Granite City Celebration

The City of St. Cloud has been represented 24 times in the Minnesota State High School Boys Hockey Tournament and has never taken home the championship hardware.  The 25th time turned out to be the charm as Jackson Savoie scored two goals and assisted on another to lead the St. Cloud Cathedral Crusaders to a 5-2 win over the Greenway/Nashwauk-Keewatin Raiders in the Class A Championship Game Saturday afternoon at the Xcel Energy Center in St. Paul.

It was he first state title for the Crusaders in their ninth trip to state.

The first period scoring went back and forth like a pendulum on a grandfather clock.  The Raiders, who knocked out perennial power Hermantown in the Section 7A championship game would strike first. It would come while Cullen Hiltner was serving a two minute hooking penalty as Donte Lawson got a pass from Cameron Lantz on the left doorstep and he would connect for the early lead.

It looked like Greenway would take a two goal lead but the red light did not go on so play would continue until Luke Schmidt lined a shot following a pass from CJ Zins.  After the replay officials examined the scoring plays, they disallowed the Greenway goal and let the Cathedral goal stand.

Zins would also spend a couple of minutes in the penalty box for slashing and the Crusaders would cash on as Nate Warner went around the right side of the net, made a centering pass to Savoie and he would score the short handed goal.  The Raiders would eventually get a power play goal :25 later when Ben Troumbly passed to Lantz inside the blue line and he would drive it to the net to tie the game at two.

Greenway would start the second period with three straight shots on goal but none would cross the goal line.  But St. Cloud Cathedral would tally twice.  The first would come after Hiltner forced a Raider turnover and he would send the puck to Savoie who would go top shelf to put the Crusaders in the lead.  They would add a power play goal to their ledge while the Raiders Micah Gernander, son of former Raider Ken Gernander was serving a tripping penalty.  Savoie's pass deflected off of Blake Perbix's stick and Jack Smith put the finishing touch on the goal to put St. Cloud Cathedral ahead 4-2.

The way the third period went, it looked like there wouldn't be any scoring.  Wrong.  With 3:47 left to play, Raider head coach Grant Clafton pulled goalie Logan Wright for a sixth attacker.  Two minutes later, Grenway would lose the extra man due to a tripping penalty on Troumbly.  That meant that Clafton would have to put a player in the net and it would be back up netminder Tyler Penney.  Penney's stint in the Greenway goal didn't last long when he was pulled for another attacker.  Savoie would make a centering pass to Warner and he found the empty net.

Greenway out shot St. Cloud Cathedral 29-26.

Lawson would also receive the Class A Herb Brooks Award which goes to the player who best exemplifies the characteristics of the late coach.

The Crusaders ended their season with a record of 27-4 and the Raiders finished 17-14.

In the Class A third place game,  Colin Hagstrom got the hat trick to lead the Mahtomedi Zephyrs to a 7-3 win over the East Grand Forks Green Wave.  In the Class A consolation game that took place at 3M Arena at Mariucci on the University of Minnesota campus, the Delano Tigers downed the North Branch Vikings 2-1.

Attendance for the Class A championship session was 8,141.