Terrible Tuesday
The second day of a tournament is the turning point for teams...you're either going to the championship or you stare in the mirror wondering if you got what it takes. Making matters worse for a few teams, they had the championship in their grasp and let it slip away.
Number 1A Breck tumbled to a pedestrian AA Rosemount team. An Irish team that even their fans wondered if they'd escape running time with the Mustangs. Princeton had Greenway down heading into the third period and lost in the last minute. Number 9AA Edina lost to Minnetonka 3-2 in the last 28 seconds...the Skippers advanced to the Gold title against Lake Conference rival Eden Prairie.
Speaking of terrible. Mahtomedi wins Tuesday and won't get a shot at #1A Breck. If they get past Rosemount, it is likely they won't care. Bemidji caught a case of terribles Tuesday night, losing in OT, giving up a short handed goal to lose their first game of the year.
Other Games of Note
#2A Hermantown beat #6A Delano (5-2)...the Hawks one win away of number 500 for Head Coach Bruce Plante.
#3A St. Cloud Apollo over St. Cloud Tech (5-0)...quietly one of the best teams in MN....shhhhh
Eagan over Jefferson (6-3)...Wildcats take SSP Premier title
#7AA Grand Rapids > Forest Lake...Thunderhawks win a 7AA seeding game
So you Schwan Play Games with Me?
Gold
#2AA Eden Prairie 5, Hill Murray 2
Eagles continue to show why they are a lock to skate to state this March.
Minnetonka 3, #9AA Edina 2
Mario Bertogliat scores a crucial late goal for the Skippers to gain the Schwan "big boy" final against EP. The Skippers have an ultra talented team that will give the Eagles all they can handle Wednesday.
Nick Hart makes a big save for Rosemount Tuesday
Silver
Michael Talbot scores for Anoka Tuesday
Bronze
After a scoreless first period, Bloomington Kennedy (8-5-0) scored three goals in the second period and added two more in the third to cruise to a 5-2 win over Rogers (7-4-0) in the Bronze Division semifinals. Anders Gelecinskyj scored twice for the Eagles, while Javaughn Soretire, Jacob Ekholm and Jory McWilliams scored a goal apiece. Cody Luftman and Tanner Voeller each scored a goal for the Royals.
Taylor Lantz scores GWG for Greenway Tuesday
Open
Peyton Krause scores his first varsity goal in the Novas’ 5-1 win over Simley. Credit: Peter Odney
Holy Cow, Holy Family!
A day after taking down the No. 4AA and undefeated Stillwater Ponies, the Fire took down the reigning state champs and No. 6AA ranked Lakeville North Panthers 4-2 in a highly contested game in the Holiday Hockey Classic at the St. Louis Park Recreation Center.
The Panthers came out strong, and had the Fire on their heels for the first half of the opening period. They dominated possession, and created scoring chance after scoring chance. However, they failed to beat Jaxson Stauber as he stood strong and kept Lakeville North off the board. “His last game wasn’t very good, he gave up 3 goals on 4 shots vs. Wayzata, so I really wanted to get him back in the nets against somebody good. Just so that he can get that confidence back, and he did everything we asked him to today,” said Fire Head Coach Noel Rahn. Despite Stauber’s great play, it appeared that when John Pearson of Holy Family took a tripping penalty at 8:17 of the first period, the Panthers were set to get their first goal. Holy Family seized the moment for themselves though when Ethan Mesler buried a Will Garin pass on a 2-1 for a short-handed goal.
From that moment on, the Fire found their legs and confidence. They smothered the Panthers each time they had the puck, and clogged passing and shooting lanes all night. Senior defenseman Matt Anderson, a UMD commit, added a power-play goal at 15:58 of the first period for the Fire. The puck ended up on Anderson’s stick after a flurry of chances and a few remarkable saves by Lakeville goaltender Matthew Foss. Shots were 8-8 after the first frame.
The second period saw the Panthers generating shots, but many were blocked or were from the outstide. Stauber denied a few great chances as the Fire did a great job of keeping Ryan Poehling and Max Johnson of the Panthers at bay, which was not by accident as Coach Rahn said, “that was our main goal, to neutralize the Poehling line.” Mesler added his second of the night when Garin again found him in the slot to give the Fire a 3-0 lead. Despite outshooting Holy Family 18-15 after two periods, the Panthers found themselves down three going into the third. Coach Rahn wasn’t comfortable though, “when you have a three goal lead against Lakeville, it doesn’t matter, they just have so much firepower,” said Rahn.
Jaxon Stauber stares down Bowling Green commit Max Johnson Tuesday
Lakeville North came out strong in the third, and finally broke through when Logan Kappes scored on the powerplay just over five minutes into the period. Much of the play was in the Fire’s end, but Stauber again kept the Panthers out and the Fire’s defensive structure and intensity made life difficult for the talented North players. The opportunistic Fire again found the back of the net when Mack Beyers connected on the powerplay after some nice passing from Ben Almquist and James Marooney, both sophomores. Ryan Poehling added a goal with 5 seconds left when he went coast to coast and made a terrific move around a Fire defender before beating Stauber with a shot off the post making it 4-2. Shots ended at 25-19 in favor of the Panthers.
The Fire played a strong game in their own zone. They were suffocating and clogged the middle up all afternoon long. Something Coach Rahn and the Fire work on a lot, “we got a lot of systems in our program. To make that transition from A to AA, we really needed to be good in our systems. We work on them a lot. The fact we have those systems really help us because we are still growing, and all the kids have to play in them.”
