Hounds beat the Cadets
Duluth East pulls the 6-5 upset
St. Thomas Academy’s Peter Tufto put on scoring show for the 15,005 fans attending the Thursday’s afternoon session of the Minnesota State High School League’s Class AA tourney. Tufto, the Cadets leading scorer (72 points/30 goals) figured in the first five goals the Cadets put on the scoreboard scoring two and assisting on the other three. The five goals gave St. Thomas Academy a 5-2 lead going into the third period against a tough Duluth East. After the Hounds scored two minutes into the period, the Cadets took control of the game. For the next 12 minutes of play, the game seemed to be over. With just under three minutes left in the game, Duluth East scored and a minute later scored again to send the game into overtime. Ninety seconds into the overtime, Ryan Peterson re-directed a puck passed from the left boards to the top of the Cadets’ crease to score the winning goal. The Hounds will play Edina in the Class AA semifinals Friday evening at the Xcel. St. Thomas Academy plays Bemidji in a consolation semifinal game at Mariucci Friday morning.
The Hounds celebrate the upset
St. Thomas Academy's Matt Snow looks at the puck flys between his pads for the first Duluth East score
This is the first Class AA tourney for the perennial Class A state titlist. The Cadets moved to Class AA for the 2013-2014 season and lost in the sectional semifinals. This year the Academy posted a 24-4 record and got the #3 Class AA seed. They drew Duluth East (effectively seeded #6) in their opener. The Cadets, after winning their first 13 games this season, had gone 11-4 in their last 11-4 in their last 15 regular season games. Duluth East struggled this season posting a 14-10-4 record and ended their regular season schedule tying Minnetonka 4-4, a team Edina had beaten 3-2 two days before.
Except for a burst of two goals at the end of the first period, most of the game was all Cadets. They moved the puck well against the bigger stronger Hounds and scored almost at will in the opening minutes of play. Brian Hurley scored the first Cadet goal, Tufto assisting three minutes into the game. Three minutes later, Tufto assisted Danny Weihrauch to put St. Thomas Academy up 2-0. Four minutes later, Tufto beat the Duluth East defense coming off the right boards and put a hard shot on East’s goalie Gunnar Howg. Tufto accelerated after the shot picking up the rebounding puck cutting to the lower left crease. His second shot hit the back of the net. The Cadets led 3-0.
Duluth East's Ryan Peterson (#24 left) celebrates the winning score
For the next few minutes of play in the opening period, St. Thomas Academy continued to pressure the Hounds in East’s zone, but after that opening barrage, East was starting to control play. With just under two minutes left in the period, things changed. The Hounds’ Brian Bunten ended up with the puck behind the Cadet net and beat the Cadets’ goalie on a quick move off the left side. Bunten’s shot found the 5-hole in St. Thomas Academy’s goalie Matt Snow spread eagle save attempt. A minute later, East’s Lukas Dow fired a hard shot from the right slot area beating Snow’s save attempt with the blocker. Both East scores were unassisted. East ended the period on an up note. After a tough opening they trailed the Cadets 3-2 going into the second period and outshot St. Thomas 11-5.
The two teams played evenly in the second period. St Thomas scored early and scored late to re-build their lead to three goals, 5-2. The Cadets got their first goal of the period off a second rebound. The first shot from the point rebounded to Tufto in the left slot. Tufto shot was stopped by Snow with the puck trickling to Seamus Donohue at the right post. Donohue put the puck in the net. Tufto and Alec Broetzman got the assists. Tufto scored the Cadets fifth goal to put St. Thomas up 5-2 going into the third period.
St. Thomas Academy's Peter Tufto (left) scores to put the Cadets up 3-0 in the first period
East’s Ryan Peterson got the opening score in the third period to cut STA’s lead to 5-3. The two teams then settled into a style of play that had went nowhere. The Cadets seemed content to not force the play, but neither did the Hounds. One thing that was happening it that the physical play in the corners was starting to favor Duluth East, but the Hounds could not take advantage until the last three minutes of the period. On the power play, East’s Evan Little got the power play goal with less than three minutes left in the game. Nick Funk got the game tying goal 50 seconds later setting up Peterson’s overtime heroics.