Winning a state championship is so nice, Hermantown did it twice on Saturday. 

Dylan Samberg’s goal with 19.4 seconds remaining in the second overtime lifted the No. 1-seeded Hawks to a 4-3 win over unseeded Monticell0/Annandale/Maple Lake in the Class 1A boys’ hockey state championship game. 

Thin win gives Hermantown (29-1-1), and coach Bruce Plante, back-to-back titles after six straight runner-up finishes. After an 0-1-1 start, Hermantown reeled off 29 straight wins and outscored the opposition 178-45.

“Doing it again was really a lot tougher than I had ever imagined,” Plante admitted. “It’s tough, it’s a lot of pressure on these kids.”

The Hawks appeared to win 5:26 earlier when Tyler Watkins scored what would have been his third of the game the game. Sticks, gloves and helmets went flying across the ice but the play was reviewed and it was the Moose celebrating after it was ruled Ryan Sandelin had interfered with MAML goaltender Tyler Klatt who finished with 54 saves.

“The kids have great character and determination and they just sucked it up and came back at it,” Plante said. “Nobody on our team folded, not one guy. in fact, some of them played better at the end.”

“I wouldn’t have forgiven myself if we didn’t win this game,” Sandelin said.

Monticello/Annandale/Maple Lake’s Nick Zwack. (MHM Photo / Jeff Wegge)

Monticello/Annandale/Maple Lake’s Nick Zwack’s 31st goal of the season 26 seconds into the third period of the Class 1A state championship game gave the Moose surprising a 3-1 lead over Hermantown and its massive traveling fan base a lot of hope.

But as had been proven previously in the tournament, no lead is safe where the Hawks are concerned and third-period goals by Jess Jacques and Tyler Watkins, his second of the game, 2:09 apart sent the game to overtime.

After outscoring its opponents by a combined score of 23-4 en route to the 2016 Class 1A title, Hermantown took a much tougher route to the 2017 championship game, needing overtime for 3-2 and 6-5 wins over Luverne and St. Cloud Cathedral, respectively.

The defending champions came from behind in both games and dug themselves yet another hole against Monticello/Annandale/Maple Lake (23-7-1). But the resilient Hawks pulled themselves out one last time to claim their second Class 1A championship in two years. 

“This year we had t0 scratch and claw for everything we got,” Sandelin said. “That’s the biggest reward, I mean, the guys never gave up and I just couldn’t be more proud of this group.”

MAML made history on Saturday becoming not only the first unseeded team to play in a state championship game, but to win one, since the seeding system was implemented in 2007. Fourth-seeded Breck had been the lowest seed to reach the final in 2009 when it beat Breck 7-3.

“For us to come in as considered the seven seed and then to win two games and then come in and play as good as we did today, it’s still surreal to us,” Zwack said. “Obviously, we’re happy with how we’ve done, we just wanted to maybe make it one more game.”

“A lot of respect goes to them for the season they’ve had and how hard those kids played,” Plante said. “I love their jerseys. They’re the greatest jerseys on a high school team. A pissed off Moose, that’s right in our country up there.”

The Moose played a very physical game against Hermantown, something coach Eric Nelson said his team needed to do to slow down the speedy and skilled Hawks.

“For the most part, we weren’t necessarily an overly physical team all year,” Nelson said. “I thought today we kind of stepped it up another notch to, hopefully, suck a little energy out of them.”

Hermantown’s Tyler Watkins scored twice for the Hawks and nearly had the overtime winner. (MHM Photo / Jeff Wegge)

Watkins agreed saying the game was extremely physical.

“Hats off to them, they did and incredible job and battled hard all game,” Watkins said. “They were physical for sure, right off the bat.”

“I’m pretty sore right now,” added Sandelin.

The game was scoreless after one period despite the Hawks holding a commanding 15-1 shots advantage heading into the break. But the 6’1″ Klatt stood tall, denying Matt Valure’s point-blank shot just short of the six-minute mark before withstanding a flurry of Hermantown power-play chances shortly thereafter. 

“The first period was a shooting gallery for them,” Nelson said. “Tyler Klatt stood on his head. Like I said before, you need a brick wall back there and he was a stalwart for us all weekend.”

The Moose stunned the Hawks to open the second period by taking  2-0 lead on goals by Casey Chiodo and Ben Ward 1:11 apart in the first two minutes. Watkins answered for Hermantown at 3:14 but Klatt made the lead stand up into the second intermission.

“The whole team was amazing this weekend,” Nelson said. “Little engines that could was the whole team, we just wanted energy and we wanted to have fun and work hard and let the chips fall where they may.”

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Nick Zwack’s buzzer beater sends M.A.M.L. to the Class 1A title game 

Nick Zwack (Photo by Tim Kolehmainen / Breakdown Sports USA)

Get the puck, put it on net and hope for the best pretty much sums up Nick Zwack’s thought process.

