Cathedral crusades past Blake
Ty Rushmeyer - Lakeshore Weekly News
March 10, 2008
|
An early injury and a shot-happy opponent ultimately spelt doom for the Blake Bears hockey team as it fell to the St. Cloud Cathedral Crusaders Wednesday, March 5 in the Class 1A state boys' hockey tournament quarterfinals at Xcel Energy Center.
Fourth-seeded Cathedral (23-5-1), ranked sixth in state, outshot unseeded Blake (19-9-1), 15th-ranked in state, 33-14 for the game while the Bears played without a significant part of their arsenal as junior forward Nick Brunette was injured in the game's opening moments.
It was Blake's third straight state tournament appearance and fifth overall but they'll have to wait at least another year for a chance to end their state title drought.
The first period was scoreless and contained the Bears' best scoring opportunity of the night as they played with a 5-on-3 advantage at the 8:09 mark after two St. Cloud Cathedral penalties. But the opportunity was wasted as the Crusaders killed them.
Head coach John Hamre said his team didn't do enough to take advantage of that power play.
"I thought we could have got more pucks to the net at that point in the game," he said. "We should have gotten more shots on that power play."
In regards to Brunette's injury, Hamre said he had no comment whether the contact by Cathedral was intentional.
"Nick's a warrior who would lay it on the line for his teammates and so we tried to play every shift on his behalf," he said. "Certainly it affected our team. He's a key part of our team."
Things were scoreless through the first period thanks to a pair of magnificent saves by Bears senior goalie Peter Johnson in the final minute as Blake played shorthanded.
After the missed first-period opportunity by the Bears, the Crusaders quickly countered with two goals in the second period.
The first was a Jordan Palusky goal over the left shoulder of Johnson at 11:30, the second less than a minute later by Stephen Rindelaub at 12:21.
A third-period scramble that included two Blake shots yielded no goals and Cathedral responded with a Kyle Kudak score at 2:35 under the left arm of Johnson to make it 3-0.
Junior Josh Birkholz scored Blake's only goal of the contest at the 13:14 mark of the third period on assists from senior captain Jack Barnes and senior assistant captain Jordan Seivold.
Hamre said despite the loss he was proud of how his team played.
"I knew they were a great hockey team coming in. I went into this game as I did the last couple of years with the mindset that we can win these games," he said. "The first goal always gives a team momentum. But you play a full 50 minutes. You don't play the scoreboard, you play hockey and I'm proud of how our guys fought."
Bears fall to Flyers
The Little Falls Flyers (25-4-0), ranked fourth in state, defeated the Bears 5-0 Thursday, March 6 in the Class 1A consolation semifinals at Mariucci Arena.
Little Falls scored four first-period goals in the victory. Blake goalie Johnson had 33 saves.
The loss put an end to the Bears' season as they finished 19-10-1.
Reprinted with permission LakeShore News
|
|
