Section 3A Championship

Congratulations go to the New Ulm Eagles, Section 3A champions.  YHH predicted here a month ago that New Ulm would play Proctor/Hermantown in the 1:00 PM game in the Class A quarterfinals.  At Redwood Falls Tuesday, a stubborn Marshall’s defense shut down New Ulm’s high scoring offense in the first period holding the Eagles to six shots in the opening period.  Marshall junior goalie, Morgan Morrill, stopped all six.  The first period ended in a 0-0 tie.  The Eagles offense started to roll in the second period.  Halfway through the period, New Ulm’s forwards finally beat goalie Morrill and the Cardinal defense to break the scoreless tie.  Junior Brook Schugel scored the game winner putting the Eagles up 1-0.  Ninth grader Dani Weiss got the assist.  With less than a minute to go in the second, senior Erika Ries scored unassisted to give the Eagles a 2-0 lead.  New Ulm outshot Marshall 15-5 in the second period.  Marshall came back to put pressure on New Ulm in the third period, but couldn’t beat the Eagles freshman goalie Karlie Ries.  New Ulm’s Erika Ries scored late in the third period to end the scoring 3-0.  Ninth grader Lauren Klein got the assist.  The Eagles will be heading to the Xcel to play in the Class A quarterfinals February 18th.     

Section 4A Semifinal   

St. Thomas is a big, sort of cavernous arena.  It takes more than most high school venues to get a hockey game roaring in that arena.  Tuesday night the “cave” was roaring for both games.  St. Paul United beat Mahtomedi 4-1 in front of a large crowd that was loud until United scored their fourth goal in the third period.  Then some fans left, some came, and some stayed.  More fans were in the stands when South St. Paul and Simley took the ice amid loud cheers and boos, the “cave” got louder.  It was a great high school hockey scene and totally unexpected.

St. Paul United is the team that stands tall in Section 4A this year.  The Spartans have posted a 19-7-1 record including Tuesday’s win.  Most of the losses have been at the hands of tough teams (Breck, Blake twice, Dodge County, and Wayzata).  Their top three scorers are sophomore Joie Phelps (55 points/37 goals), ninth grader Samantha Burke (50 points/21 goals), and sophomore Lauren Boettcher (38 points/14 goals).  Burke is a strong skating forward reminiscent of Edina’s ninth grader Emily Oden.  The three United players form the top line for the Spartans and scored the first two United goals in their win over the Zephyrs.  Boettcher scored in fifteen seconds into the opening period in United’s 4-1 win over Mahtomedi.  United held on the 1-0 lead in an evenly played first period until Mahtomedi’s Emma Bartholomew scored with thirty seconds left in the period to tie the game 1-1.  United had the edge in first period shots on goal 9-8.  St. Paul United finally broke the game open with two late second period goals.  The first goal was scored by Burke with less than seven minutes to go in the period.  Sophomore Maggie Conners scored three minutes later to put United up 3-1 at the opening of the third period.  Ninth grader Olivia Williams-Ridge scored the lone third period United goal to end the scoring 4-1.  The #1 seeded United will play the #2 seeded South St. Paul Thursday at St. Thomas Arena.  That “cave” should be roaring again.  With the fan support the St. Paul teams are getting, St. Thomas Arena is the place to go.

