Hawks Advance To Semi-Finals With 5-1 Win

Wes Vork-NSO

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Wes Vork-NSO

Mar 9

ST. PAUL – It was a Mount St. Helens type of eruption for the Hermantown Hawks in their Class A State quarterfinal game on Wednesday. Hermantown trailed by a 1-0 score in the second period to Alexandria, but then powered home five straight goals in the second as the Hawks skated away to 5-1 victory and a spot in the semi-finals.

Hermantown opened strong in the first period and held a huge shot advantage, but the Hawks were unable to score on Ben Allen despite holding a 15-6 edge in shots and having numerous good scoring chances.

During the seeding process in which the bottom four seed are entered into a random draw, it certainly appeared as if the ping-pong balls bounced the Hawks way when they drew Alexandria with a record of 12-15. Upsets do happen in hockey however, and just :05 into the second period, the Cardinals took a 1-0 lead when Jordan Domine took a feed from Nick Swanson.
But the goal seemed to awaken the fiesty Hawks, who blew the game open with five unanswered tallies and quickly squash any upset thoughts. “We woke the Giant at that point and they kind of picked it up.” Alexandria Head Coach Scott Woods commented.

Alexandria’s Zach Van Orsdel took a penalty for tripping at the :39 second mark of the second and it only took :10 seconds for the Hawks to tie the score. Garrett Skrbich picked up his 40th goal of the season with Jared Thomas and Jared Kolquist assisting. “We came out hard in the second and wanted to play more physical. When they scored, everyone knew that we needed to get one back. We got a quick one on the power play and then another after that and from that point we were rolling.” Senior Captain Jared Skrbich explained.

That was just the start of the onslaught. At 3:37 it was Thomas giving the Hawks the lead for good with Jake Zeleznikar and Andrew Mattson assisting. After losing the championship game last year on a fluke goal off a shinpad, it was ironic that the game winner ended up being a bit unique. As the Hawks brought the puck through center ice, Mattson’s pass was tipped and knocked loose. “I was chasing after it (the puck) and I saw the goalie coming out after it and tried to pull it around him. I kind of wiffed on it and the puck just rolled under his armpit and in.” Thomas explained.

After the win, Skrbich talked about the game winning goal. “When you get to the playoffs you have to play your best, but sometimes it’s a lucky bounce either way and hopefully it will keep bouncing our way.”

Travis Koepke pushed the lead to 3-1 for Hermantown at 5:07 with Bo Gronseth and Chris Benson adding the assists. The score quickly went to 4-1 at 6:34 when Jesse Dyson found the back of the net after taking a feed from Billy Grillo and Jake Knowles. The final goal of the game came at 14:16 when Benson pounced on a loose puck to the side of Allen with an assist going to Owen Stauber.

The second period saw the Hawks completely dominate play and put 22 shots on Allen while only allowing 3 shots on their own net and goalie Connor Lucas.

The third period was a period of shutdown hockey for Hermantown as they mostly tried to keep the Cardinal away from the net and hold down the shot count number in making sure they didn’t make mistakes that might give Alexandria a chance to get momentum. It was also a chance for the Hawks to get the fourth line out on the ice for a few shifts.
Hermantown outshot Alex 19-5 in the final period and 56-14 for the game.

Hermantown was also able to showcase their depth in the quarterfinal win. All in all, the Hawks got five goals from five different players, with a total of 12 Hawks picking up
at least one
point in the game.

Hermantown will now move on to play in Friday’s semi-final against either Hibbing/Chisholm or #3 seeded Rochester Lourdes.

Wes Vork can be reached at wes@northlandsportsonline.com