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Crusaders players cherished the Paw Patrol character Rubble plush dog for their “Dawg of the Game” award so much that senior goalie Nick Hansen brought it to the Class 1A state tournament championship postgame press conference. The dog and the state championship trophy adorned the Crusaders’ table as they talked about their 3-1 win over the Hermantown Hawks in the Class 1A boys’ state hockey title game on March 9.

“I think the whole team was dawgs today,” Hansen said.

Otherwise, the award “scattered” throughout the team, as Stocker said.

Cathedral goaltender Nick Hansen made 28 saves in the Class 1A championship game. (MHM Photo / Rick Olson)

St. Cloud Cathedral needed a full team effort against the Hawks, the last team to beat the Crusaders this season. It started with Andrew Dwinnell scoring at 3:48 of the game, assisted by John Hirschfeld and Joey Gillespie.

The Crusaders survived a defensive battle in the second period, which spilled into the first half of the third period before Dwinnell turned a behind-the-back pass into a goal for a 2-0 lead. Dwinnell said that they practiced that one.

“It’s a play we always work on in practice,” Dwinnell said. “We do lots of zone entry drills, and my linemates are usually the first ones on the puck and the first ones in the zone, so I feel like I’m trailing play a lot.”

Gillespie extended the lead, putting the Crusaders up 3-0 at the 12:18 mark of the third period. It marked the 10th straight game with three or more goals for the Crusaders and the 14th in the final 15 games of the season.

“They’re sneaky good. They don’t really overpower you, it’s just all of a sudden they have a three-on-two or a two-on-one from inside the dots,” said Hermantown coach Patrick Andrews.

Hermantown tried to chip away with an empty net late in the game, but the Hawks couldn’t muster more than a goal, which came from Alexander Francisco. That’s despite the fact that the Hawks outshot the Crusaders 29-21.

“Obviously, they have a good goalie and against any good goalie, you have to get to the paint,” Hawks forward William Esterbrooks said. “They kept us outside pretty much the whole game.

“We weren’t able to get inside in front of his eyes very well. We did end up scoring one, and it was in the paint. I would have liked to have done that a little more.”

Andrew Dwinnell fires a puck over Hermantown goaltender Dane Callaway. Dwinnell scored twice in the title game. (MHM Photo / Rick Olson)

Hansen simply dominated in goal with 28 saves and a .966 save percentage. He didn’t play in the previous meeting against Hermantown due to a shoulder injury, a time he called the most challenging in his young hockey career.

“It’s the longest break I took from being on the ice, probably since I started playing 10-12 years ago now,” Hansen said. “So it was really hard for me, but the guys around me made sure to keep my confidence up and get ready to go back in.”

That first Hermantown game back on Jan. 11 marked the turning point of the season. The Hawks beat the Crusaders 3-1 on that date, snapped a three-game winning streak for the Crusaders at the time. Hansen returned to goal after that loss, and the Crusaders never lost again.

“That set the tone, when he came back, what this group was going to be,” Stocker said. “I can’t speak highly enough of him as a leader on what he was able to do for this group.”

Cathedral bounced back quickly with a 13-1 rout of Mankato East followed by a 9-1 blowout of Princeton and a 7-1 win over Little Falls. The Crusaders kept winning and capped a Section 5 title run with a 4-1 win over Monticello.

A 5-1 win over Northfield to open the state tournament on March 6 had the Crusaders looking all the more confident, but No. 2-seed Warroad gave the No. 3-seed Crusaders everything they could handle in the state semifinals. Cathedral squeaked out a 4-3 overtime win over the Warriors to advance to the title game. Warroad took third place at the state tournament; Orono won the consolation bracket.

Top-seeded Hermantown had a similar path to the final with a 6-0 blowout of Alexandria followed by a 7-6 overtime win over defending champion Mahtomedi. Andrews acknowledged that it impacted his team for the championship game.

Vince Gebhardt and goaltender Nick Hansen embrace as the Crusaders celebrate their state championship. (MHM Photo / Rick Olson)

“I thought we got better and better as the game went on,” Andrews said. “We started to outshoot them. I really liked our second period, and the third period was fine. Yeah, they got those two goals, and it was kind of weird because I felt like we had the better go of it, honestly.”

In the end, the Crusaders won the Class 1A title for the second time since 2019.

“I think that it’s really good for our area,” Hansen said. “I know that sometimes we can struggle getting numbers out for the team, and to be able to attract more players to play hockey because of what we’re able to do right now, and being able to have more options makes better hockey teams, and better hockey teams win championships.”