Huge for the Fire the was the play of Will Garin (3 assists) and Matt Anderson (1 goal). This came as no surprise to Coach Rahn, who knows their play affects the entire team: “having Matty down there to calm things down when he skates and handles the puck, and then having Will who kind of controls the play really gives our team confidence and slows the game down, especially when going against teams that have more skill than us.” This wasn’t a two-man show though that powered the Fire past the Panthers, something Coach Rahn mentioned as well, “those guys are huge pieces of the puzzle, but I thought we had a great team effort today with a lot of guys chipping in.”
The game was riddled with penalties as Holy Family took 9, and Lakeville North took 7. Both teams realized early on that the refs were letting them play, and used their sticks to slow down the opposition accordingly. They went too far though, as twelve penalties were called in the second and third periods combined, after only four were called in the first.
Lakeville North plays at 7:30 p.m. tomorrow night vs. Elk River. Holy Family is set to take on #8AA Prior Lake in a key Section 2AA seeding game tomorrow at 2:30 p.m at the Holiday Hockey Classic. Three wins in a row against top ten ranked teams would be a great way to enter the new year for the Fire. “We are still building as a program, but today was real gritty win for us,” said Coach Rahn.
Sports Authority Scores
#4AA Stillwater > Maple Grove (8-2)...Ponies rebound from tough loss Monday
#1AA Benilde St. Margaret's > Elk River (3-2)...Red Knights are the state's best team
Moorhead > #8AA Prior Lake (1-0)...Spuds biggest win of year
Ethan Mesler shoots for Holy Family Tuesday
Tuesday Scores
| Team | Score | Team | Score |
|---|---|---|---|
| Moose Lake Area | 5 | Ely | 2 |
| Stillwater | 8 | Maple Grove | 2 |
| Burnsville | 2 | Wayzata | 5 |
| Lake of the Woods | 0 | Minot (N.D.) | 6 |
| Dodge County | 3 | Rochester Mayo | 12 |
| New Prague | 3 | Fond du Lac | 4 |
| Mankato West | 1 | Apple Valley | 4 |
| Lakeville South | 5 | Buffalo | 4 |
| Spring Lake Park | 1 | Minnehaha Academy | 0 |
| Superior | 3 | Roseville | 4 |
| Sartell-St. Stephen | 5 | Providence Academy | 1 |
| Litchfield/Dassel-Cokato | 3 | Luverne | 6 |
| North Branch | 1 | Mandan (N.D.) | 5 |
| Chippewa Falls | 6 | Crookston | 5 |
| Centennial | 2 | St. Thomas Academy | 4 |
| Detroit Lakes | 2 | New Ulm | 2 |
| Lakeville North | 2 | Holy Family | 4 |
| Hastings | 2 | St. Paul Johnson | 3 |
| New Richmond | 6 | Rochester Century | 1 |
| Hopkins | 2 | East Ridge | 3 |
| Henry Sibley | 2 | Irondale | 5 |
| St. Paul Highland Park | 2 | Waseca | 3 |
| Legacy Christian | 0 | Rice Lake | 7 |
| Owatonna | 3 | Duluth Denfeld | 4 |
| Mounds View | 2 | Eastview | 7 |
| Marshall | 4 | Chisago Lakes | 3 |
| Delano | 2 | Hermantown | 5 |
| Albert Lea | 5 | Winona | 0 |
| Woodbury | 4 | South St. Paul | 0 |
| Elk River | 2 | Benilde-St. Margaret's | 3 |
| Sauk Rapids-Rice | 1 | St. Cloud Cathedral | 7 |
| Prairie Centre | 6 | Bagley/Fosston | 2 |
| Eden Prairie | 4 | Hill-Murray | 2 |
| Breckenridge/Wahpeton | 0 | St. Paul Como Park | 7 |
| Fort Frances (Ontario) | 1 | Alexandria | 3 |
| Anoka | 5 | Orono | 2 |
| Chanhassen | 6 | Park of Cottage Grove | 3 |
| Park Rapids | 3 | Faribault | 2 |
| Eau Claire Memorial | 3 | St. Paul Academy | 5 |
| Mora/Hinckley-Finlayson | 1 | Red Lake Falls | 0 |
| Rosemount | 3 | Breck | 2 |
| Greenway | 2 | Princeton | 1 |
| Notre Dame | 2 | Duluth Marshall | 2 |
| Red Wing | 3 | Champlin Park | 4 |
| Mankato East | 4 | Coon Rapids | 3 |
| North St. Paul | 1 | Armstrong/Cooper | 4 |
| Cambridge-Isanti | - | Hutchinson | - |
| Willmar | 1 | Little Falls | 5 |
| Bottineau (N.D.) | 0 | Wadena-Deer Creek | 8 |
| West Fargo (N.D.) | 8 | Fergus Falls | 2 |
| Fairmont | - | Morris/Benson Area | - |
| Bloomington Jefferson | 3 | Eagan | 6 |
| St. Cloud Apollo | 5 | St. Cloud Tech | 0 |
| Rochester John Marshall | 3 | Northland Pines | 1 |
| Appleton United | 7 | Rochester Lourdes | 5 |
| Forest Lake | 2 | Grand Rapids | 5 |
| Brainerd | 5 | Virginia/Mountain Iron-Buhl | 3 |
| Blaine | 5 | White Bear Lake | 0 |
| Northern Lakes | 0 | Hibbing/Chisholm | 7 |
| Redwood Valley | 2 | North Shore | 3 |
| Prior Lake | 0 | Moorhead | 1 |
| Osseo | - | International Falls | - |
| Fargo North (N.D.) | 1 | Thief River Falls | 8 |
| Minnetonka | 3 | Edina | 2 |
| Rogers | 2 | Bloomington Kennedy | 5 |
| Devil's Lake (N.D.) | 2 | Roseau | 5 |
| Kittson Central | 2 | Eveleth-Gilbert | 10 |
| Mahtomedi | 6 | St. Michael-Albertville | 4 |
| Simley | 1 | Minneapolis | 5 |
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