The Monticello/Annandale/Maple Lake senior forward forward said he wasn’t exactly sure how much time was on the clock either when he let it go.

And considering how stellar Ryan Bielenberg had been in the Northfield net all game, no could believe what was about to happen with the score tied.

Zwack’s slow, wobbly shot managed to make its way through skates and sticks and slowly trickled between Bielenberg’s pads with 2.3 seconds on the clock.  

“We just trying to keep firing on net and hope we could get something to trickle in,” Zwack said. “I got the puck on its side and fired it with a hope and a prayer, I guess.”

MAML is on its way to face the Hermantown/St. Cloud Cathedral winner at noon Saturday, to extend the Moose’s first state tournament appearance.

It upset No. 2 Delano and Northfield took down No. 3 Mahtomedi on Wednesday. It was the first time since two unseeded teams made the Class A semifinals since Hibbing/Chisholm and Thief River Falls did it in 2011.

MAML will be the first unseeded team to play in the title game. Fourth-seeded Breck was the lowest seed to reach the final in 2004 when it beat Breck 7-3.

“This whole experience down here has been kind of surreal,” MAML coach Eric Nelson said. “(The players) are having a lot fun with it.”

Northfield held the lead for nearly two full periods with goals by Jacob Halvorson and Conner Malecha.

Frustration began to mount on the Moose bench as the second intermission loomed. MAML had seen plenty of scoring chances falling short, like when a Troy Dahlheimer shot was kept out of the net by the butt of Bielenberg’s stick in the second period.

“We were furious on the bench, knowing we were getting plenty of scoring chances and they weren’t going in,” said.

Then the momentum shifted in the Moose’s favor for the remaining 18 minutes. Ben Ward was able to bury a rebound off a Casey Chiodo shot with a minute left in the second period.

Chiado scored the tying goal at the 10:39 mark of the third period.

Winning goalie Tyler Klatt finished with 19 saves.

Northfield goaltender Ryan Bielenberg makes a save with the shaft of his stick. (Photo by Tim Kolehmainen / Breakdown Sports USA)

On the other end of the rink, Bielenberg, a senior, finished 37 saves. He also had the courage, after allowing such a devastating and fluky goal, to represent Northfield at the press conference after the game, although it was tough to find the words to describe the final goal itself.

“There’s nothing I would trade this experience for,” Bielenberg said. “Obviously, I’m going to be thinking about this for a while, but it was really special.”

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The 2017 Minnesota Boys’ State Hockey Tournament got underway on Wednesday at Xcel Energy Center with Class 1A quarterfinal action and a pair of opening-session bracket busters and a near miss. Delano and Mahtomedi, the tournament’s No.2 and No. 3 seeds, were sent packing by unheralded first-time participants Monticello/Annandale/Maple Lake and Northfield, respectively. Top seeded Hermantown got a scare from a plucky Luverne team and St. Cloud Cathedral pulled away from East Grand Forks.

No. 2 Delano vs. Monticello/Annandale/Maple Lake

Unseeded Monticello/Annandale/Maple Lake (22-6-1), in its first-ever state tournament game, toppled second-seeded, and fellow first timer, Delano, shocking the Tigers (24-4-1) with a 3-2 win to advance to a state semifinal meeting with surprising Northfield.

With the game knotted at 1-1 late in the second period, the Moose struck twice in less than two minutes with a pair of special teams goals to give MAML a stunning two goal lead at the break. Nick Zwack finished off a shorthanded 2-on-1 break with Ben Ward for his second goal of the game at 13:11 to give the Moose the lead for good. The assist was one of three in the game for Ward.

Just 1:57 later, Troy Dahlheimer took advantage of a costly Delano too many men on the ice penalty to punch in a power-play goal.  Special teams proved to be the difference as the Moose held the vaunted Delano power play to no goals and five shots on three attempts in addition to Zwack’s shorthanded tally.

MAML goaltender Tyler Klatt made 24 of his 33 saves through two periods. After Delano’s Justin Daly pulled the Tigers back within one just 41 seconds into the third, Klatt withstood Delano’s late surge with the extra attacker. Delano’s Jackson Hjelle turned aside 26 Moose shots for the Tigers.

No. 3 Mahtomedi vs. Northfield

Northfield goaltender Ryan Bielenberg did not know a lot about Mahtomedi heading into their quarterfinal clash with the Zephyrs but he did say Monday night he thought the teams were pretty similar, “They have a good goalie and they have a deep team and that’s kind of what we have too.”