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But early results from this season indicate that the northern corner of the state known as Section 7 will continue to be a viable threat at least for the foreseeable future.

The mixup of the area is that Hermantown — a geographical area large in size but small in enrollment, just northwest of Duluth — has emerged as the best team and youth program in the area. But while some of the larger, Class 2A, Section 7 schools fluctuate quite a bit in their good fortune, Hermantown insists on staying in Class 1A, Section 7, to play with the smaller schools where it is most likely to succeed.

While the Hermantown youth teams all play at the highest classification, and win consistently, they feed an expansive high school program that can roll out three or even four balanced forward lines, three sets of defensemen, and depth in goaltending that is usually the best in the region.

If the proof of the pudding is in how successfully players advance to play with college scholarships, and maybe even pro hockey, the Hermantown Hawks are a constant source of amazement. For the past decade, the University of Minnesota Duluth has been criticized for taking so many prospects from Hermantown. But when the Bulldogs won three NCAA championships with teams all strongly flavored by Hawks, the critics started to realize that instead of suggesting UMD had too many Hermantown players, maybe they needed more!

The Winnipeg Jets, for example, have Neal Pionk as the anchor of their defensive corps, and Dylan Samberg is another Jets teammate. Both played together on state tournament teams at Hermantown, then played on the same UMD teams winning NCAA titles before they signed NHL contracts.

This season’s UMD team is led by Blake Biondi, who is captain and second-generation forward following his dad, Joe Biondi, to UMD. Blake, of course, was captain and Minnesota’s Mr. Hockey at Hermantown as a senior, where he was joined by current UMD defensemen from Hermantown, including veterans Darian Gotz and Joey Pierce, and just brought in freshman Aaron Pionk, Neal’s brother, who played forward until this season, when coach Scott Sandelin moved him to defense and put him in charge of running the power play.

At Hermantown this season, coach Pat Andrews had to rebuild from key goal-scoring losses to graduation, and the departure of highly skilled brothers Zam Plante and Max Plante, who played as teammates on a state championship Hermantown team. Both committed to UMD before joining their parents in a move to Chicago. Father Derek Plante, a former UMD standout who played over a decade in the NHL, was hired as assistant coach of the Blackhawks in their rebuilding plan.

Max Plante made the U.S. Development camp’s Under-18 team, and Zam — who is a year older — made the Chicago Steel and was traded to the Fargo Force in the U.S. Hockey League. Both will come to UMD next fall as freshmen, but they left enormous holes in the Hawks high school lineup.

While all the other Class 2A and Class 1A Section 7 teams lost heavily from graduation as well, and perennial powers such as Duluth East, Cloquet-Esko-Carlson, and even Grand Rapids are rebuilding, Hermantown is the only program rich and deep enough to merely reload to find scoring. Against Class 2A foes this season, Hermantown beat Cretin-Derham Hall, tied Hill-Murray and then beat Centennial. It also defeated defending Class 1A champion Mahtomedi 5-1. Then, they faced Duluth Denfeld.

Duluth Denfeld moved up to Class 2A this season, ties Hermantown
Denfeld has an interesting program. Located in the West End, West Duluth and Piedmont Heights youth program region — which produce good players, but without the depth Hermantown enjoys. But the Hunters broke new ground in football during the fall. They also have a strong basketball program. Their hockey team, coached by former UMD defenseman Dale Jago, started off beating teams and establishing what might normally be considered an upset is not an upset when facing this Denfeld team’s swift-skating, puck-skilled players.

In an interesting maneuver, Denfeld made a controversial decision to move up from Class 1A to the larger Class 2A. Many larger schools have traditionally sought to move down, to avoid getting beaten by usual meat-grinder Duluth East. But this year in northern Minnesota, Cloquet-Esko-Carlton moved from Class 2A to Class 1A in Section 7, while Denfeld passed the Lumberjacks going the other direction, moving up a class.

Hermantown’s Jack Slattengren (11) peeled away from the goal after scoring the Dec. 19 game’s first goal against Duluth Denfeld goalie Connor Doyle. (MHM Photo / John Gilbert)

Denfeld and Hermantown played at Essentia Duluth Heritage Center on the Tuesday before Christmas, and the Hunters were definitely swift and skilled enough to take on their heralded rivals. That was evident from the drop of the puck. 

The result was mostly a coming out party for Connor Doyle, Denfeld’s goaltender. The more the Hawks attacked, the better Doyle seemed to play. Jack Slattengren gave Hermantown a 1-0 lead as he raced in on a goal-crashing attempt and redirected a goal-mouth pass.

