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.”

The post The Moose Are Loose appeared first on Minnesota Hockey Magazine.

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.

The post The Tourney: Day One appeared first on Minnesota Hockey Magazine.

No matter what happens this week at the 2017 Minnesota State Boys’ Class 1A Hockey Tournament, the 2016-17 Northfield High School Raiders hockey team will have accomplished a feat none of its predecessors or its successors can ever claim: They were the first.

The Raiders became the first boys’ hockey team in school history to advance to the state tournament. After falling in the section final for three straight seasons, and four of the last six, top-seeded Northfield (20-5-3) finally captured the elusive Section 1A title with a 3-2 double-overtime win over Red Wing on March 1.

Northfield senior goaltender Ryan Bielenberg, a three-year starter and the school’s all-time winningest goaltender, said the immediate aftermath was “pretty crazy.”

“It didn’t really soak in until, I think, just these last couple of days. I’ve finally been able to look at it and know that we are in the tournament.”

Photo courtesy of Steve Kvernmo

Grant Sawyer scored twice, including the game winner 20 seconds into the second overtime, while Bielenberg stopped 13 of 15 Red Wing shots in the historic win for Northfield and third-year coach Mike Luckcraft.

“It was a crazy game,” Luckraft told The Northfield News after the win. “The pressure builds each time you get to the finals. We played hard and deserved it. We are extremely thrilled to finally win. The kids are excited, coaches excited and I am sure there are a few fans who may be excited.”

The Raiders were the top seed in Section 1A a year ago as well, but like so often happens to a team not accustomed to a target on its back, Northfield couldn’t break that final barrier and fell to second-seeded Mankato West 1-0 in the final.

“After two years of losing, everyone on the team was definitely more focused,” Bielenberg said of this year’s Raiders.

Bielenberg confesses he knows very little about third-seeded Mahtomedi, Northfield’s 1:00 p.m. quarterfinal opponent on Wednesday, but says there are similarities between the Raiders and the Zephyrs.

“They have a good goalie and they have a deep team and that’s kind of what we have too.”

Family Ties

Northfield, a quiet Southern Minnesota college town 40 miles south of Xcel Energy Center is experiencing an epidemic of state-tournament fever. The boys begin play on Wednesday just two weeks after the girls’ varsity made its second trip to St. Paul in two seasons, the first two in school history for the girls.

The fifth-seeded Northfield girls (20-8-3) also eliminated Red Wing in the section finals and advanced to the Class 1A third place game before losing to Warroad 6-2.

The Bielenberg family had a hand in that bit of Northfield hockey history as well. Ryan’s father Brent just completed his 17^th season as the head coach of the Raiders’ girls program and his sister Rachel served as the team’s backup goaltender as a sophomore this season. Older sister Aleisha played four years for Northfield as a forward (2010-2014) after spending time in goal as a youth.

“It’s a little surreal,” said Brent Bielenberg, the 2017 Minnesota Girls Hockey Coaches Association Class 1A Coach of the Year. “Last year it was just so disappointing that [the boys] didn’t get there and it makes this year that much more satisfying. I think it’s harder as a dad than it is a coach.”

Brent can appreciate how difficult it can be just to get into the tournament, both as a coach and a player. Brent grew up in Stillwater and backstopped the Ponies to the section final against White Bear Lake as a junior in 1989. But the Bears prevailed 4-3 in overtime and Stillwater waited another 25 years before making its state tournament debut.

“Back when I played you didn’t dream about the NHL, you didn’t dream about college, you dreamed about the state tournament,” Brent said. “When we were that close it was so devastating. I think now as you look back, to be honest with you, if I had to pick one, I’d want my kids to go.”

Brent, whose father and brother also tended goal for the Ponies, spurned an offer from the USHL’s St. Paul Vulcans and instead enrolled at St. Olaf College where he played four years for coach Whitey Aus. That’s where he met his now wife, Kiwi, and the couple was married after graduation. They have called Northfield home ever since.

The Next Generation

Northfield girls hockey coach Brent Bielenberg poses with his daughter, Rachel, and Ryan in this December 2015 photo. (Nick Gerhardt/Northfield News)

It’s only natural to attribute the fact that Ryan and Rachel strap on the big pads every day to their father playing the position growing up and through college. But the sibling netminders say dad’s influence had little to do with the passion they developed for the position.

“I think our team just needed a goalie,” Ryan said. “I just kept playing and I liked it so I stuck with it.”

Rachel got started because her 8 and under team, like so many at that age group, had a system of rotating players through the position and her fondness for it grew from there.

“I think there was a small part that was like I was kind of extra excited to try it because my brother was a goalie and I was young and looked up to him,” Rachel admitted.

“We joke like maybe it is genetic but I just wanted them to play,” Brent said. “I let it be their decision.”

Both young goalies, however, say they enjoy the fact that their father’s familiarity with the position allows him to relate to them and the unique psychological challenges they face in the goal crease.

“I think with goalies you want that even keel mentality which Ryan is to a tee and Rachel is just kind of growing into that,” Brent said.

The Bielenberg siblings combined to pull off a rare dual achievement on a Thursday night this past December.

The Northfield boys traveled to Austin for a Big 9 Conference meeting with the Packers with Ryan making 21 saves to post his first shutout of the season in a 2-0 Raiders win. Meanwhile, 70 miles away back in Northfield, the Raider girls were hosting Austin and treated the Packers to a 7-0 loss behind Rachel’s 14 saves.

Brent began an unsuccessful attempt to re-schedule the girls’ game that night back in the summer but had to settle for text exchanges between he and Kiwi to keep each other informed.

“It was kind a cool parent thing to reflect back on,” Brent said. “It was a big night I think for both of them.”

“It didn’t really hit me that it was a big deal until the next day when a teacher was talking to me about it,” said Rachel, who finished the season 7-0-1 with a 1.26 GAA, a .919 save percentage and that ironic shutout in her backup goalie role with the Raiders.

Feeling Fortunate

Rachel, who spent the past two state tournaments on the Northfield bench can’t offer much to her older brother in terms of game-play advice, but she recommends he soak up all of the atmosphere he can while he’s at the tournament.

“It’s a little different with backing up but it also just makes it that much greater, too, in a weird way,” Rachel said. “I’d love to play but it’s also just so great being around with the team and just really taking it all in.”

Ryan admitted getting the section championship behind him was a huge relief. But for a young man going from the biggest game of his life to the next biggest game of his life, he doesn’t give the impression he’s feeling the pressure.

“I’m not nervous at all, I’m just excited to play in it,” Ryan said. “I know once I start playing and make the first save it’ll just be like any other game really.”

“He just doesn’t get nervous that often,” Brent said of his son. “He takes everything in stride and I think he just looks at it like once it starts it’s just another game, it doesn’t matter where it’s at or what it’s for.”

With a 5-0 victory over Mankato West on Feb. 18, Ryan became the all-time winning goalie for Northfield boys hockey. Not that he was counting, of course.

“I didn’t even know but, after our last game, my coach told me,” Ryan said. “It was cool to be on a really good team for three years; I’m pretty lucky.”

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