Bielenberg’s words proved prophetic as the teams went toe-to-toe on Wednesday afternoon with Northfield advancing to the state semifinals with a 3-1 win over the Zephyrs. Nicholas Kvernmo scored the game winner 1:04 into the third period and added an empty-net goal to seal it with 1:08 to go. Bielenberg made 13 of his 34 saves in the third period and the Raiders blocked 12 shots to stymie Mahtomedi’s attack led by Luke Posner and Matt Vannelli. 

All-Hockey Hair Team candidate Dallas Duckson opened the scoring for Mahtomedi at the 4:20 mark of the first period and the Zephyr lead stood until midway through the second. That’s when Northfield’s Jacob Halvorson tied it up at 7:57 to set up Kvernmo’s third-period heroics. 

No. 1 Hermantown vs. Luverne

Photo by Tim Kolehmainen/Breakdown Sports USA

Both Hermantown and Luverne spent the afternoon watching the afternoon session’s events unfold. The Cardinals found the upsets inspiring while Hawks coach Bruce Plante simply found the outcomes upsetting.

“I was sick to my stomach all afternoon,” Plante said. “It scared the [crap] out of me.”

It didn’t get any better for Plante as Luverne’s Tyler Reisdorfer scored his second goal of the game with 2:08 remaining in regulation to complete the unseeded Cardinals’ comeback from a two-goal, second-period deficit and force overtime.

“When they scored that second goal I’ve never heard it that loud in here for any game I’ve played before,” Hermantown forward Ryan Sandelin said. “So they definitely had the crowd behind them.”

But Hermantown’s Dylan Kolquist provided the Hawks much-needed relief, beating nearly unbeatable Luverne goaltender Kaden Ericson just 42 seconds into the extra session to advance the Hawks to the state semifinals for the eighth straight year.

All alone in front of the Cardinal net, Kolquist patiently outwaited Ericson before tucking the puck behind the sprawling goaltender. 

“Jessie (Jacques) gave me a perfect pass right to the back side and there was nobody by me so it made it a lot easier to put the puck in the net,” Kolquist said. “I usually don’t get that much time.”  

Ericson turned aside 49 Hermantown shots including 33 of them through two periods, leaving the frustrated Hawks clinging to a one-goal lead.

“As the game went on and that goalie kept stoning us, then we started playing a little bit out of character, trying to do too much,” Plante said. “Which is kind of what happens in games like this.”

After a scoreless first period, Hermantown’s Tyler Watkins opened the scoring at 1:44 of the second and Sandlein doubled the lead just past the 14-minute mark. But Reisdorfer pulled Luverne back within a goal just 1:52 later and the Cardinals had their sights set on becoming the third unseeded team of the day to advance to Friday.

“There’s not much you can do when you run into a hot goalie,” Sandelin said. “It’s just sort of like you’re shooting at a brick wall. Hats off to their goalie because he played unreal.”

No. 4 East Grand Forks vs. No. 5 St. Cloud Cathedral

Photo by Tim Kolehmainen/Breakdown Sports USA

The day’s final matchup came with a guarantee a seeded team would be making the trek to Mariucci Arena on Thursday simply because each team was seeded. It also marked the third time in four games the high seed would fall.

Jake Van Halbeck scored twice and added a pair of assists, including a pretty setup of Nate Warner’s first-period goal, to lift St. Cloud Cathedral to a 6-3 win over East Grand Forks and a semifinal matchup with top-seeded Hermantown on Friday afternoon.

“We spoke earlier in the week about getting shots,” St. Cloud Cathedral coach Derrick Brown said. ‘”[East Grand Forks] only gave up 25 shots in their entire section playoff so for us to put [37] on the board I think really spoke to our speed and depth.”

Reagan Garden’s long, flowing locks gave him the strength to score a pair of goals while Michael Spethmann chipped in a goal and two assists. Goaltender Jake Levinski backstopped the Crusaders to the semifinals for the first time since 2014 with 21 saves.

The Green Wave struck first on Cody Wolff’s goal 3:23 into the contest less than a minute after East Grand Forks finished killing off a 1:42 Cathedral 5-on-3 advantage. Green Wave goaltender Tucker Brown made a critical six of his 31 saves on that penalty kill. 

But the boost was short lived and Cathedral stormed back and went up 3-1 on Van Halbeck’s shorthanded goal at 2:03 of the second period. East Grand Forks goals by Casey Kallock and Hunter Olson sandwiched around Spethmann’s goal twice cut the deficit back to one at 4-3 after two. 

“We were chasing the game from the drop of the puck,” East Grand Forks coach Scott Koberinski said. “I can’t compliment [St. Cloud Cathedral] enough. I thought they did an outstanding job and our guys just couldn’t match the intensity that they had tonight.”

But Garden’s second of the game at 1:35 of the third restored the Crusaders’ cushion for good with Van Halbek’s empty-net goal providing the final margin.

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