Between the first and second periods of Friday night’s win over Benilde-St. Margaret’s, Brainerd head coach Dave Aus had a feeling the opposition would hit the ice flying in the second frame. 

“I could hear coach (Ken) Pauly through the wall after the first kind of getting into their guys,” Aus said after the game. 

But Aus needn’t have worried, as his Warriors (2-1) scored once in the second and twice in the third to cement a 4-0 win over the Red Knights (2-3) at the Eden Prairie Community Center. 

The shutout is the second in as many games for Brainerd, with both clean sheets being credited to senior goaltender Colin Kleffman, who finished Friday's game with 22 saves.  

“He’s in the zone right now,” Aus said of his netminder, adding that Kleffman’s athleticism has earned him a scholarship to play baseball, a career Kleffman will continue at Minot State University in North Dakota.

Senior forward Matt Fischer scored two goals for the Warriors, with senior defenseman Luke Johnson and senior forward Jack Evans each chipping in with a goal.

Aus lauded the play of Fischer and added that his team must maintain its work ethic if they hope to achieve their collective goal of success.

“We’re skilled, but if we don’t work, we’re pretty average."

Youth Hockey Hub staffer Spencer St. Dennis contributed to this report. 

The late-game heroics of Hermantown's Blake Biondi were ruined thanks to the even more heroic effort by Eden Prairie's Garrett Smith. 

Smith scored at the 6:38 mark of overtime to lift his Eagles (1-1) to a 5-4 win over the visiting Hawks, giving the Eagles their first win of the season in dramatic fashion. 

After a scoreless first period, the Eagles and Hawks spread their wings, combining for five goals in the second frame with Eden Prairie entering the third with a 3-2 edge. 

Junior defenseman Max Argetsinger, junior forward Jack Jensen, and senior forward Chris Konin all tallied goals for the Eagles in that span, while senior forward Brandon Schmidt and junior forward Brady Baker notched goals for Hermantown (1-2). 

Sam Wilhite extended Eden Prairie's lead to 4-2 early in the third period before Hermantown's Jacob Herter pulled the Hawks within one, and Biondi sent the game to the extra session by scoring with just seven seconds left in regulation.

Defensively, Cole Manahan made 40 saves for the Hawks, ranked No. 1 in the latest Class 1A state coaches' poll. Eden Prairie's Andrew Dietrich ended the game with 34 saves.