Jimmy Zavoral scores for Edina White Saturday
Brodie Ziemer had two goals and Caleb Heil turned away 16 White Bear Lake shots to lift No. 4 Chaska Chanhassen to a 3-2 win Saturday at Braemar in the Edina Invitational semifinals. After two great goals by Ziemer, White Bear began to slowly take over the game and pepper Heil with shots. Late in the second period, down two Landon Steffen got loose and made a move on Heil that didn't fool him and the score remained 2-0 after two.
Caleb Heil with a big save Saturday for CC
In the third period Steffens' twin brother Luke tucked in a goal for the Bears and the momentum was all White Bear Lake to start the period. After more pressure, the Bears found more Heil and could not solve him. Late in the third during a frantic exchange, Thomase Laaksonen scored for CC to give the Stormhawks a 3-1 lead with just over three minutes to go - a pretty rebound goal. The Bears were able to muster a late goal by Joe Belisle, but it wasn't enough. They saw a valiant effort fall short. Chaska Chan advances to the Edina Invite final Sunday morning.
CC's Brodie Ziemer with the second of his two goals Saturday for CC
The Edina White and Green semifinal in the Edina Invite was a tale of two halves. The first half was all Green. The controlled the play, had more shots and seemed destined to skate past the White to the finals. Both teams came into the semifinals ranked number 10 by YHH - they had tied in their only meeting and were playing some good hockey to start the season. Green got on the board first when Tommy Cronin found the upper corner four minutes in and they took the lead deep into the second.
Tommy Cronin scores for Edina Green Saturday
On a crazy sequence in the second, Cronin fires a shot on net the finds the crossbar that would have given Green a 2-0 lead. White countered ten seconds lated when Jimmy Zavoral fired a shot from the high slot that hand cuffed the Edina goalie and found the back of the net to tie the score at 1-1. Then to make things even more interesting, White grabbed the lead when Peter Giertsen listened to his coaches with three seconds left and "shot" - the puck went right on net and between the legs at the buzzer to give White the lead 2-1 after two.
Neither team scored in the third...both had great chances, but White hung on and won 2-1. They advance to the finals to face Chaska Chan on Sunday morning.
Edina White's Uma Corniea stops Cohen Fritz on a breakaway Saturday