Hawks Handle Duluth Marshall 5-1 In Battle Of State Ranked Teams

Wes Vork-NSO

Click here for the complete game box score

For additional photos click here to view our complete photo gallery

Jan 5, 2011

Wes Vork-NSO

DULUTH – Penalty killing in hockey can show just how determined, gritty and tough a team can be. On Thursday night the Hermantown Hawks killed all six penalties by blocking shots, digging hard along the walls and basically suffocating Duluth Marshall. That effort, along with some timely scoring, gave the #3 ranked Hawks a 5-1 win over #5 Duluth Marshall.

Our penalty kill has been awesome all year,” explained Hermantown Head Coach Bruce Plante. “We have good kids that listen well, rotate well, they’re tough, they block shots and just work really hard, which is what it takes to be successful there.”

The Hawks not only killed off all six penalty kills, but two of those were two men short situations and one was with one of their top defenseman in the box. On the season Hermantown is killing penalties at over 90% and has given up only five power play goals this year, but they have also scored five shorthanded goals making the statistic a wash.

After a scoreless first period the Hawks finally got their offense rolling in the second when Matt Lord intercepted a puck and pushed it to Paul Herrold who flicked it by Marshall goalie Christian Coffman for a goal. Both Herrold and Lord are part of a third line of converted defenseman who have moved to forward to add depth and strength to the Hawks lineup. The goal came just :27 second after Marshall had a goal waived off when the net appeared dislodged before the puck crossed the line.

“They had a two on one and I said I had the shot and went down and he passed the puck and I didn’t see the rest, it was just bang-bang,” said Hermantown goalie Matt Mensinger. “I was definitely huge, because if they would have counted that as a goal who knows what would have happened; but after we came back and scored it seemed like they were just drained so we kept firing.”

Coach Plante also thought the play helped change momentum in the game. “It was especially meaningful with all of the emotions in the game for both teams” explained Plante. “One’s an up and one’s a down and we got both the up’s so it worked out well”

At 7:33 Hawk defender Jake Zeleznikar swooped in on a loose puck and went coast to coast, stickhandling his way through a couple of Marshall defenders to score an unassisted goal at 7:33. The Hawks went up 3-0 when Bo Gronseth scored with just :53.9 seconds remaining in the period on an assist from Neal Pionk and Hermantown led it 3-0 after two periods.

Chris Benson gave the Hawks 4-0 lead just 1:02 of the third period when he showed great patience skating across the crease before firing a wrister to the edge of the goal. Andrew Mattson picked up the assist. Marshall tried to respond with a goal at the 10:40 mark of the third period on a goal from Steve Long, but the Hawks answered back just eight seconds later when Mattson interpreted the announcement of the Marshall goal with the fifth Hawks tally on a pass from Jared Kolquist.

For the game the Hawks put 34 shots on Coffman, while Hawks goalie Matt Mensinger continues to be impressive by making 35 saves on 36 shots.

With the win the Hawks are now 11-0 on the season, while the Hilltoppers fell to 9-5. Hermantown will be back in action on Saturday when they travel to International Falls to battle the Broncos.

Wes Vork can be reached at wes@northlandsportsonline.com