Hawks Open State Tourney with 6-3 Win

By Dwight Cadwell
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Updated: March 6, 2014

Photos by: Nicole Cooke

The Hermantown Hawks opened the 2014 state class A tournament with a 6-3 victory over Luverne in the state quarterfinals at Xcel Energy Center in St. Paul.

The Hermantown Hawks used a pretty simple formula for their 6-3 win over Luverne in the Minnesota State Class A high school boys hockey tournament on Wednesday. The Hawks scored two goals in each of the three periods of play and allowed just one goal each period. The end result? A 6-3 quarterfinal win that puts the Hawks into the semifinals on Friday against New Prague.

Five different players put in goals for Hermantown which scored just 27 seconds into the game against Luverne on a goal that was given to Nate Pionk on a pass from the side wall by Ryan Kero. Kero’s pass deflected off a Luverne defenseman and slipped through the legs of Cardinal goalie Kendall Meyer.

The Cardinals answered Hermantown with a goal of their own when Gunnar Anderson scored a goal from the slot on the power play making it 1-1 at 9:01 of the first period. Before the end of the first period the Hawks went ahead 2-1on a goal by Tanner Kimball with an assist to Kyle Amundson at 12:23. The Hawks would never relinquish the lead after the goal by Kimball.

The second period proved to be a carbon copy of the first period with the Hawks scoring a pair of goals with a Cardinal goal sandwiched in the middle. Cole Koepke scored at 3:57 with Amundson and Kori Ochs chipping in with assists. Olson pulled the Cardinals within 3-2 on his second power play goal at 7:04, but again the Hawks answered with a goal from Luke Jaques of a feed from Parker Hawk at 12:38. Hawk, who came off the end wall with the puck, slid it across the slot to Jaques who slipped it far side past Meyer giving Hermantown a 4-2 edge after the second period.

Third period action proved nearly identical to the first two periods with the Hawks getting goals from Amundson and Pionk with a Luverne goal again oreo cookied in between the two Hermantown goals. Amundson scored from Ochs just 42 seconds into the third period making it 5-2. Luverne’s Andrew Verhey notched a goal at 11:54 to cut the gap to 5-3, but Pionk ended all hopes of a Cardinal comeback with an empty net goal with 40 seconds remaining.

Hermantown got 23 saves from senior goalie Adam Smith, while the Hawks put 48 shots on Meyer who finished with 42 saves.

The Hawks will move on to the semifinals to play New Prague at 11am on Friday. New Prague enters the second round by virtue of a 5-2 win over Chisago Lakes Area. This is the first state tournament in school history for New Prague.