Class A Championship #1 seed 7A Hermantown (20-8-2) vs #3 seed 5A St. Cloud Cathedral (25-4-1)

[ClassAGuy]

This should be a classic as they played earlier in the year but SCC was missing Nick Hansen in net.

Who wins the Class A Title Game?

[elliott70]

Toss up
4 very good teams played this Friday.
All are champions.

[ClassAGuy]

Toss up
4 very good teams played this Friday.
All are champions.

Agreed excellent Semifinal Friday. The Class A Tourney on Friday and Saturday has been worth the ticket the last few years this one will go down as one of the best. Excellent hockey games. Class A continues to grow in entertainment value year after year.

[ClassAGuy]

#3 Section 5A Champion St Cloud Cathedral Crusaders (25-4-1)
St Cloud Cathedral is back in the Class A Championship game after defeating the team that ended their season a year ago in Warroad in overtime in the Semifinal round. They will be looking to win their 2nd title in program history when they take on their long time rivals Hermantown. SCC and the Hawks used to be in the same section and they have had many classic postseason battles but the Hawks have had the Crusaders number recently as the last SCC win was all the way back in 2013 and Cathedral will be looking to end the Hawks unbeaten streak against them and win on the State’s biggest stage.

Crusaders Leaders- Senior #26 Andrew Dwinnell (27-42-69 pts) and Juniors #6 John Hirschfeld (27-54-81 pts) & #24 Joey Gillespie (31-31-62 pts) were excellent again yesterday and need to be big in this one. Senior #3 Vince Gebhardt (2-13-15 pts) & Sophomore #21 Griffin Sturm (10-20-30 pts) lead the blueline with a nice mix of physicality and playmaking and will need to contain the Hawks explosive offense of late.

Crusaders Goalie- Senior #31 Nick Hansen (18-0-1) 1.49 GAA .934 SV% has been excellent this year and once he came back from injury Cathedral took their game to another level. SCC has yet to be beaten when he plays making him an X factor as he did not play in the loss to the Hawks during the year.

Crusaders Secondary Scoring- One of the big keys to the red hot 2nd half for SCC beyond getting fully healthy has been the emergence of secondary scoring as they have been able to start to get scoring from all three lines. The 2nd half emergence of Seniors #19 Cole Hawg (13-16-29 pts), #17 Landon Swenson (7-10-17 pts) & #14 Philip O’Neal (4-7-11 pts) along with Junior #13 Jaeger Wood (10-8-18 pts) have been key and the 2nd line has contributed key goals in both of their wins at State so far and they will need them to be huge again in this one as the Hawks are 3 lines deep and depth will be big in this game.

Crusaders Special Teams- The Power Play is at 23.2% and Penalty Kill is at 82.3 %

#1 Section 7A Champion Hermantown (20-8-2)
Hermantown is back in the Class A Championship game after defeating the team that ended their season a year ago in Mahtomedi in overtime in the Semifinal round. Now they will look to win their 5th title in program history when they take on their long time rivals in St Cloud Cathedral. The Hawks and Crusaders used to be in the same section and they have had many classic postseason battles and have held the edge recently going (14-0-1) vs the Crusaders since 2013 when Cathedral last beat them and they will look to continue that dominant series trend in this game and win their 2nd title in the last 3 years.

Hawks Leaders- Junior #23 River Freeman (22-27-49 pts) and Sophomores #4 AJ Francisco (12-17-29 pts) & #18 Ford Skytta (15-18-33 pts) make up the Hawks top line. Seniors #9 Will Esterbrooks (12-21-33 pts), #13 Weston Bohlman (5-13-18 pts), #8 Drew Nelson (4-13-17 pts) & Junior #2 Henry Peterson (11-10-21 pts) make up an excellent defensive unit but the health of Esterbrooks is a key question in this one.

Hawks Goalie- Senior #32 Dane Callaway (20-8-2) 1.79 GAA .936 SV% is one of the most decorated and impressive goalies in all of Class A with plenty of big game experience down in St Paul. He will be playing in his 2nd Class A Title game in the past 3 years and will use that experience to his advantage.

Hawks Class A Domination - The Hawks did have their struggles this year as they racked the most losses they have had since 2008. However, when playing Class A opponents they remained as dominant as ever as they are now (12-1-0) in those 13 games. Adding to that gaudy record is the fact that they are also averaging over 5 goals a game in those 13 contests and have outscored Class A competition 72-19 in that stretch. They showed their explosiveness again on Friday as they scored 7 goals to continue their 5 goal a game average vs Class A teams and they will need that big offense again today.

Hawks Special Teams- The Power Play is at 19 % and Penalty Kill is at 86.5%

[ClassAGuy]

Block shot leads to odd man rush and SCC top line buries it
1-0 SCC

[ClassAGuy]

Classic Battle right now both Goalies making unreal saves

1-0 SCC after two.... Cathedral's Top Line is a lot for the Hawks to handle

[Mite-dad]

A tournament has been better than the AA tournament.

[BlueLineSpecial]

A tournament has been better than the AA tournament.

Agreed. But I think we all knew this was coming. Everyone knew it was gonna be a section 2AA v 6AA final, and that there would be duds in the QF and SF games. The section upsets made it even worse.

Lets hope for a solid 'ship game tonight

[Mite-dad]

A tournament has been better than the AA tournament.

Agreed. But I think we all knew this was coming. Everyone knew it was gonna be a section 2AA v 6AA final, and that there would be duds in the QF and SF games. The section upsets made it even worse.

