After stopping 38 shots against Edina in an overtime upset victory last week, Ridge Gerads was expecting to get some well-deserved rest as Blaine rotates its two varsity goaltenders every other game.
That was the plan until Wednesday, when fellow senior goalie Jon Kallestad rolled his car and fractured his back in a traffic accident. Kallestad was at home resting on Thursday as Gerads took his place in net against Bengals' arch rival Centennial.
And Gerads carried the momentum from his last win into Centennial Sports Arena, where he stopped 24 of 26 shots to fend off a surging Cougars team and boost Blaine to its fifth win of the season in a 4-2 victory.
Leading 2-1 at the halfway point of the third period, Centennial forward Dylan Klehr appeared to have scored on a wraparound.
As the Cougars (3-1) celebrated the tying goal, Gerads stood up and skated towards the Blaine student section, tossing the puck out of his glove to show he had made the improbable save.
“I’m not going to lie to you," he said. “I just threw my glove out there and got kinda lucky.”
Blaine’s assistant head coach Nick Kulenkamp felt the Bengals, ranked No. 4 in the Class 2A coaches' poll, had luck on their side all evening.
“(Centennial) probably had more scoring chances than us,” he said. “You don’t like to see that as a coach, but we battled and worked hard.”
Scoring twice in the opening period, Blaine (5-0) never lost the lead but were outshot in the final two periods and also had to kill two 5-on-3 situations.
A goal 33 seconds into the game from Bengals senior and Minnesota-Duluth commit Riley Tufte was an unexpected jump on the No. 16-2A Cougars, and the gritty, frustrating essence of the rivalry appeared shortly after.
“They’ve always been great games. The atmosphere is always high. I think it’s one of the best (rivalries) in the state,” Tufte said.
Kulenkamp said a rivalry game tends to include less fluid play but provides players an chance to work through the mental challenges that come with facing a longtime adversary.
“They’re emotional games where you have to grind and be fighting, scratching and clawing every shift,” he said. “The guys walking out of the locker room are usually pretty exhausted after these games. It's a lot of hard work.”
His sixth year as assistant coach, Kulenkamp has seen his fair share of close finishes between the two Northwest Suburban Conference foes. Each of their last nine meetings have all been decided by a single goal.
Residing in the Centennial school district, Kulenkamp coaches his kids' youth teams along with Cougars head coach Ritch Menne and assistant coach Chris Johnson.
Having to sport two different colors in his time between the two arenas gives Kulenkamp perhaps the most partial perspective of the rivalry.
“I do take some heat, but the guys are good about it,” he said. “When you're not playing your best, you have to grind it out. They’re a good group of kids and a lot of fun.”
With 15 seniors, Blaine boasts an experienced group that escaped with a victory in what could be a preview of the Class 2A, Section 5 championship, largely due to Gerards, who remained calm under heavy fire the final two periods.
“He held down the fort for us,” Kulenkamp said. “He’s a battler - has been his whole career - and we have a lot of confidence with him out there.”