Hawks Advance To State Semi-Finals With 2-1 Win

Wes Vork-NSO

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Mar 10

Wes Vork-NSO

ST. PAUL – In hockey, the ability to kill penalties and to score on the power play can be the difference between being a champion or an also-ran. On Wednesday afternoon, the Hermantown Hawks shut down the Virginia-Mt. Iron-Buhl power play and went on to score on one of their few chances to take a 2-1 win over the Blue Devils in the Minnesota State Class A quarterfinals at the Xcel Energy Center.

Virginia-MIB had a chance to tie the game against the Hawks when Hermantown took a penalty with about five minutes remaining in regulation. However, like they did in the second period, the Hawks completely shut the Blue Devils’ man advantage down, This effort helped to preserve the victory and the opportunity to move into the semifinals against Mahtomedi.

Hermantown head coach Bruce Plante was quick to pass along credit for the Hawks penalty kill, which was 87.5% during the regular season and yet to surrender a goal in 17 attempts this postseason, to his assistants and the players. He told NSO, “We have a great penalty kill coach in Daryl Illikainen and we work hard on it in practice. Throughout the year we see a lot of different power plays and that always helps also.”

While the Blue Devils struggled on the power play, the Hawks took advantage of their first power play in the first period when Cody Christopherson took a feed from Adam Krause to make it 1-0. After the game, Christopherson explained, “Adam got the puck out of the corner, looked up and made a great pass. I fired it and the puck went in the back of the net.”

Although there were only six shots on goal for each team, the first period presented plenty of opportunities for both squads. Virginia-MIB had an early break away that was stopped by Hawks goalie Tyler Ampe. Likewise, Hermantown had a great chance, but Willis Kantonen was stopped by Blue Devils goalie Casey Myhre.

The Blue Devils played a strong second period and tied the game when Travis Eddy scored the only goal of the period just 1:53 in. Once again, a tight defensive game limited the scoring chances with Virginia-MIB outshooting the Hawks 10-6 for the period.

Like the first two periods, great defense and goaltending limited the scoring chances in the third period and only one goal would be scored. That lone third period goal belonged to Krause, who blasted a laser shot from about 45 feet out. Krause talked about his game winning goal after the game, explaining to NSO, “It was the end of a shift and I knew I couldn’t beat the “D” so I shot it. The scouting report said to just try to get the puck on net, that’s what I tried to do and sometimes it goes in.”

Another key to the win was the stellar goaltending of Ampe, who made 20 saves on 21 shots on goal. After the game, Coach Plante was pleased with the way his goaltender has played down the stretch. “I’m sure Tyler is feeling confident right now and the team is confident with him in there.”

With the win, Hermantown advances to the state semi-finals at 11:00 am on Friday against Mahtomedi, who dominated Alexandria 7-1 in the opening game of the tournament. The two teams played in a scrimmage earlier in the year and, while Coach Plante couldn’t remember the score, he did recall the Zephyrs as a very good hard working team much like his own. Krause, however, was quick to add “It was a 2-2 tie.” In order for the Hawks to advance to the championship game and a shot at their second title in four years they will only need to better that scrimmage mark by one goal.

Wes Vork can be reached at wes@northlandsportsonline.com