St. Paul Johnson senior Jesse Solheid cut into the slot, where he crashed into the stick of Bloomington Jefferson goaltender Mike Vande Waa.
Solheid coughed up the puck to fellow senior Christian Sanda, who took advantage of a wide-open net to score the opening goal of the South St. Paul Premier Tournament on Saturday at Doug Woog Arena.
On the play, Vande Waa’s helmet flew off and Solheid fell after scoring, revealing the what would be the themes of the game: Hard-fought and physical.
Ranked No. 16 in the Class 1A coaches' poll, the Governors (8-3-0) earned that early goal, but it was also a game of firsts for the Jaguars, who saw senior Jay Johnson notch his first career hat trick, Michael Goedderz tally his first two varsity goals and - most importantly - Bob Lescarbeau score his first overtime game-winner.
“I tipped a piece of it (the puck) and got my own rebound. We had a good screen in front. The goalie was out of position and I was able to put it in the net,” Lescarbeau said while describing the goal that boosted Jefferson to a 6-5 victory over Johnson and into the tournament semifinals on Monday.
The game-winner followed a third period in which seven goals were scored, the aftermath of two penalty-filled periods.
“The game got loose a little bit with a ton of penalties,” Jaguars coach Jeff Lindquist said. “It tends to make it a lot wilder.”
A combined 13 power plays were awarded, with 10 in the final two periods, where the intensity grew following two Jefferson goals.
A vicious check on the boards by a Johnson skater took Jaguars sophomore Hunter Jacobs out of the game late in the middle period.
Lindquist thought the play took away his team's focus, which had helped Jefferson outshoot the Governors 18-3 in the opening period, and led to several missteps, including a roughing penalty committed in retaliation to late hit by Noah Ganske with 15 seconds remaining in the period.
Solheid capitalized on the power play at the start of the third, but soon after, the Governors would go on the penalty kill following an elbowing call on Sanda.
As Ganske was fumbling the puck, he had his pocket picked by Anthony Seeley, who scored to give Johnson a 3-2 lead.
“(Lindquist) told us it would be a war, it was going to be physical,” Lescarbeau said. “We just had to keep battling.”
The Jaguars (5-6) countered with a goal apiece from Johnson and Goedderz, just 17 seconds apart, to retake the lead.
Goedderz, however, got caught up in the play and was called for roughing after throwing a jab at a Johnson player in the corner. The penalty resulted in Seeley’s second goal, this time on the power play, and knotted the game 4-4 with half a period remaining.
“I couldn’t fault our effort, but sometimes our decision making wasn’t where I wanted to see it,” Lindquist said.
With less than seven minutes remaining, Johnson scored on a power play - his third goal of the night - to give Jefferson a lead, but St. Paul Johnson’s Ethan Ranum answered with 1 minute, 43 seconds left in regulation, tying the game and setting up overtime.
Jefferson, which came off an 4-3 overtime loss to No. 13-2A Minnetonka on Tuesday, has been battle-tested by games against some of the state’s top teams - particularly those in the south metro.
“Obviously we play a lot of (Class) 2A teams that push us to our limit and it helps us in games like this,” Lindquist said.
Despite his players many personal achievements, Lindquist isn’t convinced his team has played its best hockey, but it has potentially played its toughest.
“It was a very hard fought win. Both teams came in with a lot of motivation,” he said. “Johnson’s got a very talented team with a lot of seniors. They work really hard.”
“I love playing physical games. Our team fights through it all. It was a physical game and we came out on top,” Lescarbeau said.
The Jaguars' Jay Johnson (5), Mike Vande Waa (1) and Bob Lescarbeau (10) prepare to defend the goal against Jesse Solheid (25) and Isaac Moberg (16) of South St. Paul. Photo by Chris Juhn
First Report
Junior Bob Lescarbeau gathered his own rebound and backhanded the puck into an open net six minutes into overtime, pushing Bloomington Jefferson past St. Paul Johnson 6-5 Saturday afternoon in the St. Paul Premier Tournament quarterfinals at Doug Woog Arena in South St. Paul.
Seniors Jay Johnson and Michael Goedderz scored in the second period to give the Jaguars (5-6) a 2-1 lead heading into the final 17 minutes of regulation time.
Governors senior Jesse Solheid scored 51 seconds into the third period to tie the game, igniting a final period that saw three lead changes before St. Paul Johnson's Ethan Ranum netted a goal with 1:43 to play to knot the score at 5 and force overtime.
Johnson finished the game with a hat trick and senior Mike Vande Waa made 27 saves in the Jaguars' win.
Solheid added two assists to his stat line, including one on Ranum’s goal, and goaltender Sam Moberg stopped 43 shots for the Governors (8-3), ranked No. 16 in the Class 1A coaches' poll.
