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Hill-Murray reclaims Section 4AA title from Stillwater with 4-0 win

MAPLEWOOD – The memory of the 2014 Section 4AA final had been burned into the mind of Hill-Murray coach Bill Lechner for 364 days.

“I know I’ve thought about it at least once every day for a year,” Lechner said of Hill-Murray’s stunning 2-1 loss to Stillwater which sent the Ponies to their first-ever state tournament.

A year later, Lechner’s team gave him a memory to cherish.

Hill-Murray (21-7-0) and Stillwater met for a second straight year to decide the Section 4AA championship and the time the Pioneers turned the tables on the Ponies (19-9-0), scoring early and pulling away for a 4-0 win in front of an Aldrich Arena record crowd of 3,273 on Friday night.

Senior Zach Mills scored twice and freshman Mikey Anderson scored a goal and added a pair of assists as the Pioneers earned their 27th state tournament berth. Lechner wasn’t exactly sure how he felt immediately after the game.

“I don’t know if it’s excitement for the win or relief because we didn’t play well last year, so it was a nice win tonight.”

Mills, on the other hand, found no difficulty expressing his thoughts on the win.

“Getting revenge on a [rival] is always great,” Mills said. “The boys came out ready to play and we had fun and we got the result that we wanted.”

The Pioneers drew first blood less than two minutes after the opening faceoff on Anderson’s ninth goal of the season.  The freshman pounced on a loose puck in the crease after a Jake Wittle shot and tucked it inside the left post at 1:57 for a 1-0 Hill-Murray lead.

Hill-Murray’s Tyler Nowak puts the Pioneers up 2-0 in the second period of their 4-0 Section 4AA final win over Stillwater at Aldrich Arena. (MHM Photo / Jeff Wegge) (Click on the image to view full size)

Tyler Nowak’s goal at 14:37 of the second period gave the Pioneers a 2-0 lead and some much-needed breathing room at the time. As Nowak carried the puck through the right circle his initial shot was stopped by Stillwater goaltender Josh Benson but the rebound landed on his tape and the senior roofed it for his ninth of the year.

“That was a huge momentum changer,” Mills said. “A one-goal lead is always dangerous so getting that goal was huge.”

The goal was significant in that the Ponies made a strong push in the second and nearly tied the game more than once as the Pioneers clung to a one-goal lead after one period. Had Stillwater converted it would have provided a similar to their last meeting a year ago when the Ponies tied it in the second and won it in the third.

“It was definitely in the back of the head but we kept pushing to do the right things,” Mills said. “We kept it simple and we remembered not to fall apart like last year, so that was key.”

The Pioneers put the game away near the midway point of the third on a pretty goal by Zach Mills. Carrying the puck out of the right corner, Mills tip-toed around a defender and fired a short-side shot over Benson’s left shoulder at 9:06 for the senior’s 23rd of the season.

Lechner said the key for the Pioneers was keeping the pressure on and avoiding the tendency to relax after Nowak’s goal and credited his players for doing just that.

“We always talk about by the end of the year you just open up the gate,” Lechner said. “Tonight, for the most part, we just opened the gate and we didn’t have to coach much, just support them.”

The Ponies pulled Benson with 3:25 to play but Mills scored his second goal 30 seconds later into an empty net putting an exclamation point on the victory, but not the season according to Mills.

“We made up for last year and we’ve got some unfinished business to take care of.”

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SAINT PAUL—As if the outstanding Section 5AA title game between Centennial and Blaine earlier in the evening wasn’t enough, Stillwater and Hill-Murray’s Section 4AA final added a thrilling exclamation point to an extraordinary doubleheader as high school hockey fans said their final farewells to the State Fairgrounds Coliseum.

Stillwater’s Brandon Jungmann’s goal early in the third period snapped a 1-1 tie and the Ponies survived the inevitable Pioneer surge to beat Hill-Murray 2-1. No. 3 Stillwater began the game with seemingly no fear of No. 1 Hill-Murray and gained confidence as the game wore on.

“We could feel it in the locker room, just the mojo and momentum,” Jungmann said. “We talked about how it was like the 1980 Olympics with USA, just building up and having a big game like we did.”

