His message to his team was the same in 2015 as it was this past Saturday when the Green Wave’s 1-0 lead turned into a tie game in the final minute of regulation.

“I told them, ‘if we would’ve said at the first meeting of the season that you are headed to overtime with an opportunity to win a championship, would you take it? … You would’ve,’” Palmiscno said.

Like 2015, the 2025 East Grand Forks team won the state championship in overtime, beating St. Cloud Cathedral, 2-1.

The overtime hero – “East Grand Forks hero for life,” as Palmiscno put it – was senior forward Jace Van Eps, scoring 1 minutes, 46 seconds into overtime to upset the No. 2-seed and defending champion Crusaders. East Grand Forks (16-13-2) is the first 4-seed to win the Class 1A state title since Mahtomedi in 2020.

Sophomore forward Jace Panzer took the initial shot from near the blue line on the winning play, and Van Eps raced into the corner after the puck kicked out wide.

“Just try to beat the guy to the puck, and then saw out of the corner of my eye, the goalie was a little out of position,” Van Eps said. “Thought I could kind of just bank it off his leg there and see what happens. It was a win in our favor, for sure.”

Van Eps took a sharp-angle shot from behind the goal line in the corner. It seemed to fulfill the old hockey cliché: Put pucks on net, good things happen.

St. Cloud Cathedral’s Mason Layne (5) in front of the net while the puck gets past goaltender Keaton LeGrande in overtime. (MHM Photo / Rick Olson)

“I don’t really talk to these kids about throwing it on net from the corner of the rink, Jace,” Palmiscno said, in a bit in jest at the postgame press conference before turning serious. “Just get pucks on net. Panz did a really good job. Shoots it low on net from the corner of the O zone.”

The goal secured the first state championship for the Green Wave since it won back-to-back titles in 2014-15. East Grand Forks also avenged an 11-5 loss to Cathedral on Jan. 31.

The championship-winning goal was the 14th of the season for Van Eps, but he saved up most of his scoring for the postseason, scoring six goals in six games across the section and state tournaments.

For Van Eps, he said he “wasn’t too happy” with himself throughout the regular season. He also knew the gravity of the season possibly coming down to one play ending a high school career in earlier postseason games.

“Obviously, this is how we want to end it,” Van Eps said. “I think us seniors really started to realize that, just like coach said. Couldn’t be happier now.”

Tough schedule prepared EGF for the state tournament moment
Two of the past three Class 1A championship games have been decided in overtime. Mahtomedi defeated Warroad 6-5 in double overtime in 2023. East Grand Forks was battle-tested in overtime this season, too. Including Saturday’s victory, the Green Wave finish the season with a 4-2-2 overtime record. They also won their Section 8 championship in overtime, upsetting Warroad, ranked No. 1 in the season’s final Let’s Play Hockey rankings.

East Grand Forks senior Cooper Hills (15) skates by the bench to get congratulations after his second-period goal made it a 1-0 game.(MHM Photo / Rick Olson)

The Green Wave were a sub-.500 team at points during the season, starting 0-3 and then 2-5-1 in their first seven games of the season. They had another stretch from mid-to-late January when they went just 1-6. East Grand Forks faced strong competition throughout the season, facing teams like Orono, Mahtomedi and Warroad, plus Class 2A foes St. Thomas Academy, Class 2A champion Moorhead and Wayzata, which ended up as three losses during the January stretch.

“Our schedule was difficult,” Palmiscno said. “Our No. 1 goal every day is just to be the most competitive team in the state of Minnesota.

“That doesn’t mean we’re the most skilled. That doesn’t mean we’re the fastest. But we’re going to be the best version of ourselves, and we’re going to work to beat our opponent, bar none.”

The playoffs were a different beast for the Green Wave as a 10-13-2 team. A section title needed three victories, and then three more wins for a state title. They rolled to a perfect 6-0 to finish the season. Their previous season-long winning streak this season was four games in December and early January.

At the state tournament, East Grand Forks shut out Northern Lakes 3-0 in the quarterfinals. Then it pulled off an epic comeback in the semifinal, knocking off top-seed Hibbing/Chisholm 7-5. The Green Wave was down 5-2 in that game before scoring four goals in a 2:45 span on the game clock at the end of the second period and start of the third period.

St. Cloud Cathedral John Hirschfeld (6) celebrates Bo Schmidt’s (17) game-tying goal late in regulation. (MHM Photo / Rick Olson)

They finished off with another upset of St. Cloud Cathedral (20-9-2), also looking for its third overall championship. Cooper Hills gave East Grand Forks a 1-0 lead at 7:16 of the second period.

They held onto that until the final minute of regulation when Cathedral freshman Bo Schmidt tied the game with his third goal of the tournament. Cathedral outshot the Green Wave 38-31 in the game, with sophomore Noah Schindele tying his season-high mark with 37 saves.

“That was awesome to see them push through a little adversity and tie it up at the end,” said Cathedral coach Robbie Stocker. “Ultimately not enough in the end but great resilience by our group to fight back.”