In the second period, the Hawks outshot Denfeld 17-8 and took a 2-0 lead on a Bradford Skytta goal. Doyle kept the Hawks at bay. Denfeld narrowed the gap with a Brady Wick power-play goal from the right poinot. The Hawks almost seemed content to hold that 2-1 lead over Denfeld through the third period, and maybe that was coach Andrews’ intention — to let the Hawks prove to themselves that then can hold onto a slim lead against a team that was throwing everything they could summon at them.

It almost worked. As Denfeld pulled Doyle for a sixth attacker late in the game, Cory Backstrom scored a power-play goal and the sudden 2-2 tie stunned the Hawks, and the fans, into silence. The eight-minute overtime still ended with a 2-2 result as the final score. Hermantown outshot Denfeld 44-28. Doyle’s 42 saves commanded the spotlight and led the Hunters to center stage.

Maybe that’s what those pushy Class 1A schools get for taking on those proud big-school Class 2A teams!

NCHC to leave Xcel Center for campus sites
While the battle among top Western college hockey conferences continues through its midseason break, the National Collegiate Hockey Conference made a move to catch up to its brethren in the Big Ten and Central Collegiate Hockey Conference by making a sweeping change to its future league playoff structure.

Or, from another standpoint, the NCHC had the best idea and has chosen to abandon it.

Since the NCHC began in the 2013-14 season, it decided to offset the big-city attractiveness enjoyed by Minnesota and the Big Ten, or Detroit and the CCHA and Big Ten, and the Chicago and Milwaukee regions of Wisconsin and the Big Ten. So, the NCHC renamed its league playoff semifinals and finals the Frozen Faceoff, and contracted with the Minnesota Wild to hold the event at Xcel Energy Center in Saint Paul.

Since then, the NCHC has always held its tournament at Xcel Center or at Target Center in Minneapolis — the two largest facilities in the state. Meanwhile, the Big Ten capitulated by playing its playoffs at the site of the highest seeded team, and the CCHA did the same. The advantages of taking the biggest games away from the sites where the teams play all season were quickly overlooked when the Frozen Faceoff drew huge crowds of UMD, North Dakota, and St. Cloud State fans, as well as hard-core hockey fans who might still be upset that Minnesota pulled the plug on the old WCHA, the best and most successful hockey conference in men’s hockey history.

In conference meetings during the holiday break this year, the NCHC voted unanimously to change formats and to give those semifinals and finals back to the college sites where the teams have the best records. For the 2023-24 and 2024-25 seasons, the format will remain the same, although Arizona State will join the NCHC officially for 2024-25, when the quarterfinals will be best-of-three at the highest seeds, and the four finalists will return to Xcel Energy Center for their semifinals and finals.

But when the existing contract expires, the NCHC will give up the big-city draw of St. Paul and play at campus sites in 2025-26. Those playoffs will expand to consume three weekends, with Team Nine playing Team Eight at the site of Team One, which will face that winner the next night in single-elimination play. The top two seeds gain the benefit of being host to the semifinals, with the surviving finalists advancing to play for the championship on the third weekend, at the site of the highest remaining seed.

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The result? Just a hat trick on Hockey Day. No biggie.

“He looked like himself today,” said Hermantown coach Patrick Andrews. “I think he’s back.”

Kohanski’s first goal in the second period against Mahtomedi, ranked No. 4 in Class 1A, put the Hawks up 3-1. He scored early in the third period for another two-goal lead before registering the hat trick with a power-play goal for a 5-3 lead.

Each time the Zephyrs got close, Kohanski made it that much tougher for the opponent in the battle of Class 1A powerhouses. In one afternoon, Kohanski doubled his season goal total.  

“Obviously a difference maker, and we haven’t had him,” Andrews said. “Your whole senior year, you’re watching 90% of it, and then you get to come out on a day like this and have a day. I was really happy for him.”

Being out injured was tough, Kohanski said, adding that you can’t get the time back and he’s trying to make up for it these past few games. Playing without the wrist brace, which Andrews said limited Kohanski’s mobility, came at the right time.

“It felt really good, and I could finally shoot a little bit,” Kohanski said. “Scored a couple goals, so it felt good.”

