 points/11 goals), and sophomore Alex Gregor (40 points/18 goals).  Gregor is the play maker for the Trojans; YHH has followed Gregor since he was a peewee B player playing in the South Regional Peewee B tourney held at the MAC in St. Cloud.  Junior Conner Wagner (posted a 18-4-3 record giving up 2.5 goals a game while stopping 90% of the shots on net).

Period One

For most of the game, Mankato West had the pressure, but not in the first half of the opening period.  New Prague controlled the play in West’s half of the ice, but didn’t score until Mankato West drew a tripping penalty at the 6 minute mark.  It took the Trojans eight seconds to score on the power play.  New Prague’s Austin Kilian scored the goal from the left slot area using a Scarlet defender as a screen.  It was a neat two pass play, a pass from the left side boards to left end boards and then a pass to Kilian in the slot.  Augie Isaacson and Seth Kriha got the assists.

Trojan’s goalie, Conor Wagner, was tested by the Scarlets in the opening period with some hard mid-range shots that he gloved down.  The period ended with the Trojans up 1-0 despite being outshot 11-6.  Mankato West ended up outshooting the Trojans 34-15 in the game.

Period Two

Period two was an all-out Mankato West attack.  The Scarlets pressured the Trojans in the New Prague zone constantly forcing Wagner to come up with some big stops.  Yet the Trojans scored twice. 

Three minutes into the second period, the Trojans’ Alex Gregor scored.  With the West controlling the puck in the New Prague zone, the Trojan’s Alex Gregor drifted behind the Scarlets’ defense in neutral ice along the left boards and was hit with an outlet pass.  Gregor soloed in on the West goalie Wollenzien beating him through the 5-hole to put New Prague up 2-0.  Jake Klein and Cole Rolland got the assists.

But the real killer and game winning goal came on a play with six seconds left in the period.  With New Prague on the attack, the puck ended up in a dead stop wedged between Wollenzien’s right leg pad and the ice clearly visible to all but out of Wollenzien’s sight.  The Trojans’ Austin Kilian attacked the puck and dragged it off the pad and into the net.  Jake Ekness got the assist.  New Prague led 3-0 going into the third period.  Wagner stopped 16 Scarlet shots in the second period.

Period Three

What does a coach do in the locker room leading by three goals and knowing one good period, and your team will be playing at the Xcel?  What does a coach do in the locker room trailing by three goals and knowing that trip to state is slipping away?

New Prague came out of the locker room not quite ready and the Scarlets came out fired up.  One minute into the period, West’s Cole Filler simply beat the Trojan defense to the outside coming down the right boards.  Filler cut to the right faceoff and buried the puck beating Conner Wagner high right.  It was a great shot, and three thousand people exploded.  It was game on.  Cain Grimm got the assist.  The Scarlets trailed 3-1.

The Trojans became defensive; they focused on pinning the Scarlets in the West zone by playing high in the slot in front of the West’s goal and blanketing the Scarlets’ side of the neutral zone.  For the next eight minutes, New Prague held West in check, but still did not keep the West’s offensive totally in check.

The game became a battle of the points.  West would drive the puck deep and their defense would play aggressive at the New Prague blue line, trying to hold the puck in the Trojan’s zone.  New Prague got more than one solo shot at the Scarlet net; Wollenzien came up big stopping the solos.

Going To State     

Many older people in Minnesota communities can remember what regional or sectional playoff time meant 40 or 50 years ago.  They remember it changed the winter to spring.  They remember it meant a long caravan of cars leaving to go to the local "big" arena to root your team on to win.  The further the team went in the play down to “state”, the longer the caravan.  The more the community talked about their local heroes.  “Hoosiers” did not invent what happens each March; they recorded as it happened 60 years ago in Indiana. 

Thursday night at the Rochester Rec, it happened again.  New Prague won and “got to go to state”.  Mankato West lost and got to go home.  Both are fine teams, either one would have represented the area well at the Xcel.

So late Thursday evening, in below zero weather, their fans got in their cars and caravanned home creating a new memory for each team and their rooters.

And spring is around the corner.  Isn’t high school hockey great?