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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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“Right Back Where We Started From” by Maxine Nightingale, which was released in the 1970s.

Whether coincidence or part of a set playlist, the song seems fitting for a deep Minnetonka Skippers team that returned a bunch of key players from last winter’s dominant Class 2A state championship team.

Only two games in, Minnetonka turned in a couple of dominating efforts on its home ice, outscoring Rosemount and Andover by a combined 18-3 margin. The Skippers put up a 10-3 victory over Rosemount to open the season Friday before an 8-0 shutout of Andover, a program it met in last year’s state semifinals (though this time without the since-graduated line featuring Cooper Conway, Gavyn Thorsen and Cayden Casey).

With so many state champions – and multiple Division I commits – returning to Minnetonka’s squad this season, Skippers coach Sean Goldsworthy acknowledged that his team isn’t starting from square one.

“First off, they’re committed to each other,” Goldsworthy said. “So, when they all come back, it makes things easier on each other. We have a lot of returning kids from a team that had great success last year. So that matters.”

Minnetonka comes into the season as a top-ranked team, according to the preseason rankings from Let’s Play Hockey magazine, while Andover is ranked No. 10. And the Skippers shut out the Huskies while outshooting them 42-5 on Saturday evening.

Minnetonka and Andover boys hockey shake hands after the Skippers won 8-0 on Nov. 25, 2023 at Pagel Ice Arena as part of the Tonka Thanksgiving Preview tournament. (MHM Photo / Heather Rule)

Senior Javon Moore had hat tricks both days, giving him a team-leading six goals and 10 points through just two games. His effort against Andover was highlighted by a breakaway, shorthanded goal in the first period. His second hat trick in as many games came with just more than 10 minutes left in regulation, sending the game to running time with a 6-0 lead.

Moore is followed by the senior Garry brothers; Luke with two goals and five assists and Gavin with three goals and four assists. Against Rosemount, the Garry brothers scored goals 50 seconds apart for a 2-1 lead. Gavin recorded a hat trick, and senior Hagen Burrows added five assists on Friday.

Depth? They have that, too. A dozen players have at least a point on those 18 goals over two games.

The goal right now, Goldsworthy said, is to “get the fall hockey out of them,” which usually takes eight to 10 games, he added.

“I think what you’re seeing is these kids are committed to getting it out of their system in about four or five games,” Goldsworthy said.

Minnetonka lost only twice last season, to Chanhassen and Wayzata, on the way to a state championship. Even though it’s cliché, staying in the moment throughout the season helped drive that successful title run, Goldsworthy said.

“You’ve got to stay in the week,” Goldsworthy said. “That’s what we did last year. These kids know when they do that, our success came from living in the moment.”

Despite the shutout loss, Andover split its games in the Tonka tourney, defeating No. 3-ranked Chanhassen 3-2 on Friday behind a pair of Casey Rodgers goals. The Huskies came into the season looking to replace the production of its top line from 2022-23; Conway-Thoreson-Casey scored 65% of the team’s 167 goals last season.

Chanhassen, which fell an overtime-goal short of the state tournament with a loss to Minnetonka last year, starts the season 0-2 with a one-goal loss to Andover and a 2-1 loss to Rosemount on Saturday. The Storm, who hit the ice just before the school’s football team took the field at U.S. Bank Stadium on the way to a thrilling Prep Bowl championship, trailed the entire game before getting a goal in the final minute of regulation.

Thanksgiving means puck drop on boys hockey
Most of the boys hockey teams got started with their seasons over the weekend. After the turkey coma ends, hockey players and fans head to various rinks on Friday and Saturday of Thanksgiving weekend for regular-season hockey and various holiday tournaments.

On the same night that Edina’s football team suffered a heartbreaking loss to Centennial in the Class 6A Prep Bowl, the No. 2-ranked Edina Hornets – last season’s runner-up in hockey – shut out No. 8-ranked Maple Grove 3-0 in the Wayzata Turkey Trot at Plymouth Ice Center. Wayzata started its season off with a pair of victories against No. 7-ranked Moorhead (6-1) and Maple Grove (6-4) in its home Turkey Trot.

White Bear Lake opened its season with a 4-3 overtime victory over Duluth East at home. Nolan Roed scored a pair of goals, including the winner at 2:37 of the extra session.

In Class 1A, last year’s runner-up Warroad lost 3-2 in overtime to St. Cloud Cathedral. Griffin Sturm scored the winner just before the final horn in overtime. Murray Marvin-Cordes scored both Warroad goals.

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Once he got past his sophomore year and into his junior season, he had a better understanding of where his piece fit into the St. Cloud State puzzle.

“So that was good for me, confidence-wise of knowing that I can fill this fourth-line role,” Hammer said. “And I think it fits the player that I am.”

Hammer, a St. Cloud native, doesn’t have monster offensive numbers. He scored three goals and an assist in 32 games his junior season and has two goals and seven points this year.

