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Scheerer scores twice to rocket Edina to Schwan Cup Gold Division championship

By Loren Nelson, SportsEngine, 12/31/16, 2:15PM CST

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The senior forward's clutch scoring helped boost No. 7 Edina past No. 5 St. Thomas Academy.



Bram Scheerer (23) scores the eventual winner for Edina in a 4-2 victory over the Cadets in the Schwan's Cup Gold division title game. Photo by Cheryl Myers, SportsEngine




Edina senior Bram Scheerer will tell you it was luck that he stole the puck from one of the state’s top defenseman at a most opportune time.

He will tell you it was luck that, on his ensuing breakaway, his laser wrist shot beat one of the state’s elite goaltenders.

He will even tell you that slipping the puck around the skates of one giant St. Thomas Academy defenseman, knifing past another and deking that same goaltender to the ice while scoring another goal – all in one eye-blink of a motion – was luck, too.

Hornets senior defenseman Luke Johnson hears all that from Scheerer and laughs as he shakes his head.

“That’s the usual goal for Bram Scheerer,” Johnson said after Edina beat St. Thomas Academy, ranked No. 5 in Class 2A by the state coaches' poll, 4-2 on Saturday at Ridder Arena in Minneapolis in the championship game of the Schwan Cup Gold Division.

Johnson could have been referring to either, or both, of Scheerer’s goals. Both were highlight-reel worthy. Scheerer’s second goal, a shorthander, came late in the third period after he stripped the puck from standout Cadets’ defenseman Robbie Stucker near center and put the Hornets ahead 3-1.

“I just got a lucky bounce for a breakaway and shot it,” said Scheerer, who shares the team lead with eight goals. “Didn’t want to try to do anything too fancy in a game like that, you’ve just got to shoot it every time you can. Got lucky.”

Scheerer’s first goal, which put the Hornets ahead 2-0 in the first period, was the very definition of fancy. He raced across the St. Thomas Academy blue line, beat Cadets defenseman Blake Holmes with a nifty inside-outside move, cut past defenseman Thomas Winges and then reached around goaltender Vinny Capezza to dump the puck into an open net.

“He’s a big, strong kid that can shoot the puck,” Edina coach Curt Giles said about 6-foot-3, 185-pound Scheerer. “He’s been good for us all year, and he was good for us last year. That’s the expectation for him, he’s a senior this year on a young team. We need his leadership.”

Scheerer needed a little help from a friend in the final period. With Edina clinging to a 2-1 lead, Scheerer was killing a penalty when he was whistled for holding. That gave the Cadets a 5-on-3 advantage for 1:58, setting the stage for Edina speedster Sam Walker to burn a good chunk of those minutes with some ferocious penalty killing.

“He saved my butt on that one,” Scheerer said. “I was sitting in the box relying on my buddy.”

The victory over the Cadets (8-2-1, 3-0) all but assures the No. 7-2A Hornets (8-3-, 1-1) a significant climb in the rankings when the next state coaches’ poll is released next week.

“It’s kind of a turning point for our team,” Johnson said. “It’s good for these younger kids to win a tournament like this because it shows we can play with all these guys.”


Sophomore defenseman Tommy Winges (6) helps Cadet goaltender Vinny Capezza clear the puck out of the crease. Capezza tallied 24 saves in the game. Photo by Cheryl Myers, SportsEngine

First Report

Senior forward Bram Scheerer scored twice on lightning rushes to the net to lead Edina to a 4-2 victory over St. Thomas Academy on Saturday at Ridder Arena in Minneapolis in the championship game of the Schwan Cup Gold Division.

Scheerer put the Hornets (8-3, 1-1), ranked No. 7 in Class 2A in the latest state coaches’ poll, ahead 2-0 late in the first period when he beat two Cadets defensemen and goalie Vinny Capezza with a combination of speed and nifty stickhandling.

Scheerer scored what proved to be the winning goal in the third period when he stripped the puck from St. Thomas Academy defenseman Robbie Stucker along the boards at center ice and raced in alone on Capezza, this time firing a quick shot past the Cadets’ goaltender.

St. Thomas Academy (8-2-1, 3-0) pulled to within 2-1 on a goal 57 seconds into the second period by Payton Matsui. Scheerer put the Hornets ahead 3-1 with 2:05 left with his shorthanded breakaway goal.

St. Thomas Academy pulled Capezza in favor of an extra skater in the closing minutes, and Ray Christy pulled the No. 5-2A Cadets to within 3-2 with 1:06 left. Sam Walker’s empty net goal with 22 seconds left clinched the victory.

Capezza finished with 21 saves for the Cadets. Edina junior goaltender Garrett Mackay made 26 stops, including several during a clutch sequence in the third period with the Hornets leading 2-1 and killing just less than 2 minutes of a Cadets 5-on-3 power play.

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