Skip to main content

Luverne boys top Trojans Thursday, fall to Cougars Saturday

Lead Summary
By
Matt Lais for the Star Herald

The No. 3 seeded Luverne Boys’ hockey team opened the Section 3A tournament play Thursday hosting the No. 6 seed Worthington Trojans.
The Blue Mound Ice Arena was standing room only and the Cardinals ended up skating away with a 7-1 victory.
The Cardinals would meet the No. 2 seed Mankato East Cougars on Saturday in Mankato in the Section 3A Semifinals.
The Cardinals couldn’t rebound from some penalty problems and their season ended by a score of 1-7.
The Luverne boys finished with a 15-11 record on the season.
 
Luverne 7, Worthington 1
The Cardinal boys welcomed I-90 rival Worthington Trojans into the Blue Mound Ice Arena on Thursday for the quarterfinals of the Section 3A boys’ Hockey Tournament.
The BMIA was rocking at max capacity for the battle between the Trojans and Cardinals.
The first period saw a ton of action, a total of 25 total shots on goal between the teams, but the score remained knotted at zeros.
Luverne had a 18-7 advantage on shots on goal after the first period.
The Cardinals wasted no time getting things started in the second.
Blaik Bork and Brock Behrend capitalized on a beautiful 2-on-1 with Behrend beating Worthington goalie Steven Adams to take the 1-0 lead just 25 seconds in.
After a Cardinal penalty, the Trojans answered back with Konner Honius beating Luverne goalie Tyler Arends to knot the game at 1.
Luverne rattled off three more unanswered goals in the second to open the up the game.
Bork took a nice backdoor pass from Behrend on another 2-on-1 to make it 2-1.
Luverne senior Jack Schlosser beat Adams 5-hole to give the Cardinals a 3-1 lead.
Behrend took advantage of a Trojan turnover on the power play and beat Adams on the shorthanded goal to give the Cardinals a 4-1 lead after two periods.
Shots on goal for the second period were in favor of the Cardinals 16-9.
In the final period the Cardinals stayed on the gas pedal.
Behrend picked the Trojans defense turnover up and blasted a wrister past Adams to take the 5-1 lead just seven seconds into the period.
Patrick Kroski picked up Goal number six for the Cardinals when he buried the puck after a scrum in front of the net.
The Cardinals had one more in them, as Kroski dangled a few Trojan defenders and fired a wrister on Adams where a streaking Elliot Domagala crashed the net picking up the rebound goal.
This gave the Cardinals a 7-1 lead and that’s where things ended at the BMIA on Thursday.
Shots on goal for the period were in favor of the Trojans 10-5. Luverne held the advantage in shots for the game 39-26. Arends finished with 25 saves in the contest.
 
LHS 1, Mankato East 7
The Cardinal boys traveled to Mankato Saturday afternoon for the Section 3A Semifinal game against the Mankato East Cougars.
Luverne took the early lead on a Brock Behrend goal with assists going to Owen Sudenga and Blaik Bork just 1:59 into the first period.
Mankato East answered back with a pair of goals to take the 2-1 lead into the intermission break.
Shots on goal for the period were in favor of the Cougars 16-9.
Luverne goalie Tyler Arends had 14 saves in the first period to keep the Cougars’ lead at 1.
In the second period the Cougars took advantage of a few Luverne penalties and scored two power play goals and added a couple more to take a 6-1 lead after two periods in Mankato.
The Cougars had a 25-8 shots-on-goal advantage in the second period. Arends had 21 saves in the period.
In the final period Mankato East added another to make it a 7-1 and that’s where the score ended in Mankato.
The Cardinal season comes to an end, as do the high school hockey careers of seniors Zach Kruse and Jack Schlosser.
Shots on goal for the third period were 13-4 and 54-21 for the game, both in favor of Mankato East. Arends finished with 47 saves for Luverne.

You must log in to continue reading. Log in or subscribe today.