St. Cloud Cathedral, East Grand Forks meet in final

HIGH SCHOOL BOYS HOCKEY STATE TOURNAMENT >> CLASS A ROUNDUP

Crusaders, who beat Green Wave in January, will try to defend their title

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East Grand Forks junior forward Tucker Lovejoy celebrates after scoring a second-period goal during the Green Wave’s 7-5 victory over Hibbing/Chisholm in the Minnesota high school boys hockey Class A tournament semifinals on Friday at Xcel Energy Center in St. Paul. JIM ROSVOLD — MINNESOTA STATE HIGH SCHOOL LEAGUE

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By Jace Frederick

jfrederick@pioneerpress.com

St. Cloud Cathedral is one game away from successfully defending its Class A crown. The Crusaders scored the game’s first three goals and beat Orono 4-1 in Friday’s semifinal at Xcel Energy Center to comfortably advance to the title bout.

The second-seeded Crusaders will meet fourth-seeded East Grand Forks at 12 p.m. Saturday in St. Paul for the championship. The Crusaders beat the Green Wave 11-5 in East Grand Forks at the end of January.

On Friday, Joey Gillespie got the scoring started just 5:32 into the opening stanza. Jaeger Wood scored fewer than two minutes later, and the Crusaders were firmly in control of the contest. It was 3-0 St. Cloud Cathedral in the second period after Bo Schmidt potted a power-play score.

Orono’s lone goal came in the third when Ethan Pagel scored on the power play with the Spartans’ net also empty to make it 3-1 with 3:21 to play to make onlookers believe that maybe a miracle was possible for Orono (16-11-3). But that thought faded away entirely when Wood tallied an empty-net goal with just north of a minute to play.

Keaton LeGrande stopped 22 shots for St. Cloud Cathedral (20-8-2).

East Grand Forks 7, Hibbing/Chisholm 5

Top-seeded Hibbing/Chisholm struck first Friday, led 3-1 in the first period and 5-2 midway through the second. The Bluejackets appeared to be well on their way to their first title game appearance since Hibbing finished as the state runner up in 1994.

Then the Green Wave splashed.

Hunter Varnson made it 5-3 with a goal scored with two minutes to play in the second period, and Judd Pesch effectively beat the buzzer to trim East Grand Forks’ deficit to just one heading to the final period.

Then the first minute of the third frame belonged to defenseman Cole Bies. He tied the game just 11 seconds into the period and then, 39 seconds later with the Green Wave on the power play, put his team on top for the first time all game.

The score stood at 6-5 for the next 16 minutes of action until Jace Panzer put away the empty-net goal that secured East Grand Forks’ stunning come-from-behind victory with just 25 ticks remaining on the clock.

East Grand Forks (15-13-2) outshot Hibbing/Chisholm 24-13 over the final two periods of play.

Friday’s game — which featured a slow start and a strong finish — was a bit of a microcosm of East Grand Forks’ season. The Green Wave’s final nine games of the regular season featured two wins, six losses and a tie. But they’ve been on a tear every since the start of the postseason.

Cole Swanson had a goal and two assists to lead the scoring for Hibbing/Chisholm (20-10), which was making its first state tournament appearance since 2011. East Grand Forks is back in the title game for the first time since 2015, when it successfully defended its Class A title.

It will attempt to prevent St. Cloud Cathedral from doing the same on Saturday.