It's a day for high school hockey fans throughout Minnesota as both the boys and girls championship games will all be played on Saturday, April 3. Here's a preview of the four state title games.
Leading off the day's festivities will be the Class A championship with two teams going for their first state title. The Proctor-Hermantown Mirage faces the Gentry Academy Stars. The Mirage have not been a mirage in the tournament, outscored their two opponents 11-1. They beat the Luverne Cardinals in the quarterfinals 8-0 as Alyssa Watkins scored five goals. They would defeat the second seeded Warroad Warriors in the semifinals 3-1. Hannah Graves put the nail in the Warroad coffin with two goals to lead Proctor-Hermantown. As for Gentry Academy, playing in their first state tournament, they would beat another first time team, the River Lakes Stars in the quarterfinals 4-1. Cara Sajevic scored two goals and assisted on another. Sajevic was also the key for the Vadnais Heights based school in the semifinals, leading the Stars to a 6-0 shutout over the Chisago Lakes Wildcats.
The afternoon session wraps up with an outstanding matchup, a rematch of last year's Class AA final between the Edina Hornets and the defending Class AA champion Andover Huskies. The Hornets got a quarterfinal bye due to the Centennial Cougars testing positive for COVID 19 but in the semifinals, they would face their Lake Conference rival for the third time the Minnetonka Skippers. Jane Kuehl and Emma Conner scored two goals apiece to shutout the Skippers 4-0. Looking at the Huskies first two games, they have scored 11 unanswered goals, starting with a 4-0 win over the Farmington Tigers and a 7-0 drubbing of the Eastview Lightning. Can the Huskies preserve their shutout streak? This game should be a classic.
Following a dinner break, the first of two boys championship games takes place as the Gentry Academy Stars, like their female counterparts are playing for their first state title. The opposition, also playing for their first piece of championship hardware is the Dodge County Wildcats. The Stars shutout the Northern Lakes Lightning in the quarterfinals 8-0 on Damon Furuseth's hat trick and beat the East Grand Forks Green Wave in the semifinals 5-3. Gentry Academy was behind 3-2 after the second period but the Stars were shining bright with three unanswered goals in the third period to beat East Grand Forks 5-3. The Wildcats turned out to be the surprise team in Class A as they beat the top seeded Hermantown Hawks, who played primarily junior varsity players due to the coronavirus 7-3. Dodge County was led by Brody Lamb's six goals. Lamb would increase his total to nine with a pure hat trick to beat the Little Falls Flyers in the semifinals 4-1. It would also end the coaching career of Flyer head coach Tony Couture, who is retiring after 26 years.
Concluding Championship Saturday is the Class AA final as the unbeaten Lakeville South Cougars face the Eden Prairie Eagles. Facing the Moorhead Spuds in the quarterfinals, the Cougars battled back from a 1-0 deficit to beat the only outstate team in the Class AA field 4-2. They would take on the Wayzata Trojans in the semifinals, who had Wednesday off due to the defending Class AA champion Hill-Murray Pioneers being exposed to a White Bear Lake player with COVID 19 in the section finals. The Cougars got two goals from Cade Ahrenholz and Cam Boche to beat the Trojans 5-3. Eden Prairie trounced the St. Thomas Academy Cadets in the quarterfinals 7-2 Carter Batchelder led the Eagles with two goals. He would lead the Eagles into the Class AA finals when he scored the game winning goal with 1:02 left in overtime to beat the Maple Grove Crimson 6-5.
So there's the lineup for an exciting Championship Saturday in Minnesota high school hockey. Plenty of action coming up. .
No comments:
Post a Comment