“We had a great game against White Bear so after that we were just heads-in-the-clouds,” Stillwater defenseman Mitch Reinke said. “We knew we had a deep group here and we all wanted it together so we knew we could do it.”

The win sends the Ponies to the state tournament for the first time in school history and means the tournament will not be represented by either Hill-Murray or White Bear Lake (Stillwater’s Tuesday semifinal victim) for the first time since 2004 (Centennial) and just the second since 1981 (North St. Paul).

“It’s tough right now to really know the impact that this is going to have,” Stillwater Coach Matt Doman said. “Obviously there’s a lot of excitement and I think this been a long time coming for a lot of people.

“I see the smiles on these kids’ faces and it makes me so happy to know they’ve worked as hard as they have and now are rewarded for that.”

The Coliseum houses a host of memorable moments accumulated over the course of its nearly 40 years as a hockey venue and Friday night’s winning goal will certainly be added to Coliseum lore.

Jungmann’s shot richocheted off of a stick and popped high in the air where Hill-Murray goaltender Sam Illgen lost sight of the puck as it vaulted into the dingy concrete backdrop of the Coliseum ceiling. When it finally came down it dropped behind Illgen and crossed the goal line.

“Not an ideal goal but, hey, they go in how they go in,” Jungmann said. “We deserved that win and we deserved things to go our way there.”

Stillwater goalie Josh Benson , who finished with 24 saves, sympathized with his counterpart over his nightmare scenario.

“You don’t know where the puck is and you’re just hoping for the best,” Benson said. “[Illgen] didn’t have the best chance right there.”

“If that bounce goes against us we probably don’t win this game,” Doman said. “That’s just how good of a team that they are and every shift mattered for us. We played like a desperate team and came out on top because of it.”

The Pioneers took an early lead on Mitch Slattery’s 20th goal of the season, driving hard across the front of the Stillwater net to slide a backhand shot behind Benson with just 5:18 elapsed in the first period. The Ponies, however, drew even less than two minutes into the second when Devin Cates buried his ninth goal on a backdoor feed from John Heddle.

“They always say at this time of year it comes down to one moment, and it’s Stillwater’s moment today,” Hill-Murray coach Bill Lechner said.

As he stood near Stillwater’s locker room with his team’s random shouts drowning out his interview, Doman observed the traffic going in and out of the room with a huge grin.

“I’m watching guys that I coached that are coming in the room and congratulating these guys,” Doman said. “The guys that didn’t get an opportunity [to play in a state tournament] are now just as excited for those kids as if they were on the team, and that’s really what it’s all about.”

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With Hill-Murray’s 5-1 win over Roseville earlier in the evening, the stage was set for the Pioneers to face bitter rival White Bear Lake in the Section 4AA finals on Friday night.  The game would mark the final edition of the nearly annual clash between the two east-metro powers at the State Fairgrounds Coliseum before its ice rink melts for last time.

But Stillwater sophomore Jackson Cates drew the curtain down on that encore performance when he deflected the puck past Bears’ goalie Chase Gorman 3:10 into overtime to lift the third-seeded Ponies over No. 2 White Bear Lake 2-1 in Tuesday’s second semifinal matchup. The Ponies and the Pioneers meet at 8:30 om on Friday for the section title.

Sam Sagissor fed Pony defenseman Jon Peterson at the left point and he threw it toward the Bears’ net where Cates got a stick on it for what he called “the biggest goal of my life.”

“I saw the puck go out to Petey and I was just standing in front of the net alone, he shot it, I tipped it and I just felt it going in,” Cates said.

“I’d say that’s OT, but that’s how we play just kind of in general,” Stillwater coach Matt Doman said of the manner in which the winner was scored. “We want pucks there, we want bodies there and I think at most levels if you can do that you can have success.”

Stillwater’s persistent defensive pressure stymied the Bears’ potent offense, holding White Bear Lake to just 13 shots on goal in the process. The pressure extended into the Ponies’ offensive zone where a fierce Stillwater forecheck created turnovers and offensive opportunities, forcing Gorman to make 31 saves and give his team a chance to reach the extra session.

That the Ponies were able to hold the Bears to so few shots came as no surprise to Sagissor or his coach.

“We’re a good defensive team, we can block shots and we knew that’s how we’d have to play if we were going to beat them,” Sagissor said.