Kade Kohanski (MHM Photo / Jeff Wegge)

Something else that felt really good for Kohanski and his Hawks teammates, ranked No. 2 in Class 1A? Recording a 6-3 victory over Mahtomedi at Polar Lakes Park. Besides the hat trick from Kohanski, Hermantown’s line of the Kauppinen brothers and Wyatt Carlson scored the other three goals. Joshua Kauppinen put the Hawks up 1-0 only 3 minutes, 13 seconds into the game. Carlson added a late empty-netter, and Matthew Kauppinen scored his second goal of the season (to go with his 15 assists) for a 2-1 lead in the second period.

Since the 2015-16 season, Hermantown is now 8-1 against Mahtomedi, including 7-0 in the regular season. The one loss for the Hawks? The 2020 Class 1A state championship game for Mahtomedi’s first state title.

“They’re obviously a big rival for us,” Matthew Kauppinen said. “Especially when we lost to them in state 2020. It’s always a battle, and they’re a good team, so it’s always fun.”

It was pretty fun for the Kauppinen brothers to play together during such a fun, outdoor event like Hockey Day Minnesota. Both Matthew Kauppinen and coach Andrews talked about the honor of Hermantown being included in the festivities.

This is Hermantown’s second time participating in Hockey Day Minnesota. The town hosted the event in 2010, on a day with freezing rain and snow, a contrast to this year’s event with single-digit temperatures that felt below zero. Andrews was coaching bantams in Hermantown at the time, a group that became the shovel crew for Hockey Day, Andrews said.

The coach used the words “gratifying” and “humbled” to describe Hermantown being chosen to play on Hockey Day this year in White Bear Lake.

“It’s really cool to see how it’s grown in 13 years,” Andrews said. “This is pretty amazing. It’s super special to be a part of. We’re just so honored that they asked us to be a part of it, and to play Mahtomedi is a great treat, too.”

The current roster of Hermantown players were pretty young, though some remember that 2010 Hockey Day. Kohanski was only 5 in 2010 but remembers watching many Hockey Days on TV since then. Matthew Kauppinen recalls skating outside before the big high school game.

“It was an honor to be a part of it,” Matthew Kauppinen said, of the 2023 Hockey Day Minnesota. “And then yesterday, we had practice. We all had a lot of fun. And then to bring it today and win, it was super awesome.

“I’ll remember this for the rest of my life.”

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His 11th goal will likely go down as perhaps the biggest of his career.

He buried a shot 2 minutes, 44 seconds into overtime for a 3-2 victory over Hermantown to give the Zephyrs their first boys’ hockey state title.

“I just got the pass from Metzie, and I cut to the middle,” Hagstrom said. “I shot it, and it went in.

“It still doesn’t feel real.”

Mahtomedi grabbed an early 2-0 lead with a power-play goal from junior JD Metz in the first period and another 1 minute, 47 seconds into the second period from junior Ethan Peterson, with a Metz feed from behind the net.

But from early on in the second period, the ice tilted toward Hermantown’s favor. While Mahtomedi played defense and only registered one more shot on goal the entire period, Hermantown pressured to get on the board. Senior Drew Sams made it 2-1 at the 11:41 mark of the second on a shot that got through traffic and appeared to go in off Metz in front.

“We came to play in the second half of the game,” said Mr. Hockey finalist, Hermantown senior Blake Biondi.

The play was similar in the third period, as Hermantown outshot Mahtomedi 23-3. They peppered Mahtomedi sophomore goaltender Ben Dardis with shots without getting rewarded for their efforts.

Hermantown’s Aaron Pionk watches his shot sail over the glove of Mahtomedi goaltender Ben Dardis with 21.2 seconds left to send the game to overtime. MHM (Photo / Rick Olson)

It looked like the game would end there. But with 21.2 seconds left in regulation, junior Aaron Pionk tied the game. It was confirmed to be a good goal after video review, as players were crashing the net and a Hermantown player ended up in the crease.

The explanation Mahtomedi coach Jeff Poeschl received from officials on the goal was that the player in the crease did not significantly interfere with the goaltender.

“I lost my mind,” Pionk said, when the goal was confirmed. “I think I knew it was in right away.”

Giving up the tying goal so close to the title in regulation might be enough to frustrate or deflate a team like Mahtomedi. Metz said they “were definitely a little stunned,” but Poeschl said his players weren’t down in the brief break before overtime.

“I’ve coached for 27 years, and there have been a lot of highs and lows,” Poeschl said. “You can read a team. And there was never that feeling of, ‘Oh man. Now we don’t have a chance.’ There was never that sense on the bench.”

Mahtomedi went back out and put two shots on goal in less than three minutes of overtime – the same number of shots it had in the second period – it just so happened that one of them found the back of the net.

