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Breck bucks incredible odds to play in back-to-back 1-0 games

By Loren Nelson, 03/05/15, 10:30PM CST

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David La Vaque has covered all but one state hockey tournament game since 2009 and has worked as a Star Tribune high school sports reporter since 2004. His favorite tournament experiences include cheering for alma mater St. Paul Johnson in 1991 and staying for most of the Apple Valley/Duluth East marathon semifinal game in 1996. Loren Nelson has covered every state tournament since 2009 as the national media editor for Sport Ngin. He attended many, many other Tourney games as a high schooler from the far northern reaches of Minnesota making the annual pilgrimage south to the old St. Paul Civic Center in the 1980s.


Still going strong as the night wears on here on Day 2 of the Tourney at the X, so finally getting a chance to bang this post out.

Jim Hoey, one of the state’s foremost authorities on state high school hockey history, and the author of “Puck Heaven”, Minnesota State Boys’ Hockey Tournament Trivia, was fully inspired by St. Cloud Apollo’s 1-0 overtime victory over Breck in Wednesday’s Class 1A quarterfinals. So inspired he spent more than an hour digging through his archives to give some context to what is a rarely seen 1-0 game.

Turns out Apollo’s win marked just the third scoreless regulation time game in state tournament history. And the game, which lasted 56:07 in elapsed time, was the longest of the three scoreless regulation games that went into OT. Here's the boxscore.

We’ll note here that Hoey did all his digging before Breck bucked amazing odds by playing in yet another 1-0 game in Thursday’s consolation round. This time the Mustangs beat Spring Lake Park 1-0.

Hoey’s state tournament numbers below have been adjusted to figure in Breck’s win Thursday.

Total 1-0 games: 21 (1,031 total tourney games played through Thursday)
Total 1-0 regulation games: 18
Total 1-0 championship games: 6 (1958, Roseau over Harding; 1961, Roseau over South St. Paul; 1970, Minneapolis Southwest over Edina; 1971, Edina over Roseau; 1997, Class 2A, Edina over Duluth East; 2004, Class 2A, Centennial over Moorhead).
Total 1-0 overtime title games: 1 (1970, Minneapolis Southwest over Edina. Bill Shaw scored at 6:14 of the first overtime.
Total scoreless regulation-time games: 3 
Longest scoreless game before winner: March 4, 2015 – Class 1A quarterfinals: St. Cloud Apollo 1, Breck 0 (56:07 of elapsed time. Goal scored by Brandon Bisset at 5:07 of first overtime).
Two other 0-0 ties after regulation:

  1. 1970 championship game – Minneapolis Southwest 1, Edina 0 (42:14 of elapsed time. Goal scored at 6:14 of first overtime by Bill Shaw).
  2. 1970 quarterfinals – North St. Paul 1, White Bear Lake 0 (50:35 of elapsed time. Goal scored by Dan Leigh at 1:35 of third overtime).  

Note: Regulation periods were only 12 minutes in 1970 and overtimes alternated between eight and five minutes. 
Fun fact: Six of the 11 games played in the 1970 tourney went into at least one overtime.

As for Thursday’s Breck win over Spring Lake Park, Justin Paulson scored for the Mustangs at 5:14 of the second period. Here’s a link to the boxscore. The Panthers, making their first state tourney appearance, did not score a goal in their two games. 

If you are a state tournament trivia geek, like me, Hoey’s state tourney trivia book is a must-read. Click here for information on how to get your copy.

Coming next is the release of our Day 2 All-Tournament Team.

Stay tuned.

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