St. Paul, MN – Outside of the center ice dot, there are eight face-off spots on the standard ice hockey rink, the same number as there are teams left in the Minnesota High School Hockey Tournament to determine hockey supremacy in what is the third day of the four-day competition.
This is Semi-Final Friday
The first game was a contest defined by measured style against overmatched while the second game involved firewagon hockey, end-to-end action and lots of physical play.
In the opener, defending champion and the #2 seed St. Cloud Cathedral Crusaders (18-8-2) battled #6 Orono Spartans (15-10-3) in the first semi-final and came away with a 4-1 victory.
After stopping a flurry of shots in the first two minutes, St. Cloud struck on their first shot when captain Joey Gillespie converted a pass from the left side to control and fire the puck into the open net beating goaltender Evan Schmidt for his 23rd of the season to take the early lead.
The Crusaders were just getting started.
St. Cloud Cathedral initiated their attack from their own zone, when Connor Stockman sent a high-in-the-air pass up to Caden Johnson. It seemed the puck struck Johnson’s stick which was being carried above the shoulders and play continued. Johnson streaked into the attacking zone and sent a pass over to teammate Jaeger Wood who slid the puck under Schmidt’s pads to extend the lead to 2-0. It was his first of the tournament.
With 6:23 remaining in the opening frame, Crusaders Ian Bacik was called for tripping, sending Orono on the power play and a chance to get back into the game.
While the Spartans could not covert with the man advantage, they nearly put a dent in the Crusader lead when a wide open goal available to them did not get filled with a shot puck. Orono could not convert and St. Cloud Cathedral averting the conceding of a goal.
As the Crusaders began to assert control, Griffin Sturm was whistled for high-sticking, but his team tightened up and they weathered the storm.
Later in the period, the Crusaders had some luck when entering into enemy territory. A nifty passing play resulted in a Bo Schmidt goal which arrived at the night via a high-catch glove shot eluding the beaten backstopper to extend the lead by three goals and that is how the period ended.
St. Cloud kept things in control to open the third period and just more than three minutes into play was awarded a penalty shot when John Hirschfield was hauled down. The anticipation of the play had the crowd on their feet, but Hirshfueld shot wide on the special shot and the game remained
Orono appeared to show signs of life when during a two-man advantage with just more than three minutes remaining. Ethan Pagel put his team on the scoreboard when he slammed hom a rebound narrowing the score to 3-1. It was Keaton LaGrande’s only blemish of the afternoon.
But that was merely consolation to the inevitable when St. Cloud’s Sturm hit the post during a two on one breakout and the Orono goaltender pulled for a sixth attacker. Wood popped home the rebound which solidified the Crusaders berth in the final.
St. Cloud had dominated the game and particularly the third period, often times looking like a team well versed in playing connect four.
The Crusaders took the lead in shots while coasting triumphantly in the first semi-final. Their ascension continued at the tournament continues at noon on Saturday.
In the second A game of the day, #1 seed Hibbing / Chisholm (19-9) took to the ice against #4 seed East Grand Forks Green Wave (13-13-2) in the second semi-final.
With a faster pace than the first game, both teams came out flying with action at both ends and both netminders making sensational saves during rapidly-changing sequences.
After play deadlocked and with just more than ten minutes into the game, Hibbing’s Tate Swanson scored his 22nd of the season when he broke in all alone on East Grand Forks goaltender Noah Schindele to put his club on top.
But before the period ended, East Grand Forks would find twine. With just more than a minute remaining in the period, the Wave played connect four in the opposition zone before Jace Van Eps accepted a pass high in the slot and beat Rex Walli with a wrister to knot the score.
The period would not end tied, though.
Just seven seconds after the equalizer and right off the draw, Hibbing’s Whitaker Rewertz found the puck and advanced it into the offensive zone. He found Joey Gabardi on the right side who sent a drive on net. Schindele kicked the drive out to the far side, but right onto the stick blade of Benny Galli who was right on the doorstep. He made no mistake, firing it home to regain the Hibbing lead.
Hibbing wasn’t done, though.
With just fifteen seconds left in the period and keeping at it, Tate Swanson found Isaiah Hilderbrand to the side of the net. He sent it to Cole Swanson who fired a shot toward Schindele’s glove. He got a piece of it , but it trickled into the net for a 3-1 Hibbing lead.
In the middle frame, East Grand Forks drew within one when Tucker Lovejoy buried a drive past Walli just six minutes in the period. Hibbing answered about two and a half minutes later when Whitaker Rewertz netted on the regain the two-goal buffer.
A minute and eighteen seconds later Isaiah Hilderbrand lengthened the lead on a drive which eluded Schindele. The score was 5-2.
But that was the last time Hibbing found the net.
Perhaps resting on the three-goal lead, East Grand Forks was not ready to coast into the third place game.
Beginning a stretch of five unanswered goals, Hunter Varnson started the streak with just under two minutes to play on a pressured attack which caught Hibbing flat-footed.
Hibbing conceded a devastating goal with just 0.6 seconds left to pull withing one on Judd Pesch’s break-in goal.
Reeling from the turn of events, East Grand Forks continued the third right where they left off in the second. Cole Bies popped one over Walli’s glove just eleven seconds into the final regulation frame to tie it.
He followed that up with another goal to take the lead just forty-nine seconds later.
Both teams traded chances end to end with punishing hits and stretch passes, all looking to make a difference in play.
Hibbing pulled their goaltender with 1:24 left in regulation and pressured the East Grand Forks net, but to no avail.
An empty-net goal by Jace Panzer sealed Hibbing’s fate, a 7-5 loss in what was considered an upset.
Saturday, St. Cloud Cathedral will take on East Grand Forks at Noon while Orono will battle Hibbing for 3rd place.
Dennis Morrell has developed a deeply rooted passion for our game over many decades as a goaltender, writer, photographer, goalie coach, and active Level 3 USA Hockey-certified, on-ice official with over 2,500 games with the whistle. His passion for the game began in the early 70s upon his first glance at players battling for the puck at Clayton’s Shaw Park.
And yes, the ice is perfect.
He has been fortunate to journalistically cover 2 NHL Entry Drafts, 5 NHL All-Star Games, 10 NHL Outdoor Games in two countries and 25 games played in the context of 10 Stanley Cup Final series, witnessing the oldest trophy in sports lifted by the champion 4 times, including when his beloved hometown team, the St. Louis Blues, won their first chalice in 2019.
He has witnessed over 1,000 major and minor professional games in over 250 different arenas. He can be reached at dennis.morrell@prohockeynews.com and you can follow 
him on Twitter at DMMORRELL.
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