St. Cloud Cathedral upsets top-seeded Hermantown for Class A title
The last time St. Cloud Cathedral and Hermantown played on Jan. 11, the Crusaders were without senior goaltender Nick Hansen, who was out for an extended period of time after dislocating his left shoulder.
The Hawks won that game 3-1, but the Crusaders didn't play another game without Hansen in net. When he returned for their following game, St. Cloud Cathedral coach Robbie Stocker challenged his team to run the table. If they were going to win the state title, that meant going 15-0 over the last two months of the season.
The Crusaders did exactly that.
Hansen made 28 saves and senior forward Andrew Dwinnell had two goals and an assist as the third-seeded Crusaders beat the top-seeded Hawks 3-1 in the Class A state championship game on Saturday at Xcel Energy Center in St. Paul, Minn.
When Hansen, the team's captain, went down with the injury, it was difficult for him to be off the ice.
"It's the longest break I took from being on the ice, probably since I started playing 10-12 years ago now," Hansen said. "So it was really hard for me, but the guys around me made sure to keep my confidence up and get ready to go back in."
But Stocker said that was a "pivotal turning point" for the Crusaders (26-4-1). They started the season without a captain, with Stocker wanting to see who would emerge as the leader of the group. He had an inkling it would be Hansen.
Stocker said Hansen was at every practice, every game and was even acting as a second goalie coach while he was sidelined due to the injury.
"He was the ultimate teammate," Stocker said.
On Saturday, Hansen led by an example, being a riddle the Hawks (20-9-2) couldn't solve for most of the night, turning away shot after shot on a day that Hermantown outshot the Crusaders 29-21.
"Obviously he's a great goalie. We couldn't score," Hawks coach Patrick Andrews said.
Meanwhile, Dwinnell scored from the left circle on a 3-on-2 rush just 3 minutes, 48 seconds into the contest, a one-goal lead that stood until he scored again from the same spot in the third period.
Andrews liked the way his team played in the second period, a scoreless frame, and said it felt like the Hawks got better as the game went on. But the Crusaders were able to get two goals in the third period to open up a commanding 3-0 lead.
Joey Gillespie had the second third-period goal for the Crusaders at 12:18, at which point it became clear they were going to take the title. Stocker dedicated it to Mack Motzko, the son of Gophers men's hockey coach Bob Motzko, who was killed in a car accident about three years ago. Mack Motzko was a St. Cloud Cathedral alum.
"I was on staff here at Cathedral in 2017 and I went to Delano in 2018 and I missed out on the state championship (the Crusaders won the 2019 title). And there was another guy who had to leave the team and missed out on a state championship that year as well, Mack Motzko," Stocker said. "And kind of always a goal of mine, at that moment, we kind of connected on that, a goal of mine was that I was gonna try to win that state championship that he and I both missed out on because I know how hard that was on him to not be a part of that.
"And it was really, really hard on me as an alumni to not be a part of that team, as well. And so for me, I dedicated this one to Mack, who is not only a kid I coached for a number of years, but he was also an awesome friend, golf partner. Just everything we've tried to build this program around was Mack and who he was as a person."
Hermantown and St. Cloud Cathedral players battle for the puck along the end boards during the first period of the Class A state boys hockey championship on Saturday, March 9, 2024, at Xcel Energy Center in St. Paul, Minn.
Nolan O'Hara / Bring Me The News
