Spuds Tame Cougars in OT

Brian Halverson — Sun, 21 Jan 2018 02:27:02 +0000

Moorhead’s Carter Randklev celebrates his overtime winner in the Spuds’ 3-2 win over Centennial on Hockey Day Minnesota in St. Cloud. (Photo by Tom Kolehmainen / Breakdown Sports USA)

Carter Randklev’s winner for Moorhead foils Centennial’s comeback bid

St. Cloud — The Moorhead Spuds and Centennial Cougars capped off an ideal day of outdoor hockey in St. Cloud by treating all who remained to some free hockey on Saturday night in the Hockey Day Minnesota finale at Lake George.

Carter Randklev’s goal with 26 seconds left in overtime lifted Moorhead to a 3-2 win over Centennial after the No. 8 Cougars rallied from an early two-goal deficit to tie the Spuds in a game too good to be decided in regulation.

“I knew the overtime was getting down to the end of it and I just kind of sat out front hoping that the puck would hopefully get thrown out to me and it did,” said Randklev, who notched his 18th goal of the season. “From there I have no choice but to score because, for my teammates and my community, that’s what I try to do for them.”

“He had opportunities, he had chances throughout the game and it was just a deflection or a tip off,” Moorhead coach Jon Ammerman said of Randklev. “For a guy to have a puck like that in that moment and capitalize, what a great experience and, as a coach, you can’t really ask for anything better for a good kid.”

Moorhead jumped out to a 2-0 lead before the game was seven minutes old and carried that cushion into the second period. Cole O’Connell’s goal at 4:08 opened the scoring with 10th of the season while Kyler Kleven popped in a rebound of a Jack Stetz shot for his third of the year at the 10:42 mark.

Centennial’s William Francis looks for an open teammate with Moorhead’s Kyler Kleven in pursuit. (Photo by Tim Kolehmainen / Breakdown Sports USA)

The Cougars bounced back in the second with a pair of special teams tallies to knot the score at 2-2 after two periods. With Centennial shorthanded, William Francis scored his sixth of the year from a sharp angle, cutting the Spuds’ lead in half just 2:42 into the middle stanza.

“That’s a very good team that we played against, they did an outstanding job of making it tough on us especially in that middle period,” Ammerman said. “They took advantage of their opportunities.”

Just over five minutes later, Hayden Brickner scored his ninth of the season on a power play off a feed from Lucas McGregor to draw Centennial even entering what would turn out to be a scoreless third period.

“Our guys played so hard, maybe the hardest they’ve played all season long in all three zones,” Centennial coach Ritch Menne said. “It was just a terrific, terrific atmosphere and we’re unbelievably proud of all of them.”

The post Spuds Tame Cougars in OT appeared first on Minnesota Hockey Magazine.

Cathedral wins big

Declan Goff — Sat, 20 Jan 2018 20:33:47 +0000

Cathedral’s Jon Bell fires away as teammate, and hat-trick scorer, Jack Smith and St. Cloud’s Luke Johnson look on in the Crusaders’ 8-3 win on Hockey Day Minnesota in St. Cloud. (Photo by Tom Kolehmainen / Breakdown Sports USA)

Smith’s hat trick leads Crusaders over St. Cloud on Hockey Day MN

St. Cloud — Hockey Day Minnesota got off to a rousing start with a high-scoring affair between St. Cloud Cathedral and St. Cloud, a co-op formed by players from St. Cloud Tech and Apollo high schools.

The teams traded first-period goals but Cathedral’s timely goal in the closing seconds of second period, carried them to to an 8-3 win over its cross-town rival.

“Golden rules of hockey are never give one up in the first minute and the last minute and we got two of those,” head coach Derrick Brown said of his Crusaders. “That gave us a lot of energy and it’s just one of those things where I think after that they started pressing a little bit more, started handling it a little bit more than they probably should have and we took advantage of it after that.”

Sophomore Jack Smith scored 18 seconds left in the second period and junior Jackson Savoie scored seven-second into the final frame and the team never looked back.

St. Cloud’s Nick Portz celebrates his first-period goal against Cathedral in the Crusader’s 8-3 win on Hockey Day Minnesota in St. Cloud. (Photo by Tom Kolehmainen / Breakdown Sports USA)

“Honestly, I don’t know what happened there in that third period,” St. Cloud Hockey Hockey senior Nick Portz Smith said. “I don’t know if kids got down … I can’t explain it.”

Cathedral wouldn’t let their foot of the gas pedal either, as they netted three more goals. Smith registered a hat-trick, with juniors Nate Martin and Jackson Savoie and senior Jake Minkkinen finishing the scoring for the Crusaders.

It was an eventful first twenty minutes as both teams capitalized on odd-man rushes. Cathedral opened the scoring with a short-handed goal from sophomore Jack Smith. But their lead didn’t last long, as St. Cloud senior Nick Portz registered an unassisted goal tying things up. Each team would lite the lamp once more before the period ended, as junior Luke Schmidt scored for the Crusaders and finally senior Carter Rieland tied things up for St. Cloud heading into the first intermission.

As the puck dropped for the second period, senior Noah Brisset of St. Cloud Hockey gave his team its first lead of the day on a slick shot where he snuck the puck right underneath the glove of opposing goaltender Noah Amundson. As the second period winded down, Cathedral would net two goals and one in the final seconds of the frame. Sophomore Blake Prebix tied it up with backhanded goal and Smith netted his second goal of the game in the final 20 seconds of the period which tiled the momentum towards the crusaders.

“Cross-town rival, obviously we wanted to beat them big and we came out to play today.” Smith said after the game.

The post Cathedral wins big appeared first on Minnesota Hockey Magazine.

High School boys Archives - Minnesota Hockey Magazine

Spuds Tame Cougars in OT

Carter Randklev’s winner for Moorhead foils Centennial’s comeback bid

Cathedral wins big

Smith’s hat trick leads Crusaders over St. Cloud on Hockey Day MN