5A Final- #1 Monticello vs #2 St Cloud Cathedral

[ClassAGuy]

Section 5A Final I February 26th, 2025 | 7:00 PM CT | @ Furniture and Things Community Event Center, Elk River

#1 seed Monticello Moose (22-3-1)
Monticello enters the 5A Section Final for the 8th time in the last 10 years. The Moose again had a tremendous regular season and they won over 20 games and were able to win a drama-filled 5A Semifinal over Pine City in double overtime to get back to the section final this year. Now they have a tough Crusaders team as the roadblock to their 5th trip to state in the last 9 years. They did lose to SCC during the year but they hope to reverse that result in this game facing Cathedral in the playoffs for the 4th straight year.

Moose Leaders- Seniors #3 Landen Scherber (27-35-65 pts) & #9 Nathan Poeppel (17-17-34 pts) and #11 Ashton Stoll (17-29-46 pts) put up massive numbers as Monti's top line during the year. Defensively, Senior #8 Aidan Widmark (7-21-28 pts) & Sophomore Nicklas Nelson (11-31-42 pts) have led the way on the Moose blueline which is one of the most complete and deep defensive cores that you will see in all of Class A this year.

Moose Goalie- Senior #31 Logan Blahnik (21-3-1) 1.58 GAA .928 SV% has been outstanding in net for Monticello and he has been dialed in so far in the playoffs and he will need to be at his best vs SCC and the Moose is gonna need a big game from him of which he is fully capable.

Moose Excellent Team Defense- Monticello plays a style of hockey that can make them seem not as impressive to the many score watchers out there. They do play low scoring games due to their commitment to structure and defense which allows inferior teams to stay in the game like in the 5A Semifinal. However, if there was a team built to beat the skill of SCC it would be the Moose. They have the best team defense in all of Class A only allowing 1.59 goals a game. They have shown vs just about everyone that they will hold your offense in check. The key will be if they can score.

Moose Special Teams- The Power Play is at 22.8% and Penalty Kill is at 87.7 %

#2 seed St Cloud Cathedral Crusaders (17-8-2)
St Cloud Cathedral enters the 5A Section Final having steamrolled through two 5A opponents outscoring them 16-3 so far and they have won 10 of their last 12 games. The Crusaders are looking to return to state for the 7th time in the last 10 years. They did struggle with consistency in the early part of the year but they have really caught fire since beating Monticello and they come into this game playing their best hockey of the season as they take on Monticello in sections for the 4th straight year holding the (2-1) edge at this point.

Crusaders Leaders- Seniors #6 John Hirschfeld (26-48-72 pts), #24 Joey Gillespie (19-43-62 pts) & #13 Jaeger Wood (19-16-35 pts.) and 9th grader Bo Schmidt (15-16-31 pts) lead a very powerful SCC offense and they seem to play their best in the biggest games and they have been great all year. Junior #21 Griffin Sturm (16-26-42 pts) leads the SCC blueline group and he is one of the top defenders in all of Class A again this season.

Crusaders Goalie- Junior #1 Keaton LeGrande (16-6-2) 2.57 GAA .890 SV% has been the Crusaders main guy in net this winter. He has had an up and down year but he played maybe his best game of the year in the first matchup vs the Moose and was a key reason for the win.

Crusaders Big Three 3-peat Attempt- One of the stats that sticks out is that while Cathedral is one of the true bluebloods of Class A hockey as since the beginning back in 1994 they have made 11 state tournament appearances and have made the Tourney 6 times in the last 9 years. However, during this long sustained success never has Cathedral produced a 3-peat section championship run; they have gone back to back on 5 separate occasions but never been able to make 3 consecutive trips. The Big Three will do their best in this game to change that piece of program history in this one.

Crusaders Special Teams- The Power Play is at 31.6% and Penalty Kill is at 71.1 %