The Green Wave is back
East Grand Forks Reed Corbid (#20) goes for the rebound
After a scoreless first half of the game, East Grand Forks’ Dixon Bowen, the Green Wave’s top scorer (56 points/25 goals) beat the New Prague defense swinging wide to the outside and cut across the faceoff circle to the top of the crease. Bowen was not the first Green Wave player to solo on New Prague’s outstanding goalie, Conner Wagner in the game. The previous five or six times the Wave attempted to score, Warner stuffed the puck dead. But this time Bowen beat Wagner’s attempted stick block. He leaned back in his skates and went high beating Wagner on the left side. The goal broke the scoreless tie putting East Grand Forks up 1-0 and setting up a wild semifinal game between EGF and Mahtomedi in what should be one of the best games of the tourney. But unless the Green Wave gets fan re-enforcements for Friday morning’s 11:00 AM semifinal game, EGF supporters will be easily outnumbered by the highly vocal Zephyr fans and their team in trouble on the ice. The defending champs could be playing at 9:00 AM Saturday.
East Grand Forks Dixon Bowen scores the game winner putting the Green Wave up 1-0 on this goal.
East Grand Forks shot is stopped
East Grand Forks used its physical strength to defuse the New Prague offense and to beat the Trojans 4-0 Wednesday afternoon. It was a game that matched two veteran teams. Both teams played in last seasons’ state tourney. This state tourney, New Prague has 10 seniors on its roster, one sophomore, and one ninth grader. The Green Wave has 11 seniors on its roster and two sophomores. Both teams have size, but East Grand Forks has strength and played strong after starting quietly. The opening minutes of the game had both teams playing cautiously. As the period progressed, the Trojans started to give the East Grand Forks forwards just a second or two extra time when the Wave would form their offense on the breakout at the EGF blue line. The New Prague forwards gave the Green Wave that few extra feet and EGF started to roll.
It resulted in East Grand Forks putting constant pressure Wagner and the Trojan defense low in the New Prague zone. EGF started to find ways through neutral ice and break low on the New Prague goal. That often resulted in a solo on Wagner. Wagner came to play and he held his position stopping the East Grand Forks scoring attempts. He held the Green Wave scoreless blocking all 13 shots on goal. The New Prague offense could only muster 4 shots in the period. The opening period ended in a 0-0 tie.
New Prague goalie Conner Wagner sends this puck left.
New Prague came out of the locker room playing more aggressive on the offense in the second period. The overall game pace picked up and the game began to look like a barn burner in the first seven minutes of the period. With ten minutes to go, the game became physical. At one point, a number of hard checks were made in less than a minute of play along all four boards. It resulted in the Green Wave defense starting to dominate play in the EGF zone. The New Prague forwards were being pushed wide on their attacks and tied up in the corners. Turning the puck easily, the Green Wave put more pressure on the New Prague defense. The Green Wave forwards were finding the openings and soloing on the Trojan’s goalie Wagner. Wagner was stopping them until Dixon Bowen made his move to score with six minutes left in the period putting EGF up 1-0. Tanner Tweten and Sam Larson got the assists.
Trailing 1-0, New Prague loaded their line on the next shift out and came back at the Green Wave. They had their best pressure of the game and almost got the tying goal. Then both teams started to tire in the last minutes of the second period. Play slowed. No goals were scored. East Grand Forks led 1-0 going into the third period and had out shot the Trojans 19-10 in the first two periods.
The question, as the third period started, was could New Prague’s offense adjust to the physical play and pressure the EGF net? They didn’t. Instead, East Grand Forks put New Prague back on the defensive in the opening minute of the period. The Trojans “dodged a bullet” in that minute. They struggled to hit the breakout and EGF was starting to turn the puck easily at the New Prague blue line and breaking in on Wagner. With five minutes gone in the third period, the Green Waves’ Braden Shea puck a hard shot on New Prague’s net. The puck rebounded to the lower right crease to Cooper Jerome. Jerome scored the insurance goal, putting EGF up 2-0. Shea got the assist.
New Prague’s offense again tried to push the attack after that score, but still could not control the puck in the EGF zone corners. The Green Wave defense over the next 10 minutes of play controlled their defensive zone. A simple faceoff in the New Prague zone three minutes into the period resulted in the third EGF score. The Green Wave center won the draw with the puck ending up on Nick Derrick’s stick. Derrick put a hard shot on Warner that resulted in the puck climbing Warner’s shoulder and landing in the net. Grant Loven and Bowen got the assists. EGF led 3-0. Bowen added an empty net score in the last minute of play. East Grand Forks won and advances to play Mahtomedi Friday in the semifinals. In the battle of the “News”, New Prague plays New Ulm 10:00 AM Thursday morning at Ridder.
New Prague goalie Conner Wagner stops this point blank shot (the puck is rolling right)