Dardis finished the game with 40 saves and a state championship. Andrews didn’t know what more his team could have done against him.

“It was a clinic on how to play goalie,” said Hermantown coach Patrick Andrews. “Hats off to the Dardis kid.

“To tie that thing up when I didn’t know if we’d ever get another goal on that kid. He played out of his mind.”

Poeschl said his team executed its game plan, knowing it wasn’t “going to be able to go toe-to-toe with Hermantown” and win a track meet type of game.

“Even though the puck was in our end an awful lot tonight, we knew that that was the kind of game that we were going to have to play,” Poeschl said.

Mahtomedi goaltender Ben Dardis made 40 saves in hi team’s 3-2 Class 1A state championship game win over Hermantown on Saturday afternoon at Xcel Energy Center. (MHM Photo / Rick Olson)

Hagstrom and teammate Nikolai Dulak, who had two assists in the game and five for the tournament, were the only two seniors this year who’ve played on the varsity squad all four years of high school. Their teams went to four state hockey tournaments, always coming up empty except for this final time.

This year’s title didn’t come without a setback for Hagstrom, however. He missed six-to-seven weeks in the middle of the season with a broken fibula, returning Jan. 28. He scored 11 goals and 19 points in 18 games this season, with the championship game-winner no doubt ranking at the top.

At first, the doctors didn’t know if he’d be back on the ice this season.

“I had to support my team,” Hagstrom said. “I told myself there was no way that I wouldn’t come back.”

Hagstrom also received the Herb Brooks Award following the game, one presented to him on the ice by his former Mahtomedi teammates, Tom and Joe Paradise, who graduated last year.

“The Herb Brooks Award is a snapshot of Colin,” Poeschl said. “He persevered. He was at every single practice. Every team meeting. He was on the bench filling water bottles. When he had a boot on, he’s shooting pucks.”

Hagstrom scored eight of his 11 goals this season since his return, including a goal in each state tournament game, adding a pair of assists as well.

He was part of the effort that helped Mahtomedi make the most of its opportunities in its final two games of the year. In the semifinal in which it knocked off top-seeded Warroad, Mahtomedi scored five goals on 12 shots. Saturday, the Zephyrs had their two goals on only six shots.

Hermantown, with three state titles, holds the Class 1A tournament record for most runner-up finishes with eight. On the other hand, Mahtomedi came into the tournament having some poor history on its side. The Zephyrs hold the Class 1A tournament record for most losses in the tournament with 17. They also hadn’t made a championship game until this year, and now they’re 1-0.

With the Zephyrs winning, it also marks the first time since 2004-07 that there have been four different Class 1A champions in a row. From 2017-20, it’s been Hermantown, Orono, St. Cloud Cathedral and now Mahtomedi.

Poeschl has led plenty of teams to the tournament in his 23 years coaching at Mahtomedi, but a title was worth the wait.

“I’m just happy for these guys that they can make history in Mahtomedi hockey,” Poeschl said.

MHM Photo / Rick Olson

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For the first time in its history, Mahtomedi will play for a boys’ state hockey championship.

“We’ve been here more than a few times and have not been able to break through that threshold,” said Mahtomedi coach Jeff Poeschl. “And so, it feels great.”

The 4-seed Zephyrs got there by bouncing top-seeded Warroad by a 5-1 score in Friday’s second Class 1A semifinal. Saturday will mark Mahtomedi’s first appearance in the title game in 12 state tournament trips.

Mahtomedi’s Adam Johnson was all smiles after his two goals helped lift the Zephyrs into the Class 1A state title game with a 5-1 win over top-seeded Warroad on Friday afternoon at Xcel Energy Center. (Photo: Tim Kolehmainen / Breakdown Sports USA)

Yes, the Zephyrs are no strangers to the state semifinal game, which has provided a couple of heartbreaking results the past couple of years. They lost in overtime in each of the past two seasons in that game, last year getting upset as the No. 1 seed to Greenway and the year before to eventual champion Orono.

The state history for Mahtomedi includes third-place finishes in 1994, 2015 and 2019.

The difference this year was “naming the elephant in the room at the beginning of the season,” Poeschl said, at their first team meeting.

Friday, they came out prepared and shut down one of the best teams in the state, holding Warroad to a single goal.

“They did a great job of making it hard on us,” said Warroad coach Jay Hardwick. “We spent a lot of time in their zone. They had guys draped all over us. They were blocking shots.”

