East Grand Forks defenseman Luke Vonesh (2), left, chases St. Cloud Cathedral forward Nate Warner (8) in the first period. Photo: LEILA NAVIDI ¥ leila.navidi@startribune.com
Finally, on its ninth state tournament trip and seventh semifinal appearance, St. Cloud Cathedral broke through and reached its first championship game.
The second-seeded Crusaders defeated East Grand Forks 6-2 on Friday in the Class 1A semifinal. They advance to the title game at noon Saturday against No. 4 Greenway/Nashwauk-Keewatin, who they defeated 5-3 earlier this season.
“There have been a lot of good teams that haven’t been able to get past the semis,” junior forward Jack Smith said. “We’re a bunch of guys who work hard and get the puck in the net.”
The Crusaders (26-4) found their scoring touch early, getting goals from Smith plus second-line forwards Ethan Cumming and Cullen Hiltner for a 3-1 lead after one period.
Photo gallery: St. Cloud Cathedral vs. East Grand Forks
No. 3 East Grand Forks (22-8) got its chance to get closer with 47 seconds of a 5-on-3 advantage in the second period. But the Green Wave never crested.
“I’m not going to say that was the turning point in the game but that could have made it a different game,” East Grand Forks coach Tyler Palmiscno said. “We were never able to get it back to a one-goal game.”
Crusaders coach Derrick Brown felt otherwise.
“That 5-on-3 power they had, I think that was the momentum-turner of the game,” Brown said. “We got through that and felt pretty good about our chances the rest of the game.”
Smith, who verbally committed to Minnesota-Duluth, scored again later in the second period for his 30th goal of the season. East Grand Forks, which lost to the Crusaders 7-2 during the season, couldn’t catch up.
“We knew it wasn’t over but we knew we had a ways to go,” East Grand Forks forward Landon Parker said. “At this stage, for them to bring it like that — it was just hard to respond.”
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