Maple Grove made darn sure, defeating top-seeded Rogers 4-2 for the Class 2A, Section 5 championship at Furniture and Things Community Event Center in Elk River. The Crimson led the entire game and also held two-goal leads three separate times, responding to each Rogers goal quickly enough that momentum never really seemed to change ends.

After Finn Brink’s 26th of the season to open the scoring, Crimson senior Joshua Giuliani made it 2-0 early in the second period on the power play, his fourth goal of the section tournament and 23rd of the season.

When Rogers got on the board later in the period on Sam Ranallo’s 28th goal of the season, this one on the Rogers’ power play, the one-goal lead lasted only 40 seconds before Maple Grove scored again. This time, it was top-scorer Landen Gunderson’s sharp-angle shot with 1:44 on the clock to give the Crimson a 3-1 lead into the second intermission.

Gunderson, who has 72 points this season, reflected back on the start of the year and the young group they have at Maple Grove, one that “lacked a little confidence” early on before players developed into their roles, he said.

“Tonight, we just didn’t look back,” Gunderson said. “They would get one back, and we just had that confidence to come back. It says a lot about our team.”

Bergland, too, knows the importance of when the opponent scores, the next shift is that much more important for his team.

“That’s the opportunity you have to strike back,” Bergland said. “Great for the kids that struck back.

“You respond like that, and it’s hard to battle through that ever time. They get one, you get one back.”

Rogers kept pressuring early in the third period and again cut the deficit to one on a goal from Hogan Sinjem with a blast of a shot from the circle. But again, the Crimson responded in short order.

Senior Bennett Glad finished with a nifty backhanded shot driving the net only 1 minute, 46 seconds after the Rogers goal for his 5th of the season. He then skated to the other end of the ice for a celebratory jump into the glass barriers in front of the white-out Maple Grove student section in the packed arena.

“Good things happen you go to the net,” Glad said. “And I just saw the crowd, haven’t had crowds like that in a long time, so it was just good to celly with them.”

He celebrated his goal, and could celebrate Maple Grove restoring its two-goal lead yet again, giving some breathing room to the No. 5-ranked team in Class 2A according to the Let’s Play Hockey coaches’ poll.

Twice Rogers scored on this night, and twice Maple Grove scored right after.

“Those are absolute daggers when you’re chasing a top-five team in the state,” said Rogers coach Dave Brown. “Unfortunately, every time we took an inch, they took a mile.”

For the Royals (19-8-1), the game marked their first section-championship game since it moved to Class 2A in 2014. Meanwhile, Maple Grove played in its seventh consecutive section title game.

“They’re a team that’s been here before,” Brown said. “And we’ve come back all season. In a one-game playoff, you’re going to need some bounces. You’re going to need some luck. And unfortunately, it just wasn’t our night.”

The victory for the Crimson (20-7-1), with four different goal scorers, sends them to the state tournament for a third year in a row; they lost in last year’s state semifinals to Eden Prairie. This year, since that loss to Rogers in mid-January, the Crimson have won 12 of their past 13 games on the way to the section title.

“The beginning of the year, we wanted to do the same thing,” Glad said, of getting back to state. “We ultimately did that.”