Cathedral To Battle Orono Friday In State Semifinals

The Cathedral Crusaders shut out Mahtomedi 3-0 Wednesday in a Class A Boys Hockey semifinal matchup at Xcel Energy Center on Wednesday. Joey Gillepsie scored twice for the Crusaders, freshman Bo Schmidt charted a goal and Keaton LeGrande made 28 saves to earn the shutout in net.

On Friday morning the Crusaders will play against Orono in St. Paul. Cathedral checks in at 19-8-2, while the Spartans are currently 16-10-3 after beating Northfield 8-2 in the quarterfinal round.

The two teams met in Orono back in early January, with Cathedral picking up a 4-2 win after scoring three third period goals.

Each team scored in the first period, with Ryan Sturm tying the game at one at 9:29. After a scoreless second period, Joey Gillespie's power play goal gave the Crusaders a 2-1 lead just about halfway through the final period and Jaeger Wood made it 3-1 with a goal five minutes later.

The Spartans cut the CHS lead to one with 1:40 left, but Gillespie scored into the empty net to seal Cathedral's 4-2 win. Blake Kayser got the start between the pipes for Cathedral and made 26 saves on 28 shots.

Cathedral is led by junior forward John Hirschfeld, a Vermont commit, with 78 points this season, including a pair of helpers in the quarterfinal matchup with Mahtomedi. His 25 goals are also a team-leading total.

Orono's leading scorer is junior Jackson Knight with 62 points (33G, 29A), while Trey Landa has posted 54 points this year (23G, 31A). Evan Schmidt has gotten the majority of starts in net for the Spartans and has posted a 12-10-3 record with a 2.70 goals against average and .907 save percentage.

The winner of today's matchup will advance to the state semifinals against the winner of today's Hibbing/Chisholm vs East Grand Forks game, which will be played a 1 p.m. Friday.

WHAT: CLASS A BOYS HOCKEY STATE SEMIFINAL
WHERE: XCEL ENERGY CENTER
WHEN: FRIDAY, MARCH 7th at 11 AM
WATCH: PREP 45 (LINK)