South St. Paul was cheered and then roundly booed (good-naturedly) as they took the ice against Simley.  In a mostly packed arena for a late second game with an 8:00 PM start, the fans and teams were out to win.  The teams opened in high gear and went for the net behind two sets of fans trying to voice approval and disapproval as the game situation changed dramatically in a matter of seconds.  The game played Tuesday is what hockey is all about, drawing the fans into the action on the ice.  Five minutes into the game, Simley drew the first penalty and the Packers’ power play went to work setting up in Simley’s zone.  But Simley’s forwards knocked the puck loose at the blue line, picked up the loose puck and turned it into a 2-on-1 rush with Jaclyn Bergum carrying the puck down the right slot.  Bergum moved to the goalie’s right drawing Packer senior goalie Sydney Conley to the right post and fed ninth grader Maddie Wicke on the left.  Wicke one-timed the puck over a diving Conley for the shorthanded score to put Simley up 1-0.  The Spartans held onto that lead until late in the period when the Packers caught Simley slow in transitioning from the power play and attacked the Spartan net.  Taylor Cashman got the score to tie the game 1-1 with 40 seconds left on the clock.  It was a big goal.  The second period was a wild, hard skating, affair with fans roaring on the good plays and oohing when the bodies went flying.  It was an intense effort by both teams to score the next goal and the fans felt the tension.  A Simley penalty with four minutes to go in the second period set up the winning goal.  The Packers’ launched an attack on the left side of the Simley net trying to put a rebounding puck into the net.  Instead the puck found its way past five players and the goalie to Cashman all alone on the right side.  Cashman one-timed the puck into the Simley goal for the game winner.  South St. Paul led 2-1.  The third period continued to keep the fans roaring as the two teams battled each other.  Simley had an early power play opportunity, but couldn’t score.  The Packers won 2-1.   It was a good night for hockey at St. Thomas Tuesday.          

Section 5A Semifinals

The third game between Breck and Blake is on.  Both teams won their semifinal games setting up a Section 5A championship game between two YHH top ranked teams in the state.  Breck beat Orono 5-2.  The line of 44’s has been split the past few games with Grace Zumwinkle (#4) and Leah Schwartzman (#44) skating with Kendall Williamson (#8).  The third “44”, Gabby Billing is centering a line.  Against Orono, Williamson, Grace Zumwinkle, and Billings each got a goal.  Schwartzman got an assist.  The Mustangs took a 2-1 lead after the first period (Williamson and Sydney Breza scored for Breck/Brooklyn Duffy scored for Orono).  Second period goals by Grace Zumwinkle and Cassidy Holzer broke the game open putting Breck up 4-1 going into the third period.  Billing got the fifth Mustang goal and Grace Limesand scored for the Spartans to end the scoring 5-2.  One player that has improved for Breck in the past month is sophomore defenseman Anna Zumwinkle.  She had two assists Tuesday and has become more offensive since the start of the year.  Blake beat Mound/Westonka 5-1 in the second semifinal game at Parade Tuesday.  The White Hawks were tied with the Bears 1-1 with time running out in the second period when Blake exploded for two goals in two minutes to take a 3-1 into the third period.  The Bears added two more third period goals to win 5-1.  Blake outshot Westonka 44-20 in the game.  Now the third and final game of the season is on with either Blake or Breck going the Xcel and the other going home.     

Section 8A Semifinals

Thief River Falls and Warroad both won their Section 8A semifinal games played Monday night at Crookston.  The Prowlers' powerful offensive beat Crookston 9-0.  Thief River Falls outshot the Pirates 59-8.  Crookston sophomore goalie Lexie Cormican stopped 18 of 20 Thief River Falls shots in the first period to keep the game close.  The Prowlers led 2-0 going into the second period.  They added four more goals in the second and three more in the third period to win 9-0.  The Prowlers’ top line of sophomore Kora Torkelson, senior Emily Bergland, and junior Kaylee Eskeli scored four of the first five goals.  Torkelson scored three of the goals, Bergland scored one, and Eskeli assisted on three of the scores.  Senior Morgan Martell,  senior Sylvia Marolt, junior Briana Jorde (2), and sophomore Madison Poole also scored for the Prowlers.  The Prowlers top goal scorer, Bergland (55 points/28 goals), Jorde, and Marolt have committed to play Division I hockey at Bemidji State.  Senior goal tender Frances Marshall got the shutout.  It was her 22nd win of the season.

Warroad beat a tough East Grand Forks team 7-2  East Grand Forks battled through two plus periods and trailed the Warriors 4-2 halfway into the third period before Warroad junior Demi Gardner scored twice and ninth grader Madison Oelkers scored once to put the game away.  Gardner got the hat trick scoring two of her three goals shorthanded.  Oelkers scored a second goal; junior Valerie Jacques and senior Francesca Huerd each scored.  The Warriors play Thief River Falls in the 8A championship game at Crookston Thursday.