State Tournament Summary
By Howard Voigt
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| The Blake School scored in the first minute of the game and held on to edge the Prowlers of Thief River Fall/Goodridge 4-3 for the Class A Consolation Championship. The Prowlers tied the game on Tyler Holen’s goal, but Blake’s Jamie Leathers got the first of his two scores at 13:33 of period one for a lead they would never relinquish. Six minutes into the second period the Prowlers had a 5-on-3 advantage for 1:11. Bears netminder Kent Patterson shut the door through both penalties and stopped 27 shots for the game. Thief River Falls/Goodridge had the edge in shots on goal 30-21. They pulled the goalie Crady McIntyre for the last 1:20 of the game and had several great opportunities including a shot that hit the pipe in the final ten seconds. Leathers, Mike Policinski, and Chris Murray each had two points in the game for the Bears. Matt Nordhagen and Tony Dorn had the other Prowler goals. |
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State Tournament Box Score
By Howard Voigt
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Bears Capture Consolation Championship
By Blake Staff
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2006 Varsity Boys’ Hockey Updates
State Class A Consolation Championship @ Mariucci Arena, Minneapolis, MN
Saturday, March 11
The Blake School 2 1 1 - 4
Thief River Falls 1 1 1 - 3
First: B-Louwerse (Hultstrand, Seivold) 1:17; TRF- Holen (unassisted) 5:35; B-Leathers (Policinski) 13:33, power play
Second: B-Leathers (Murray) 3:04; TRF-Nordhagen (Horien) 14:09 power play
Third: B-Murray (Policinski) 12:43; TRF-Dorn (unassisted) 14:09
Saves: Blake School- Patterson 8-10-9-27; TRF-McIntyre 4-7-6—17
Bears Capture Consolation Championship
The Blake Bears hit the ice for their last game of the season this morning at 10 AM. The Bears took on the Prowlers of Thief River Falls in the championship game of the State Class A Consolation Tournament at Mariucci Arena on the campus of the University of Minnesota. On paper this would be a classic Minnesota Hockey match up. Thief River Falls, located 70 miles south from the Canadian border versus The Blake School of Minneapolis.
The Bears and the Prowlers met earlier in the season at Blake Ice Arena. The Bears picked up the W in that contest when junior winger Mike Louwerse netted a hat trick only to be outdone by senior sharp shooter Chris Murray who did him one better when he lit the lamp four times.
The Prowlers are in the tournament for the first time since 1965. TRF bested last year’s Class A champion Warroad 3-2 in four overtimes to capture the Section 8A crown and the trip to Saint Paul.
The Blake School’s head coach John Hamre was forced to juggle his lineup due an injury to senior Owen Holm. Holm will play hockey at Williams College next year and was the Bears second leading scorer going into the tournament. Apparently, the Hamre remix worked as the Bears reshuffled second line consisting of Louwerse, paired with sophomores Jack Barnes and Jordan Seivold, scored on its first shift at 1:17 into the contest.
Thief River Falls senior Tyler Holen evened the tying tally at 5:35 of the first.
The sticks were rattling for the rest of the period and each team took a penalty. Only the Bears took advantage of the power play opportunity with senior right wing Jamie Leathers putting the Blake back on top assisted by fellow senior Mike Policinski.
Three minutes and 4 seconds into the second period Leathers netted his second goal of the morning from senior line mate Chris Murray. The two-goal lead would be short-lived however.
In an odd twist of events the Bears took a penalty for too many men on the ice at 10:39 and about a minute into the power play Blake senior Bryant Johnson was assessed a penalty for checking from behind. The Bears were able to pack it in and skate off the 2-man disadvantage gaining even strength at 13:28. Twenty-seven seconds later Bears sophomore Blake Dressen was whistled for a slashing penalty. The Prowlers pulled within one goal 14 seconds into the man advantage.
The third period was quintessential tournament hockey. Players for both team played each shift as if it was to be their last. Each player worked hard and pushed their endurance, skill and courage to the limit. Both coaching corps barked, bellowed and even whistled directives to their personnel.
Ultimately, at 12:43, Chris Murray buried the biscuit for the Bears from Mike Policinski pushing the lead to two goals. That margin lasted for exactly one minute and 31 seconds before Prowler Tony Dorn muscled one past Blake goalie Kent Patterson during a scrum in front of the Bears net.
At 15:40 of the final period TRF head coach Scott Bergland call his time out in a last ditch effort to rally his troops and to put a sixth attacker on the ice. The officials whistled out the nearly exhausted players for the final minute and twenty seconds of the game. The Prowlers were able to get four shot on net during those 80 seconds with the final volley from Tyler Holen hitting the pipe and harmlessly bouncing to the corner as the siren blew.
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