The only shot St. Paul Academy could get past St. Louis Park goalie Conor Klaers in the championship game of the Heritage Holiday Classic was one that was sharply redirected just in front of him.

With three years of starting experience, the senior goaltender made 31 saves—and he made it look easy. He was helped by experience, of course, but also yoga.

“I love the fact that he does yoga before the game,” assistant St. Louis Park coach Pat Graiziger said. “He’s got balance and he works on it and I think you can see that out there. He is a big part of our team.” 

In eight games this season, the two-year captain has allowed an average of 2.38 goals per game. Playing in two of the three games in the Heritage Holiday Classic, he allowed just one goal.

“Whenever we do warm-ups you always see him doing weird, twisty things with his body, it looks like it works so I might start that,” sophomore goaltender Atticus Raasch said, of his teammate's yoga stretches. 

Raasch himself had a shutout victory of his own in the tournament, a 35-save performance against Hudson (WI). Raasch said he learns a lot from being around Klaers.

“He knows so much about the game and he’s had a lot of varsity experience so from mental strength to technique tips I learn a ton from him,” Raasch said.

Klaers attributes knowing so much about the game to his father, Mark, who played goalie for St. Thomas University and later was the goalie coach for the St. Louis Park Hockey Association.

“It’s nice to always have that in your house, to go home after the game and he’ll always tell me what I did wrong, what I could have done better, it’s helped,” Klaers said.

While his teammates haven’t joined him in pregame yoga stretches, St. Louis Park’s growth as a team has paralleled Klaers’ own growth as a goaltender.

After finishing with a losing record in each of the past two seasons, the Orioles are off to a 7-4 start.

With a .914 save percentage this season, Klaers has bested the .900 mark in save percentage after finishing each of the past two seasons below it.

It’s no coincidence that these Klaers’ and the Orioles’ improvements have come at the same time. And even with the 1-0 setback against St. Paul Academy, Klaers sees this year’s team as the best he’s played on by far.

“I think were getting better every game but we have a really tough section, I think that if we keep working towards it we can turn some heads,” Klaers said.

As for the senior’s long-term future, Klaers wants to follow in his father’s footsteps and play college hockey.

His goal is to play at the Division 1 level, which in this day and age means playing junior hockey first.

“I’m looking to go play junior hockey, it’s kind of a long process (to NCAA Division I hockey), especially for goalies, (but) I think I’m good enough to go play D1 for someone,” Klaers said. 

Matt Dahlseide was the lone goal scorer in St. Paul Academy’s 1-0 victory over St. Louis Park in the Heritage High School Holiday Classic championship game Wednesday at Duluth's Sill Arena.

His late second-period goal, a redirected shot from Spartans defenseman Cullen McCabe in front of the net, was the only puck to get past Orioles goalie Conor Klaers, who made 31 saves.

The matchup featured a slew of special teams play as eleven penalties were called during the game, but both power-play units came up empty-handed. Early in the game, St. Paul Academy’s penalty-kill unit had as many scoring chances as the Spartans had at full strength.

The most important penalty came with 3:01 left in the third when St. Louis Park’s Riley Dvorak got a five-minute major for boarding, which enabled St. Paul Academy to run out the clock. 

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