Lets hope for a solid 'ship game tonight

Definitely should be great.

[ClassAGuy]

SCC 1st line has taken over!
3-0 now 3rd Period

[ClassAGuy]

BHS 2024 Class A State Championship
#1 Hermantown 1
#3 St Cloud Cathedral 3
Final
Congrats to the SCC & Coach Stocker. He took over his alma mater after the program was allowed to hit rock bottom having their 1st losing season in 20 years. Just 3 years later they are State Champs!

[elliott70]

Herschfeld the mvp of the tourney

[Nostalgic Nerd]

Hansen was spectacular. Plus their zone defense did get a lot of sticks on pucks. Also I didn't know the last time they beat Hermy was in 2013. Congrats!

[norcon]

Congratulations to the Crusaders and their coaches who put together a great game plan. Both teams left it all on the ice. Maybe the Hawks need to drop down another class to get that next title. Oh, my bad…that’s not available yet

[Upfan111]

[raidergrad72]

Congratulations to the Crusaders and their coaches who put together a great game plan. Both teams left it all on the ice. Maybe the Hawks need to drop down another class to get that next title. Oh, my bad…that’s not available yet

I was wondering who'd be the first to throw THAT subject out there!
Congrats to the Crusaders! By beating the Hawks, they are hereby forgiven for beating my Raiders in '19!

[rainier2]

Tweets from St. Cloud sports reporter Andy Rennecke:

"After 3-4 days of state hockey, I’ve got to note how well Cathedral handles themselves in press conferences. Same for Warroad head coach and Northfield head coach and players. I wish I could say the same thing about Hermantown’s head coach."

"Me asking Patrick Andrews a basic question in the postgame presser about how good Nick Hansen is and then getting a look to the ceiling, an eye roll and a death stare. Apparently it’s hard to answer that question. He did the same thing to another question as well. He was a baby."

[ryguyMN]

Congrats to SCC. Was impressed with Gillespie’s game. He’s everywhere out on the ice.

[east hockey]

Tweets from St. Cloud sports reporter Andy Rennecke:

"After 3-4 days of state hockey, I’ve got to note how well Cathedral handles themselves in press conferences. Same for Warroad head coach and Northfield head coach and players. I wish I could say the same thing about Hermantown’s head coach."

"Me asking Patrick Andrews a basic question in the postgame presser about how good Nick Hansen is and then getting a look to the ceiling, an eye roll and a death stare. Apparently it’s hard to answer that question. He did the same thing to another question as well. He was a baby."

Well, he did have to follow Bruce Plante.

Lee

[rainier2]

Tweets from St. Cloud sports reporter Andy Rennecke:

"After 3-4 days of state hockey, I’ve got to note how well Cathedral handles themselves in press conferences. Same for Warroad head coach and Northfield head coach and players. I wish I could say the same thing about Hermantown’s head coach."

"Me asking Patrick Andrews a basic question in the postgame presser about how good Nick Hansen is and then getting a look to the ceiling, an eye roll and a death stare. Apparently it’s hard to answer that question. He did the same thing to another question as well. He was a baby."

Well, he did have to follow Bruce Plante.

Lee

After the 7A title game, I read the game story in the Hibbing paper, and I was struck at the complete lack of magnanimity shown by Andrews. I didn't see any praise for Hibbing or acknowledgement that they were good for being such a young team. Instead, he said "we were going through them like Swiss cheese."

So I wasn't surprised when I saw how he acted in the press conference after yet another choke job.

[headsupsticksdown]

Tweets from St. Cloud sports reporter Andy Rennecke:

"After 3-4 days of state hockey, I’ve got to note how well Cathedral handles themselves in press conferences. Same for Warroad head coach and Northfield head coach and players. I wish I could say the same thing about Hermantown’s head coach."

"Me asking Patrick Andrews a basic question in the postgame presser about how good Nick Hansen is and then getting a look to the ceiling, an eye roll and a death stare. Apparently it’s hard to answer that question. He did the same thing to another question as well. He was a baby."

Well, he did have to follow Bruce Plante.

Lee

After the 7A title game, I read the game story in the Hibbing paper, and I was struck at the complete lack of magnanimity shown by Andrews. I didn't see any praise for Hibbing or acknowledgement that they were good for being such a young team. Instead, he said "we were going through them like Swiss cheese."

So I wasn't surprised when I saw how he acted in the press conference after yet another choke job.

The guy is often praised for being a class act that kids love. I get the point about wanting to field and answer questions about YOUR team, but it comes with the territory. He did seem quite complimentary in the post game line so I’m not going to jump on the guy, but speaking to the press is part of the gig when you’re a HC. Especially of a program as hated as HTown is…

[norcon]

Congratulations to the Crusaders and their coaches who put together a great game plan. Both teams left it all on the ice. Maybe the Hawks need to drop down another class to get that next title. Oh, my bad…that’s not available yet

I was wondering who'd be the first to throw THAT subject out there!
Congrats to the Crusaders! By beating the Hawks, they are hereby forgiven for beating my Raiders in '19!

Sorry, I just couldn’t resist

[Mite-dad]

The big question is will the boys stick around to try for the repeat?

[ClassAGuy]

The big question is will the boys stick around to try for the repeat?

That is a big question right hearing they are staying but its long summer if the Big 3 are back next year watch out with the STMA transfer ready to step in at Goalie. They will be a nice squad