Minnesota is dubbed the State of Hockey. No other time throughout the calendar year is this more true than during the four-day boys high school state hockey tournament. The state-tournament tradition is what the State of Hockey is all about.
This year marked the 10th one at the Xcel Energy Center in St. Paul. As the last few years of the tournament have gone by, I have grown more and more interested in watching.
One of these times I'll have to go down there myself because the atmostphere looks electric. I was hoping to make it down there to see my Andover Huskies this year, but despite having their best team in school history and a Mr. Hockey candidate in Cal Decowski, they lost in the playoffs to eventual section champion Duluth East.
The love continues to grow
My fondness of the tourney grew closer toward obsession stage this year; all I wanted to do was watch every game in its entirety. I had a chance to watch a lot of Class 1A hockey on Wednesday, but was a little disappointed with the results. Three of the four games were blowouts, the biggest being dealt by Breck with an 11-1 route of New Ulm.
I also watched the afternoon games Thursday when the big schools of Class 2A got things going. I was sad to see the No. 3 seed, and Andover's conference rival, Blaine get knocked out 2-0 by unseeded Apple Valley. I jokingly blamed the loss on a "Star Tribune Metro Player of the Year" curse, as Nick Bjugstad of the Bengals earned that honor. Blaine also lost in the consolation round.
Semifinals, more minutes than expected
Play got interesting during Friday's semifinal rounds. Warroad advanced to the Class 1A championship game after an emotional-roller-coaster ending against Mahtomedi. After seeing a two-goal lead disappear in the final period, Mahtomedi appeared to score the game-winner (breaking a 6-6 tie) as regulation time expired. As the referee signaled it was a goal, a championship-like celebration took place on the ice for the Zephyrs.
But upon the video review, it clearly showed the puck was not in the back of the net as the clock hit 0.0. The game would be decided in overtime. It took just over a minute into the extra session for Warroad sophomore Jared Thomas to score the most important goal of his career and send his team to the championship game.
Instant classic: Hill-Murray vs. Tonka
The overtime drama did not stop there. As Edina coasted to the 2A championship game with a 2-1 win over Apple Valley in the early game, Hill-Murray and No. 1 seed, the heavy favorite to win it all, Minnetonka took to the ice. Each team tallied a goal in the first and that's where the scoring would stay until much, much later.
In a game that featured no penalties, you could tell as it went on that these teams were evenly matched. Watching in the third period, I just got this feeling that the game had the potential to go on awhile. Call it a gut feeling.
The contest remained tied after one overtime. Then two. Then three. (The first overtime period is seven minutes, then ice resurfacing before a 17-minute period and the process repeats.) In the fourth overtime, it was another sophomore, Erik Baskin of Minnetonka, who sent the Skippers to the championship with a wrap-around goal at 2:31 of the fourth overtime. 2-1 final.
In a day that saw record attendance numbers at the X (more than 11,000 for the Class 1A games, and more than 19,000 for 2A), fans were treated to a real classic. Had the game prolonged about seven minutes more, it would have set the record for the longest game in tournament history. I know Edina was hoping that would have happened.
State champions
On championship Saturday, it was Breck who prevailed to win back-to-back titles, becoming the first team in Class 1A to do so, and the first overall since Bloomington Jefferson in 1992-94. The outcome was unfortunate for opponent Hermantown, which often outplayed the Mustangs throughout the day, and scored the first goal of the game.
It was a deflection shot scored with 100 seconds left in regulation that gave Breck the 2-1 victory.
Now, while I believe most of the consolation and third-place games have been decided, we just await the 2A championship this evening. Since I have other plans, I have the DVR set up to record the last of the 2010 tournament. See, I told you I'd edged closer to obsession.
Venting sidebar...
Note: You'd think at some point the MSHSL and the tournament would figure out the timing of the games. The quarterfinal games are all scheduled two hours apart (11 a.m., 1 p.m in the afternoons; 6 p.m., 8 p.m. in the evenings). I'd like to point out that this does not work, especially in the quarters when the entire roster gets introduced.
Games aren't even done in two hours, and then you have to factor in the warm-up time for the next two teams coming in. There's a simple solution: Schedule the games three hours apart. I just had to get that off my chest.
Update:
I scanned through the 2A championship in the wee hours of the morning today. Edina scored in the first minute of the game and never looked back. Tonka scored a couple quick goals at the start of the third period, but they couldn't overcome a 4-0 deficit. Edina took home its first state championship since 1997 with a 4-2 victory.
No comments:
Post a Comment