Little Falls Flyers goaltender Dane Couture (35) tried to get a glove on the puck before Delano Tigers forward Gunnar Paulson (12) could get his shot off in the first period. (Jeff Wheeler, Star Tribune)
Little Falls edged Delano for a 2-1 victory in Tuesday’s fourth Class 1A state tournament quarterfinal at Xcel Energy Center.
Junior defenseman George Moore scored midway through the third period and gave his Flyers the winning goal. Delano outshot the Flyers 34-16 but senior goalie Dane Couture held Little Falls in the game with 33 saves.
Senior defenseman Joe Majerle gave No. 4 seed Little Falls (14-4-1) a 1-0 lead on a power-play goal at 8:00 of the first period. The goal was Majerle’s third of the season. And the power-play goal was the Flyers’ seventh in their past six games.
Delano outshot Little Falls 11-3 in the opening period.
Photo gallery: Little Falls vs. Delano
The Tigers fired more pucks on net in the second period as well, by an 11-5 margin. More importantly for No. 5 Delano (14-7-1), one shot found its mark. Sophomore forward Will Brown evened the score 1-1 with his sixth goal of the season.
Little Falls regained the lead in the third period. Moore came through, firing from the point and netting his third goal of the season. Moore was the Flyers’ hero in the Section 6 final, scoring in double overtime to send the team to state for the first time since 2012.
Moore’s goal marked the first time this postseason that Delano gave up two goals in a game.
Delano won the consolation title last year.
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