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It is getting to be a postseason tradition for the St. Cloud Cathedral and Monticello boys hockey teams to face one another with the season on the line.
It will be the fourth straight year that the Crusaders and Moose will face one another when the teams play at 7 p.m. Wednesday for the Section 5A championship at the Furniture and Things Community Event Center in Elk River.
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Sixth-ranked Cathedral (17-8-2) and fifth-ranked Monticello (23-3-1) played earlier this season with the Crusaders coming away with a 2-1 win on Jan. 11 at Municipal Athletic Complex.
The Crusaders beat the Moose 4-1 in the section championship game in 2024 and 7-2 in the section semifinals in 2023. In 2022, Monticello beat Cathedral 3-2 in the section championship game.
The teams have also played one another eight times during the regular season since 2017 and CHS is 8-0 in those games. Throw in that Monticello and St. Cloud Youth Hockey Associations play in District 5 together and there are few secrets between the teams.
“A familiar playoff foe,” Cathedral coach Robbie Stocker said. “They’ve been playing each other forever. These kids have been duking it out for a long time and these kids know each other and know each other’s strengths and weaknesses. It adds fuel to the fire in some ways and makes it even better.”
Monticello is the No. 1 seed and Cathedral is the No. 2 in the section. OK, so with the two teams knowing each other so well, who is the favorite?
“It was a really good game the last time we beat them,” Stocker said. “It was an up and down game, nobody could bury their chances in the third and we hung on and beat them. They’ve got a lot of depth. Their ‘D’ core is great. Their first line has been really good. I’d say we’ve got similar strengths.
“Honestly, it feels like it’s going to be one of those games where whatever team plays their game better will win because it’s so evenly matched. I don’t feel like there’s a clear favorite one way or the other … It’s going to be a super fun game.”
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Monticello goes into the game averaging 4.6 goals, 1.6 goals against and is at 22.8% on the power play and 87.7% on the penalty kill.
The Moose have six players with 22 or more points: Senior forward Landen Scherber (27 goals, 35 assists, 62 points), junior forward Ashton Stoll (17-29-46), sophomore defenseman Nicklas Nelson (11-31-42), senior forward Nathan Poeppel (17-16-33), senior defenseman Aidan Widmark (7-21-28) and junior forward Liam O’Donnell (10-12-22).
Senior Logan Blahnik is 21-3-1 with a 1.58 goals-against average, .928 save percentage and seven shutouts. He is third in the state in wins, fourth in GAA, seventh in save percentage and tied for third in shutouts.
The Crusaders are led by a number of familiar faces, most notably s enior center John Hirschfeld, a top 10 finalist for the Mr. Hockey Award. Hirschfeld, a University of Vermont commit, is fifth in the state in assists (48) and fifth in points (72).
Senior wing Joey Gillespie (19-43-62), junior defenseman Griffin Sturm (16-26-42), senior forward Jaeger Wood (19-16-35) and freshman wing Bo Schmidt (15-16-31) lead the offense. The Crusaders are averaging 4.1 goals, 3.0 goals against, converting at 31.6% on the power play and 88.3% on the penalty kill.
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“Early in the year, even back in January, we still had a lot of new guys,” Stocker said. “We may have a lot of seniors and juniors, but we had such an experienced group last year. Guys that had been there two or three straight years.
“We brought back Hirschfeld, Sturm, (senior forward Caden) Johnson (8-12-20), Gillespie and Wood. Everyone else is pretty new to being a varsity guy on our team. We’ve gotten more experience.”
Junior Keaton LeGrande has taken over as the No. 1 goalie. He is 16-6-2 with a 2.75 GAA, .890 save percentage and three shutouts. One of those shutouts came Tuesday in a 6-0 win over Princeton when he stopped all 14 shots he faced.
In the section semifinals, he stopped 19 of 22 shots in a 10-3 win over Little Falls on Saturday.
“He was awesome on Tuesday against Princeton getting the shutout,” Stocker said of LeGrande. “Saturday, a couple went in at the end when it was in running time and we were jumbling lines around. It got a little bit hectic in the last six or seven minutes where we each scored two. Weird finish where you have running time in a section semifinals game. I don’t think anyone knows how you handle that as a coach. He made some really big saves. He’s starting to settle in.”
The Crusaders go into the game on a four-game winning streak and have won eight of their last nine games. Cathedral is looking to make its third straight trip to the state tournament and fifth since 2019.
“I think we’re motivated,” Stocker said. “I think the group is pretty hungry for it. We’ve got a lot of guys that have been there before the last couple years and understand how cool it is to get to a state tournament. Being seniors now, I think they’re pretty driven to get back to state.
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“Everyone’s kind of bought into the roles of how we get there. We’re kind of at a whatever it takes mentality at this point. Guys are buying into whatever it is for us to get to that point.”
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