OT Goal Puts Hermantown In Title Game

Mar 12

Kerry Rodd-NSO

Three times this year the Hermantown Hawks have played games where the opposition has scored a goal at the buzzer to potentially win the game. The first two times the Hawks were in regular season play and they won those games. On Friday afternoon, playing in the semi finals of the Minnesota Class A State Boys Hockey Tournament, the Mahtomedi Zephyrs appeared to have scored at the end of regulation. However, replays showed that the clock had expired just a fraction of a second before the puck crossed the goal line. Instead of a Mahtomedi win, the game went to overtime where the Hawks scored and pulled a win from what appeared to be
the jaws of
defeat.

Seconds after the game ended the media started calling it one of the most thrilling contests in state tournament history and with good reason. The Hawks trailed the entire game and had to rally from two goal deficits twice. Not only did they find a way to rally for a tie, but when Jared Thomas stuffed the puck past the Zephyr goal keeper they had found a way to finally secure the win.

The teams traded goals through the first two periods of the game with Mahtomedi scoring first each time and the Hawks bouncing back to tie the game. After Ben Marshall had given the Zephyrs a 1-0 lead at 5:26, the Hawks bounced back on a Chad Bannor goal with assists from Connor Hady and Willis Kantonen to tie it at 1-1. Again, Mahtomedi took a lead at 10:13 on a Charlie Adams marker, but the Hawks tied it this time on a goal by Jared Kolquist with Jared Thomas adding the assist and at the end of the first period it was tied 2-2.

The second period saw the Zephyrs take the lead at 3-2 when Adams added his second goal of the game just 39 seconds into the period. Yet again the Hawks amazing resilience showed when they got another goal from Kolquist at 8:25 with Jeff Paczynski and Charlie Comnick adding the assists. When the second period ended, the fans in the stands had no idea about the wild finish they would see that would leave one team stunned in defeat and the other dazed by the odd sequence of events that sent them to the finals.

Mahtomedi looked as if they had salted the game away when they scored at 5:50 and 7:23 to build a 5-3 lead. The Hawks fought back to get to within 5-4 at 8:14 on a goal by Charlie Comnick, but again the Zephyrs surged to a two goal lead with a score at 8:49 to make it 6-4. The goal by Mahtomedi seemed to act as a rallying cry for the Hawks, who sent wave after wave of action towards Zephyr goalie Brad Wohlers. It was Comnick who found a way to get things back to even. At 10:27 Comnick jumped on a rebound to the left side of the crease off a shot that came from the left wall and jammed it home to cut the lead to 6-5. Then, at 11:18, it was Comnick deflecting a slap shot from the high slot by Jeff Paczynski into the net and through the legs of the goalie for a tie at 6-6.

Hermantown continued their relentless pressure, but with the clock winding down the Zephyrs burst across the Hawks blue line and let go with a shot that beat Tyler Ampe for what looked to be the game winning goal. The Zephyrs stormed the ice to celebrate, but after a review it was determined that the shot went into the goal just a split second after time had run off the clock giving the Hawks new life.

It took just 1:12 into overtime, but Comnick picked up a loose puck in his own zone and made a dash to center where he found Thomas racing down the left wing with a center ice pass. Thomas side-stepped a defender and went in the last 10 feet alone on goal. After making a deke to his backhand and getting Wohlers to sprawl out, Thomas tucked it in the short side off the forehand and the celebration was on. Ironically, Thomas, who is a sophomore, had moved up to center the second line after Adam Oakes had injured his ankle in the section finals and was unable to play in the state tournament.

For the game, the Hawks outshot the Zephyrs by a 44-27 margin. Comnick finished with 3 goals and 2 assists to lead the Hermantown offense.

The win puts the Hawks into the championship game against the winner of Warroad and Breck School, which are playing in the other semi-final this afternoon.

Kerry Rodd can be reached at Kerry@northlandsportsonline.com