ST. PAUL — Hermantown goaltender Dane Callaway made a nice save with about five minutes to play in the game, but the rebound went back to Cretin-Derham Hall’s Attila Lippai, who buried it just over Callaway’s glove hand.
The score broke a 2-2 tie and after an empty-net goal by Jake Fisher with less than a minute remaining, the Raiders secured a 4-2 win over the Hawks Thursday at Charles M. Schulz-Highland Arena.
Lippai’s goal left Hermantown coach Pat Andrews with little left to do but admire the play.
“Our defense did everything it needed to do on that play,” Andrews said. “It just happened the rebound went back to an open player and he buried it, but that’s hockey.
Hermantown’s Wyatt Carlson took a pass from Max Plante and put it past goalie Marko Belak to give the Hawks a 1-0 lead after the first period, but in the second Carlson and Gavin Blomdahl were each called for penalties, giving CDH a two-man advantage.
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The Raiders’ Zach Sondreal and Gabe Rasmussen each took advantage for power-play goals 54 seconds apart to give CDH a 2-1 lead.
“It was about getting back to what we’re good at and that’s getting pucks behind their D,” CDH coach Matt Funk said. “In the second period, they took away the neutral zone and they’re tough to play with — it’s a typical Pat Andrews team. They’re disciplined, they stay in lanes, work hard and they really took it to us in the first and it was about getting back to playing simple and taking the opportunities we were given.”
Hermantown had a similar opportunity with the Raiders down two men late in the second period, but were unable to capitalize and went into the second intermission trailing by a goal.
“It was nice to get our power play going today and get two goals on that power play,” Funk said. “But I thought the turning point later on was when they got the five-on-three and for us to kill it was a big momentum changer and deflator for them.”
The Hawks’ Kade Kohanski, who also had an assist on Carlson’s goal, tied the game about 5 minutes into the third period off a pass from Plante.
“It was a little face-off play, me and Max like to run it a lot,” Kohanski said. “He just slipped the center pass back to me and I got it to the top shelf — it’s a good play, it works.”
The loss was the first of the season for Hermantown, but Andrews was upbeat. The Hawks played well and he thought they responded well to the challenge CDH put forward in the second period after a lackluster first period.
In addition, he thought the loss might make Hermantown notice some of the small mistakes it’s been making before three home games next week against East Grand Forks, Delano/Rockford and Orono. East Grand Forks and Delano/Rockford are both ranked among the top 15 teams in Class A.
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“There’ve been some little things we’ve been doing we need to fix,” Andrews said. “But we’ve been winning, a loss might make us feel it a little more.”
Hermantown (6-1) will host East Grand Forks at 3 p.m. Tuesday.
Hermantown 1-0-1—2
Cretin-Derham Hall 0-2-2—3
First period — 1. H, Wyatt Carlson (Max Plante, Kade Kohanski), 6:17.
Second period — 2. CDH, Zach Sondreal (Drew Fisher), 6:37 (pp); 3. CDH, Gabe Rasmussen (Joey Sylvester, Colton Jamieson), 7:29 (pp).
Third period scoring — 4. H, Kade Kohanski (Plante), 4:46; 5. CDH, Attila Lippai (Rasmussen, Sylvester), 12:04; 6. CDH, Jake Fisher (D. Fisher), 16:17 (en).
Saves — Dane Callaway, H, 16; Marko Belak, CDH, 24.
