Fans didn’t rush the ice and carry away the nets, but there was a buzz going around the Chaska Community Center on Thursday, Feb. 10 -- a sense that something monumental had just happened.
“As the game went on the crowd seemed to get bigger and bigger and bigger,” Chaska coach Mike Johnson said about the Hawks’ 5-3 victory over Holy Angels that halted the Stars’ 141-game Missota Conference win streak.
Seth Thomes scored three goals and Danny Kreuser stopped 43 shots for Chaska (5-15-2), which is in its first season playing in the Missota Conference.
“Is that what it was, 141?” said Johnson, the Hawks' first-year coach. “We had an idea that they hadn’t been beaten in a while.”
Holy Angels’ previous conference loss came on Jan. 30, 2001 in a 2-1 setback to Red Wing. The streak spanned nine full seasons and parts of two others. State high school hockey historians believe it was the longest conference win streak in Minnesota boys hockey history.
Beginning in the the 1998-99 season, the Stars have won 12 straight Missota Conference titles. Holy Angels (15-8-0) leads New Prague by four points in this season's standings. Chaska, meanwhile, sits ahead of only Shakopee in the eight-team league. Holy Angels beat Chaska 7-2 in the teams' first meeting this season, on Jan. 13.
In Thursday's historic win, Chaska trailed 1-0 after the first and, after a stirring second period in which Thomes scored all three of his goals, led 4-2 heading into the third. The Hawks were outshot 20-5 in the final period.
“They threw the kitchen sink at us in the third,” Johnson said. "Our goaltender was great."
The Hawks’ historic triumph came on Youth Jersey Night and, as luck would have it, the high school band was performing in the bleachers.
“We didn’t have anybody rush the court afterwards,” Johnson said with a laugh. “At the end of the game it didn’t really sink in. It was like, 'Holy cow.' ”