“We knew we were going to have to try to take their space away from them,” Doman said. “It’s going to be pretty similar to how we are going to have to play Friday night with the lineup that [Hill-Murray has].”

The game was scoreless after two periods but that quickly changed in the third period when Devin Cates fed Jack Manning at the doorstep for just his fifth goal of the season but second of the postseason. The goal served to inspire the Ponies who outshot the Bears 11-1 in period’s first eight minutes.

But Sagissor’s interference penalty at 11:38 gave White Bear Lake’s power play, 0-for-3 to that point, another chance and the Bears capitalized. Junior Brady Anderson notched his 12th of the season 1:10 into the power play to tie it giving the Bears hope for a comeback.

But Doman said the goal was in no way an indication Stillwater’s grip on the game was beginning to slip.

“I thought we were in control of the game so I didn’t want to change much about how we were playing or things we were doing to have success,” Doman said. “We just had to try to stick to our guns.”

The Ponies indeed dug deep and goaltender Josh Benson stood tall in regulation to force overtime where Stillwater held White Bear Lake without a shot on goal, buying time for Cates’ net-crashing heroics.

“We want to make plays but, ultimately, we want pucks to the net and we want traffic in front,” Doman said. “If we can make a good play, yeah we want to make a play, but if we keep it simple and we’re hard to play against we’re tough to beat.”

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The Hill-Murray Pioneers scored twice in the first two periods and cruised to a 5-1 victory over Roseville in Tuesday’s Section 4AA semifinal at the State Fairgrounds Coliseum. The win advances the Pioneers to their ninth consecutive section final but for the last time ever at the Coliseum.

Freshman Joey Anderson scored his 24th and 25th goals of the season while Josh French and Zach Mills each contributed a goal and an assist to lead Hill-Murray, No. 3 in the final Minnesota Hockey Magazine.com class AA rankings, to its 24th win. Senior goaltender Sam Illgen made 16 saves to earn his 19th win of the season.

“Was it a perfect night? No. But we’re through the semi’s and we got a ‘W’,” Lechner said.”We missed some chances, I know they had a couple chances too, but we had some moments where it was 2-on1’s, 2-on-0’s and we’ve got to capitalize on those but 5-1 we’ll take.”

The Pioneers jumped on the Raiders right away courtesy of a Mills goal set up by French just 1:31 into the contest. Less than five minutes later, the Pioneers doubled the lead on Anderson’s first of the game.

Anderson said the quick start was simply a matter of following coach Bill Lechner’s orders.

“Before the game he tells us we want to initiate right away; shooting pucks and getting everything on net right away is always our main goal to start,” Anderson said.

A fairly tight game, territorially speaking, was broke open in a 2:37 span midway through the second period beginning with Anderson’s deft handling of a bouncing puck to roof a backhander over Roseville starting goalie Quinn Huff.  Dustin Krueger essentially iced the game shortly thereafter with his 15th of the year.

Lechner spoke after the game about what great hands Anderson possesses and dreams of him utilizing those skills in another sport.

“As an old baseball guy, I’d love to see him play baseball too but that’s not happening.”

The teams traded goals in the final period with Roseville’s Andrew Colvard ruining Illgen’s shutout bid with 1:47 to go. But Illgen was all smiles after the win with the knowledge he gets another chance to play at the Coliseum.

“There’s so much history in this building,” Illgen said. “You always remember when you were a kid watching ‘those guys’ and you just always wanted to be here playing at the Coliseum, it’s awesome.”

Anderson, too, is eager to return to play in Friday’s 8:30 pm final against the winner of the other semifinal between White Bear Lake and Stillwater because he believes the best is yet to come for the Pioneers.

“We’ve got to keep rolling with this, we’ve got to build off of it and keep getting better,” Anderson said. “I don’t think we’re near where we can potentially get to and if we keep working in practice for the next two days I think we’re going to be way better than we were tonight.”

Lechner said the importance of the win was twofold in that reaching the section final was in itself critical, but so was carrying on Hill-Murray’s tradition of doing so at the Coliseum.

“That would have been just a crusher if we weren’t able to win tonight,” Lechner said. “Partially because the season’s over but partially because I think it just seems right, without sounding arrogant, that we’re here on Friday.”

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