Holy Family Catholic’s bold leap from small-school hockey to the Class 2A big leagues four years ago was considered by some state high school hockey observers to be a bit, shall we say, premature.

The program had a transcendent young talent in forward Shane Gersich, a well-connected and gung-ho coach in Noel Rahn, big plans for the future and … not much else.

Predictably, the Fire suffered their share of beatdowns. Placed in what was, at the time, the state’s toughest section (Class 2A, Section 6), they lost 7-0 to Benilde-St. Margaret’s in 2012 and 7-1 to Eden Prairie in 2013 in opening-round games.

After knocking off Minnetonka 7-1 in the 2014 section quarterfinals, Holy Family Catholic again was unceremoniously booted from the playoffs, this time by Eden Prairie 6-2. Last season ended in another one-and-done showing, although the Fire gave Benilde-St. Margaret’s all it could handle in a 4-3 loss.

This season, all those painful memories are being replaced by joyous ones. The most recent reason to celebrate came Tuesday afternoon in the form of a 4-2 triumph over defending state Class 2A champion and No. 8-ranked Lakeville North in the second round of the Sports Authority Holiday Hockey Classic at the St. Louis Park Rec Center.

The win, combined with Monday’s come-from-behind 5-3 thriller over No. 3 and previously unbeaten Stillwater, gives the Fire a season resume that is stuffed to the margins with high-quality outings.

“This is pretty good for us,” junior defenseman Matt Anderson, a Minnesota-Duluth commit, said. “Hopefully we can keep it rolling. Hopefully we can get down to St. Paul.”

St. Paul, of course, is code for a trip to the state tournament at the Xcel Energy Center. That notion doesn’t seem so outlandish, considering the No. 10-ranked Fire (9-3-0) have also defeated perennial big-school powers Maple Grove, Minnetonka and St. Thomas Academy this season. 

This isn’t the Holy Family Catholic team of years past. Gersich, once the program’s scoring mainstay who is now playing at the University of North Dakota, passed the golden stick to John Peterson, who graduated last year. Now senior Will Garin, committed to the University of Connecticut, is the scoring superstar. But he is hardly alone.

The big difference with this year’s Fire team, compared to those from years past, is depth. Anderson leads a mobile and savvy defensive corps, and Garin is joined by enough capable forwards to allow Rahn to rotate three quality lines. There’s even depth in goal, where Jared Moe and Jaxson Stauber are sharing time and posting sterling statistics.
 

Stauber made 26 saves on Tuesday against the Panthers, who were forced to take most of their shots from the outside. Anderson scored a power-play goal, Garin had three assists and newcomer Ethan Mesler, a towering 6-foot-4 junior forward who transferred in from Colorado over the summer, notched two goals.

“To win 4-2 and play the way that we did, I’m excited for our players right now,” Rahn said. “The big key was we needed to shut down the (Ryan) Poehling line, and I thought we did a really good job.”

Defense as not only a priority but a strength is another new look for the Fire, whose run-and-gun identity from years past has been replaced by more of a complete look.    
 
“You can run two lines for two periods, but once you get to the third period, at the end, you are really hurting,” said Anderson, who has been playing on the Fire varsity since he was an eighth grader. “That’s where it really helps out, the third period, to be able to finish off a game. It’s really nice to be able to throw out our third line in games and to know they will be able to hold their own.”
 

Lakeville North, coming off Monday’s crowd-roaring 4-4 overtime tie with No. 1 Benilde-St. Margaret’s, outshot the Fire 7-4 in the third period and closed to within 3-1 on a goal by Logan Kappes just 5 minutes, 13 seconds into the third. But a Panthers’ rally never seemed imminent. 

“Last night was a far more inspired effort,” said Lakeville coach Trent Eigner, who pointed to Holy Family Catholic’s penalty kill (the Fire killed five consecutive Panther power plays in the first two periods) for setting the game’s tone. “Our guys just got frustrated, then more frustrated, because we have been executing very well on the power play.”

Eigner said he sees some similarities in Holy Family Catholic’s breakout season to Lakeville North’s recent rise to prominence.

“We have had our trajectory over the past three years and have grown the program,” Eigner said. “They are attracting some players, and they seem to be moving in the right direction. 

"Kids like Mesler (who grew up in Woodbury) aren’t going to come back and find a weak program, that’s for sure.”

First Report

Ethan Mesler scored twice and Jaxson Stauber made 23 saves on Tuesday afternoon to help lead No. 10-ranked Holy Family Catholic to a 4-2 triumph over defending state Class 2A champion and No. 8-ranked Lakeville North in the second round of the Sports Authority Holiday Hockey Classic at the St. Louis Park Rec Center.

The upset victory was the second in as many days for the Fire (9-3-0), who rallied to beat No. 3-ranked and previously unbeaten Stillwater 5-3 on Monday.

Mesler, a 6-foot-4 junior forward who played Triple A Midget hockey in Colorado last year, converted two nifty passes from linemate Will Garin (the likely Mr. Hockey candidate had three assists in all) to score his eighth and ninth goals of the season.

Mesler, Garin and linemate Mack Byers were also assigned the primary defensive duty on Lakeville North standout and St. Cloud State University commit Ryan Poehling, a junior forward.

Poehling, who had a goal and an assist in the Panthers’ thrilling 4-4 tie with No. 1-ranked Benilde-St. Margaret’s on Monday night, did manage to score, but his power-play goal came with five seconds left.
 
Stauber, the son of former University of Minnesota standout goaltender Robb Stauber, faced mostly shots from the outside but was required to make a handful of saves on point-blank Lakeville North (5-3-1) chances. Panthers goaltender Matt Foss made 15 saves.

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