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Neither of the Section 7AA hockey tournament semifinals went according to the form chart last Saturday, and that was just fine with Duluth East coach Mike Randolph, whose team survived a major hurdle to beat Cloquet-Esko-Carlton 1-0, and now moves on for an even bigger hurdle this week, against Grand Rapids in Thursday night’s final.
East against Grand Rapids. A classic match-up, and Grand Rapids coach Trent Klatt remembers last year, when the two tangled in the same game and the Thunderhawks put on a huge third-period rally to conquer their annual nemesis.
It might take another third-period rally Thursday for the Thunderhawks, but if so, they got in a sensational bit of practice by being dominated by No. 1 seed Elk River and trailing 2-0 after two periods, then rallying for five goals in the third period -- three by junior Gavin Hain -- for a shocking 5-3 victory that was easily the biggest upset in any of the state’s eight sections. Until the big rally, there was no indication Grand Rapids would be returning to AMSOIL for the final.
“Going back to that setting, it was really something special last year,” said Klatt. “There was nothing like it, even at the state tournament. I know what this means to both teams and both cities. And there’s this aura about Mike Randolph at this time of year. But we’re on a mission right now, too.”
East, the No. 2 seed, had beaten No. 3 seed Cloquet-Esko-Carlton twice during the season, 5-0 in Cloquet earlier, and 5-1 in the Duluth rematch, when the Lumberjacks scored the final goal to snap a string of 10 straight goals by the Greyhounds against them. But the 7AA semifinals were a different matter.
The teams battled through a scoreless first period, and it wasn’t until late in the second period that the scoreless tie was broken on a spectacular breakaway goal by junior Garrett Worth -- a goal that stood up for a pulsating 1-0 victory when East goaltender Kirk Meierhoff and the East defense stood firm against Cloquet’s biggest offensive push.
For background, East was playing without solid junior defenseman Will Fisher, and top-gun winger Ian Mageau went down with a knee injury early in the game and missed the rest of the way. “But how about little No. 13,” said Randolph, grinning broadly, “he did a heck of a job, and he sent Worth in for the breakaway.”
“Little No. 13” tells much of the story of this East outfit. Scoring balance and unselfish play have been the bywords, and Robb is a senior who spent almost the whole season on the fourth line. Mageau goes down, and Randolph simply moves Robb up from fourth line to first line, and the Greyhounds not only didn’t miss a beat, they won because of Robb’s pass that sent Worth in beyond the Cloquet defense.
The loss stung, but Lumberjacks coach Dave Esse had his team primed for a big effort against East, outshooting the Greyhounds 14-5 in the third period after being outshot 25-8 through the first two periors. “They’ve got a really good team,” said Esse. “They play the toughest schedule in the state, every year, and they do a lot of traveling. They’re battle tested. In the second period, they controlled the tempo, and their goaltender was fundamentally sound in the third. It came down to one shot.”
That 1-0 nail-biter was fast and intense throoughout, but without the animosity that used to cause officials to segregate fans from the two rivals when they met. It will be more of the same in the final. “The best thing,” Randolph said, “is that whoever wins, we’ll have a Northern team in the state tournament, and that’s the way it should be, because this is a Northern section.”
Grand Rapids, which struggled through a three-game losing streak right at the end of the regular season, gave no indication of what was to come. The Thunderhawks came out meek and cautious, against a team that required a bold and assertive attack. Soft passes, soft defensive coverage led to an early power-play goal for Elk River ace Jack Perbix, who cruised up the slot unbothered by any defenders to score on Zach Stejskal. Connor Bizal scored on a rebound in the second, and the Elks led 2-0.
Late in the second period, coach Klatt went back to putting together one of the flashiest lines in the state, with Gavin Hain joining fellow-junior Blake McLaughlin on a unit with the mercurial Micah Miller. Give ‘em six minutes to get acclimated in the third period, and the result was electrifying.
Hain scored a power play goal at 6:48, converting Miller’s pass to the goal-mouth; McLaughlin took the ensuing faceoff up the ice and rifled a slap shot from the circle 11 seconds later and it was suddenly 2-2. The Elks regained the lead when Perbix scored again, at 13:01, but 24 seconds later, McLaughlin rushed up the right side and sent a pass across the slot that Hain fired into the Elks net for a 3-3 deadlock. The Thunderhawks weren’t done. Hain fed Miller for a shot on the next rush, Miller regained possession behind the net but couldn’t get the angle on a wraparound. No problem, because Hain was right there, and smacked it in for his second goal in a 1:07 span, completing a hat trick for a 4-3 lead -- the first lead Rapids had all game. Jack Burnson’s empty-net goal with 15 seconds left clinched it, end Elk River’s players were stunned at the turnabout, which continues a streak of weird luck that seems to inflict the Elks at 7AA semifinal time.
Klatt acknowledged that the Thunderhawks have been either great or awful in games this season, “and this was a dichotomy of our season,” he said. “The first two periods, these were not the kids I know. In the third, we played with passion and drive, and that was the team I know. I’m only taking credit for the third period.”
Klatt says he has three options with Hain, Miller and McLaughlin. “I can put them all on one line,” he said, “or I can put one of them on a different line and try to make two lines go, or, I can put one on each line and make all three go.”
He wouldn’t say what his plan was for the East game, but Randolph said: “Those three are all Division 1 players. Those three are unbelievable, and I’m sure I won’t be sleeping too well thinking about them all week.”
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