Cathedral Hockey Advances To State Championship Game

The Cathedral Crusaders are headed back to the state championship game after beating Orono 4-1 at the MSHSL Class A Boys Hockey State Tournament. The Crusaders, who won last year's title, will play against the winner of the Hibbing/Chisholm vs East Grand Forks game at Noon on Saturday.

Orono was the aggressor early and got the first few shots on goal before Joey Gillespie scored for Cathedral at 2:10 of the opening period. Orono goalie Evan Schmidt turned the puck over to John Hirschfeld, who hit Griffin Sturm with a cross-ice pass. Sturm's shot bounced off Schmidt's pads and onto Gillespie's stick for his third tournament goal.

Jaeger Wood made it 2-0 after a slick pass from Caden Johnson on a two-on-one rush at 7:21 of the first period, with Connor Stockman earning a second assist for his nice pass to Johnson in the neutral zone.

The Spartans earned a pair of power plays late in the first period but were denied by Cathedral's stout penalty kill, which entered the game with a 72.8% success rate. Shots on goal in the first period favored Orono 8-7.

The Crusaders finally got their first power play about halfway through the first period and capitalized when Wood's pass from behind the Orono net found Bo Schmidt crashing to the net. Schmidt's second goal of the tournament came at 8:25 of the second period and made the score 3-0 in favor of Cathedral.

Cathedral outshot Orono 6-5 in the second period to draw the teams even at 13 shots through two.

Early in the third period Hirschfeld was pulled down from behind and was awarded a penalty shot, but his wrister sailed wide and the score remained 3-0 in favor of his Crusaders.

Orono finally found the back of the net when Ethan Pagel scored a power play goal from a ridiculous angle below the goal line with just 3:31 left in the third period. However, Jaeger Wood found the empty net with just over one minute left to seal the Crusaders' win.

Tickets for the championship game are general admission and cost $20 for adults and $13 for students Kindergarten though 12th grade. Tickets can be purchased through Ticketmaster (link).