For Hermantown, speed is everything.

The Hawks skated all over Cloquet-Esko-Carlton in an 8-3 victory to win the Hilltopper Holiday Classic for the second consecutive year.

“Speed kills, and with this team, our style of play is that we play fast,” Hermantown coach Bruce Plante said. “It helps to have guys that can giddy up.”

The Hawks displayed their speed in two first-period goals that came on a rush and breakaway by Matt Valure and Cole Koepke, respectively.

“We’re pretty deep in speed all the way around, so I think we use that to our advantage a lot,” said Koepke, who had a hat trick and five points total in the win—and nearly as many breakaways.

But beyond just having quick skaters, Hermantown is also quick to respond to adversity. After Cloquet-Esko-Carlton jumped out to an early 1-0 lead, the Hawks quickly answered just over two minutes later.

Additionally, both second-period Lumberjack goals were preceded by a scoring chance coming back the other way.

“It’s kind of a philosophy with us (that) if you get a goal, you’ve got to be tough, and if you give up a goal, you gotta be really good after that,” Plante said. “You can’t lighten up just because you scored. You’ve got to be ready to play that next shift.”

Even with the speed they have, the Hermantown skaters don’t shy away from physicality. The Hawks use a combination of size and speed to wear down their opponents, and it showed against Cloquet-Esko-Carlton: Hermantown outscored the Lumberjacks 3-0 in the third period after playing two fast-paced, physical periods.

“We always like to come out and play fast and hard and try to wear teams down, and we have a lot of size on our team, so that’s what we try to use to our advantage,” Koepke said.

The 8-3 win over Cloquet-Esko-Carlton improved Hermantown’s record to 10-1-1 overall,and ends the first half of its season with an exclamation point as champions of the Hilltopper Holiday Classic for the second consecutive year.

The tournament the Hawks are really looking to win is in March after being runner-up in the Class 1A state tournament for the past six seasons. Even so, Hermantown is speeding ahead just one game at a time.

“We have a lot of tough teams in the second half, so we gotta stay with it,” Plante said. 

First Report

Hermantown’s Cole Koepke had a hat trick and five points overall as the Hawks beat Cloquet-Esko-Carlton 8-3 to win the Hilltopper Holiday Classic on Thursday.

Although Hermantown had the majority of shots (47-25) and scoring chances, the Lumberjacks hung around with the Hawks, ranked No. 2 in the Class 1A coaches' poll, for the first two periods.

The teams traded goals throughout the first half, but Hermantown (10-1-1) maintained a lead of at least one goal after Koepke and Matt Valure staked the Hawks to a 2-1 lead in the opening period.

C-E-C's Casey Holshouser had 39 saves while Hermantown goaltender Luke Olson stopped 22 of 25 shots.

The final period was all Hawks, as they overpowered the Lumberjacks (8-6) and tacked on three goals to secure the win.

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