Blake finishes season at state
By Nick Clark
Sun Newspapers
(Created: Wednesday, March 14, 2007 11:22 PM CDT)
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They came in search of experience and a little retribution, but even though the Blake boys hockey team lost both of its games at last week's Class A state tournament, the Bears felt they left with a little of both.
Partly because they pushed Duluth Marshall - one of the 21st century's elite in Class A - to the brink in their quarterfinal match-up with the Hilltoppers, but more due to the fact that after spending most of winter answering those critical of this year's team, Blake answered with its second straight trip to the tournament.
"The fact that we can battle through and just get here says a lot," said senior Mike Louwerse, who is heading to Minnesota State-Mankato possibly as early as next year.
"It just shows how great our coaching staff is to really bring our team together and turn us into something that no one expected us to be," he said. "Nobody expected us to be here, so it is nice to show everybody up."
One of the reasons that those expectations coming from outside of the Bears' circle were so low had more to do with what happened over the off-season.
Not only did Blake graduate nine seniors off last year's state tournament team, they also lost goaltender Kent Patterson to the United States Hockey League.
That was supposed to be too much to overcome.
"We went through a lot, but we really persevered" Louwerse said. "And that is why I am so proud of this team. No one ever gave up on anything."
That was evident last Wednesday afternoon, as the Bears nearly showed Duluth Marshall the door out of St. Paul in the two teams' quarterfinal match-up at the Xcel Energy Center.
Blake fell behind in the game 2-0, but got a late first period goal from junior Erik Olson to cut that lead in half after one.
Marshall again jumped out in the second, controlling both the play and the shot chart, outshooting the Bears 8-1 in the period.
Two of those shots beat Blake's Peter Johnson, who was making his first state tournament start, as Marshall struck for a pair of goals 28 seconds apart late in the period.
"They got a couple of quick goals in transition," said Blake head coach John Hamre. "But we talked about playing three full periods of hockey, and that you have to believe in each other as a team. There is a lot of heart, and a lot of character on our team, and I thought they showed that."
They didn't waste much time transitioning their coach's words into goals at the start of the third.
Senior Stephen Steinhauser scored on a power play 1:10 in, and then before anyone was even able to sit back down, Blake Dressen scored just seven seconds later on a rush to make it a one goal game again.
The two teams traded chances for the rest of the period, until with 2:05 on the game clock, Blake appeared to tie it up.
After a scrum in front of the Marshall goal, Josh Birkholz pushed a puck that settled in under the Marshall goaltender's pads.
Or did it.
The Blake players celebrated as if they had tied it up, but the goal light never came on. The on-ice officials asked for help from the replay booth, but with the television replay providing no for-sure answer, the official skated over to the goal judge. His interpretation was that it didn't go in, so the play stood.
"They checked, and I have complete faith in the officials that it wasn't a goal," Hamre said. "[Our players] wanted to believe it was in, but that is just speculation. Apparently the due process determined it inconclusive."
The call all but sealed Blake's fate. The Bears wouldn't get any closer the rest of the way, and fell 4-3.
"Every experience is a learning experience, and this was a great experience for our guys," Hamre said. "It was a great opportunity to play on a great stage."
Blake turned around the next morning and faced Orono at Mariucci Arena in Minneapolis. Blake lost the consolation round game with the Spartans 4-0 despite outshooting Orono 29-24.
"We ran into a hot goalie," Louwerse said. "He played great, and they have a great team."
Blake headed into the tournament wanting to prove they were too. They knew they were a year ago, when the Bears opened the season ranked No. 1 in Class A and ended up with a consolation trophy from the state tournament.
That team was made up of those nine seniors. This year's roster, by comparison, had just six.
That group was a part of two state tournament teams, including the school's first since 1999 last year.
As the Bears were working the way out of Mariucci early last Thursday afternoon those seniors were on the mind of the coach.
"They certainly showed tremendous grit and heart playing at the levels that we have been able to play at," Hamre said. "It sets a bar, it sets an aspiration and it sets a standard to strive for. They have really led the younger guys in terms of passing the torch of leadership, and showing the guys the way for the future."
Reprinted with permission Sun Newspapers
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