But that second goal this year was a big one. It was the eventual game-winner in the NCAA Regional Final in a 4-1 victory over Boston College that helped send St. Cloud State to its second Frozen Four. The Huskies (19-10-0), coached by Brett Larson, face Minnesota State at 4 p.m. CT on Thursday.

The Huskies tied the game 1-1 midway through the second period against Boston College on March 28. About six minutes later, Hammer took an initial shot on goal from the front of the crease. As he and his teammates crashed the net looking for a rebound, Nick Perbix fired another shot on goal. Hammer bounced that rebound into the net for a 2-1 lead.

“It’s not every day that I’m contributing on the scoresheet,” Hammer said. “So it was fun to get that goal, on the team’s behalf. I was the beneficiary of the play.”

He credited his linemates who worked to get the puck and get bodies in front of Boston College goaltender Spencer Knight.

“I just happened to be the one to put it home,” Hammer said. “It was a fun moment. One I’ll never forget, for sure.”

He may have that unforgettable goal, but Hammer’s journey to the Frozen Four with St. Cloud State was filled with plenty of ups and downs.

Will Hammer as a St. Cloud Cathedral Crusader.
Photo by Tim Kolehmainen

Hammer jumpstarted his post-high school hockey career with four years on the St. Cloud Cathedral boys’ team where he scored a total of 65 goals and 145 points. He was the squad’s leading scorer his senior year in 2013-14 with 23 goals and 48 points in 26 regular-season games.

That season ended with a trip to the Minnesota boys’ state hockey tournament. Cathedral beat Totino-Grace 4-3 in overtime in the Class 1A quarterfinals before losing to eventual champ East Grand Forks. The Crusaders, coached at the time by Eric Johnson, took fourth place in the tournament.  

From there, Hammer played two seasons with Aberdeen in the NAHL where he had an “OK” first season and “not the greatest” second season, he said. He scored nine goals and 33 points across 109 games in his two seasons. A new coaching staff came into Aberdeen after his second year, and Hammer was traded to the Minnesota Magicians in Richfield.

“Which was kind of challenging in itself for anyone who’s been traded, it’s not an easy thing to go through,” Hammer said. “You kind of get a little perspective of what the professionals go through on a very small scale.”

Hockey went well for him with the Magicians, where he scored 18 goals and 41 points in 60 games, and he talked with a few colleges along the way. But nothing worked out. Then he was all set to go to Augsburg College, a Division III program, after his time with the Magicians. Luckily, a spot opened up on the St. Cloud State roster instead.

Another thing he’ll never forget? The call asking if he’d like to be part of the St. Cloud State men’s hockey team. He was outside at home.

“I know exactly where I was,” Hammer said. “It was fun being able to tell my family and friends, too, because I felt like they were in the trenches with me.

“It was exciting, not only for me, but for my whole family. Something that we’ve enjoyed and will never forget.”

Though his hockey journey turned out good in the end – and maybe even better with a national championship – Hammer acknowledges it was tough, too. Playing in juniors for three seasons and then moving on to collegiate hockey, it was always a challenge when he’d compare himself to other players, especially with the access of social media seeing where others are in their careers, he said.

“That was a lesson I learned throughout my junior experience is that everybody has their own path,” Hammer said. “Here I am today and playing in the Frozen Four.

“I never would’ve imagined I would be in the Frozen Four here in my senior year in my hometown.”

Photo by Kylie Macziewski

Every player has tough moments in their hockey careers, Hammer said, adding that the trade from Aberdeen was a tough one for him. He also had a health scare during his sophomore year at St. Cloud State, giving him another hurdle to clear before he was good to go and continue playing. He’s thankful to have such a great support system around him, too, with family and friends.

The Huskies are two victories away from a national championship. First up, they need to beat a tough Minnesota State team in Thursday’s Frozen Four semifinal. Hammer knows that every team at this stage of the tournament is good, and the Mavericks are no different with great coaching, a solid forecheck and detailed, structured team.

St. Cloud State will need to focus on themselves, as they have throughout the rest of the playoffs, Hammer said. It will be key to work on the opposing D and own the front of not only the Huskies net but the Mavericks net as well, according to Hammer.

“I think if we do that, then we like our chances,” Hammer said. “So that’s what we’re going to focus on. We’re just going to focus on that first game and trying to play Husky hockey for 60 minutes.”

For Hammer, his ultimate dream was to play college hockey and win a national championship. Still striving to achieve the last part of that dream this week, he also said it will be the end of the road for him, hockey-wise. Outside of the rink, he has an internship with CentraCare, a local hospital in St. Cloud, and hopes to pave a career in health administration.

Even though his hockey path might be coming to an end with this Frozen Four, he’ll be able to look back and recall the adversity he made it through and the confidence he gained.  

“I think, with anything, confidence is over half the battle,” Hammer said. “So I was able to get a little more confidence in my time here at SCSU.”

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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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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.

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