Hardwick added that Mahtomedi made the most of its opportunities. That’s for sure. The Zephyrs scored five goals on 12 shots; Warroad finished the game outshooting its opponent 30-18.

Senior Billy Buttermore gave the Zephyrs a 1-0 lead in the first period before senior Colin Hagstrom scored on the power play in the final minute of the period. Junior Adam Johnson bookended the scoring for Mahtomedi in their three-goal second period, putting them ahead 3-0 at the 2:37 mark and then the 5-1 lead with 28.8 seconds to play in the period.

The goals looked identical, with snipes in the top, right corner. Johnson said it was fun to joke about those goals and that particular move on the bench, because “our JV coach actually doesn’t like it very much,” Johnson said.

Going for a state title Saturday should help.

“It feels great,” Johnson said. “And after losing to Greenway last year, it’s just been a drive, like a different type of mentality going into it.”

Hermantown ousts champs

There was one player St. Cloud Cathedral coach Derrick Brown couldn’t stop raving about in the postgame press conference after his team was upset in the first Class 1A semifinal. And it wasn’t one of his own players.

“It’s (Joey) Pierce,” Brown said, of the Hermantown defenseman. “Numerous times he killed us in the neutral zone. He stepped up, made plays.

“It’s Joey Pierce that does everything for them. I thought he was the difference. We could not generate offense when he was out there.”

Pierce, a junior defenseman, had a goal and two assists in the 6-2 Hermantown win to send the Hawks back to the Class 1A championship game. As the 3-seed, Hermantown upset 2-seed and defending champion Cathedral.

Hermantown defenseman Joey Pierce fires a shot past a diving C.J. Zins of St. Cloud Cathedral during their Class 1A state semifinal contest won by the Hawks 6-2 on Friday afternoon at Xcel Energy Center. (Photo: Tim Kolehmainen / Breakdown Sports USA)

Hermantown took a 3-0 lead in the second period on what turned out to be the game-winning goal from senior Cayden Sunde. His sharp-angle shot from near the goal line found its way to the back of the net for his sixth of the season. Sunde had jumped up to the second line after another player went down with an injury.

Sunde was “kind of the ‘last guy,’ if you will” when the team was chosen back in November, said Hermantown coach Patrick Andrews. The coach talked to Sunde back in the fall, telling him he wasn’t sure how much he was going to play.

“Wow. Did that decision work out, eh Sunde?” Andrews said.

Cathedral got a goal from senior Nate Warner a few minutes later and trailed 3-1 headed into the final period, but the Crusaders were not deterred.

“I don’t think we had a doubt in our mind coming into the whole third period, being down two,” Warner said. “We’ve been down a lot more than that the whole year.

“Everyone had it in the back of their mind that we were going to come back and take this one.”

Whenever Cathedral seemed to grab a little momentum, Hermantown made the hill a little bit more of a steeper climb. Blake Biondi’s goal to make it 2-0 with 1 minute, 40 seconds left in the first period came shortly after Cathedral generated some offensive-zone pressure.

It was a similar situation when Hermantown made it 4-2 on Pierce’s goal. On the play, Pierce took the puck up ice from his own zone, passed the puck to a teammate for the shot on goal, then picked up the loose puck and scored into a wide-open net with the goalie down having made a spectacular save on the initial shot.

“Joey’s unbelievable,” Andrews said. “He showed today why he’s the best defenseman in the state. Joey was the X factor.”

He’s a guy you want on your team, Biondi said.

“He’s got everything,” Biondi said. “He’s a heart-and-soul type of guy, and that’s why I think we’ve been winning games right now.”

The Hawks had six goal scorers in the game, including Cole Antcliff, Biondi, Sunde, Pierce, Ethan Lund and Zach Kilen with a short-handed empty-netter.

The game included a physical scrum at the buzzer to end the first period which resulted in full penalty boxes at the start of the second period. Ten penalties were assessed, including a pair of 10-minute misconducts to a player each from Hermantown and Cathedral.

Hermantown heads back to the title game. It won back-to-back championships in 2016 and 2017. They’ll face a pretty familiar foe in Mahtomedi. Hermantown won the other meeting between the two this season, 9-2 at home on Dec. 21, a game in which it outshot Mahtomedi 40-15. Pierce had a four-point game.

Poeschl said he’d like to believe that game result was an anomaly.

“They pounded us,” Poeschl said. “We’re a different team.

“But it’s also a kick in the pants. Make sure that our guys are going to be ready to go tomorrow night.”

Mahtomedi lost 4-0 to Hermantown in the 2018 third-place game as well.

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