State hockey: Hill-Murray, Blake, St. Thomas Academy and Eden Prairie advance to AA semifinals
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MINNEAPOLIS - The Boys State Hockey Tournament started Wednesday at Xcel Energy Center with the Class A quarterfinals.
Friday marked the quarterfinals for Class AA, and the first game did not disappoint. In a thrilling finish that featured a combined six goals from both teams, Blake avenged a regular season loss to Maple Grove with four third-period goals in a 7-5 win over the Crimson in the Class AA State Quarterfinals on Thursday at Xcel Energy Center.
The Bears had a 5-3 lead in the third period after Jack Sabre’s second goal of the gamr. That’s when Maple Grove rallied with a pair of goals less than 90 seconds apart from Jack Oakland and Joshua Giuliani to tie the game 5-5 with 7:13 left. Blake answered with a power-play goal from Will Svenddal through traffic at the 14:46 mark that proved to be the eventual game-winner.
Gavin Best, the hero for the Bears with a penalty shot goal in the section finals over Benilde-St. Margaret’s, sealed the win for Blake with an empty-net goal with 1:05 to play for a 7-5 lead. Maple Grove was penalized for intentionally knocking the net off, and the Bears took the power play to kill clock instead of a penalty shot.
Joe Miller, Blake’s top scorer, led the Bears with a hat trick that included a short-handed goal earlier in the third period on a give-and-go from Best. It gave Blake a 4-3 lead at the time.
Blake, the No. 2 seed in Class AA and in the tournament for the first time since 2008, advances to Friday night’s state semifinals.
Aitken leads St. Thomas Academy to 3-2 upset of No. 1-seeded Andover
St. Thomas Academy provided the first real upset of the State Hockey Tournament, knocking off No. 1-seeded Andover 3-2 in Thursday’s state quarterfinals. Cadets goalie Tommy Aitken was the star late, with 15 saves in the third period.
Andover out-shot St. Thomas Academy 35-16 for the game and 15-3 in the final 17 minutes.
The Huskies had a 2-1 lead 30 seconds into the second period after Hunter Johnson stole the puck and beat Aitken with a wrist shot. But the Cadets answered twice in the span of less than two minutes. Will Soderling got the game-tying goal on the power play at the 2:13 mark of the second period.
Jared Wright netted the game-winner about 90 seconds later, beating the Andover goalie at the 3:55 mark for a 3-2 Cadets lead.
Andover had a late flurry in the third period, including several shots on goal on the power play with less than six minutes left in regulation, but Aitken stood tall for the Cadets. The Huskies were the top seed in their first appearance in Class AA, but are now in the consolation bracket. St. Thomas Academy advances to Friday’s semifinals.
Eden Prairie 4, Lakeville South 0
Little did Eden Prairie know that Kai Stansberry’s first goal of the season would turn out to be the eventual game-winner for the No. 3-seeded Eagles Thursday in a 4-0 shutout of Lakeville South in the second Class AA quarterfinal at Xcel Energy Center.
Stansberry scored on a mini breakaway at the 3:48 mark of the first period to give Eden Prairie the early 1-0 lead. Luke Mittelstadt scored a goal on the back hand at the 14:06 mark as the Eagles took a 2-0 lead into the first intermission.
Ben Steeves, a top-10 finalist for Mr. Hockey, scored twice in the second period as the Eagles took control of the game. Steeves’ first goal came off an odd bounce off the boards from a Mason Langenbrunner shot, and the second was an unassisted, diving effort in front of the net.
Senior goalie Axel Rosenlund was the other star for the Eagles, with 29 saves in the shutout victory.
It sets up a semifinal between No. 2 Blake and No. 3 Eden Prairie Friday night at Xcel Energy Center.
Hill-Murray 5, Moorhead 1
The Class AA state quarterfinals wrapped up Thursday night with No. 5-seeded Hill-Murray putting up a dominant performance in a 5-1 win over No. 4-seeded Moorhead. The two teams came in with a combined 47 state tournament appearances between them, and Moorhead will go yet another year without a state championship.
Hill-Murray scored a pair of first period goals to take the early lead. Charlie Strobel rifled a wrist shot at the 3:45 mark after a setup pass from Nate Hardy for the 1-0 lead. Nick Pierre made it 2-9 at the 10:06 mark after out-skating Moorhead down the boards and scoring on a backhand shot via the 5-hole past Hudson Hodges for a 2-0 lead.
Luke Gramer appeared to get the Spuds back in the game with a power play goal on a wrist shot through traffic at the 2:46 mark of the second period. Just more than a minute later, Strobel worked the puck around and set up Pierre for his second goal of the night and a 3-1 Hill-Murray lead.
Jared Jensen provided the back-breaker with a pair of goals 14 seconds apart about 10 minutes later. His first goal at the 10:54 mark made it 4-1, and then he went stop shelf to make it 5-1.
Hill-Murray out-shot Moorhead 35-21 on the night, about three weeks removed from beating the Spuds 4-3 at the end of the regular season.
The Pioneers’ win puts three private schools among the final four left in Class AA, with St. Thomas Academy and Blake advancing earlier in the day.