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ST. PAUL — The last two years, St. Cloud Cathedral’s goalies have gotten hot at the right time.
Last season, it was the stellar play of Nick Hansen that led the Crusaders to the Class A state boys hockey championship. This year, it’s junior Keaton LeGrande.
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Thanks to LeGrande’s 22 saves — and two goals and an assist from Jaeger Wood — the Crusaders are returning to the Class A title game after beating Orono 4-1 in a semifinal game on Friday, March 7, at the Xcel Energy Center.
“Our goalie coach (Cal Herold) has been with us for 10 years now. He does a great job. He knows how to prep the guys for games like this,” Cathedral head coach Robbie Stocker said. “Keaton — and all of our goalies — have put the time in to keep improving this season.”
The Crusaders (20-8-2) have won seven straight games headed into Saturday’s championship game. They will play the winner of the East Grand Forks and Hibbing/Chisholm semifinal at noon Saturday in St. Paul.
LeGrande has allowed just four goals in Cathedral’s five playoff games. Three of them came in a 10-3 win over Little Falls in the semifinals of the Section 5A playoffs on Feb. 22 after that game was already out of hand.
“We’ve committed to a defensive structure and our roles around Keaton,” CHS senior defenseman Mason Layne said. “We don’t get too outside of our heads and start chasing. We’ve worked on that a lot throughout the year and it’s really showing.”
The Crusaders took control in the first period after a motivated Orono came out strong offensively. CHS senior Joey Gillespie scored 5:32 into the first to make it 1-0 on assists from Griffin Sturm and John Hirschfeld.
“Our experience is showing right now in these games,” Gillespie said. “Whenever we can get that first goal, I think the momentum just builds and builds for us. I feel like I need to step up and do that to get us going.
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“And that first one really got us going.”
Wood made it 2-0 in favor of the Crusaders on a power-play goal — with assists from Caden Johnson and Connor Stockman — 7:21 into the game.
Orono looked shell-shocked after that. The Spartans missed a golden opportunity on LeGrande late in the first when he was pulled away from the net. Orono also whiffed on several shot opportunities close to the net.
“That second goal was a good feeling,” Wood said. “It feels so good to get back to the state championship game. Right now, we don’t care who we play. We know we’re good enough to beat any team. We have to show up (Saturday) and play our game.”
Cathedral’s defense and penalty kill unit was also a big reason Orono couldn’t get it going offensively. The Spartans had 23 shots on goal to the Crusaders’ 22.
“Our defense has been fantastic,” Stocker said. “Keaton’s been playing really well in net, but we’ve been eating a lot of pucks. The commitment to team defense — across the board — from our forwards to defenseman has been fantastic. We’ve played our best defense of the year the past few weeks.
A power-play goal from Cathedral freshman Bo Schmidt 8:25 into the second period helped put the game out of reach. Schmidt was assisted by Wood and Sturm, who finished with three assists in the victory.
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“Bo is playing with a ton of energy for us right now,” Stocker said. “That’s huge. Sometimes in games like this, you have to wait and feel things out. There are nerves and sometimes you wait for those big plays to just happen. Not for Bo. It’s nice to have a freshman who goes out and just does things for you like that.”
Orono’s lone goal on LeGrande came from Ethan Pagel 13:39 into the third. The Spartans pulled goalie Evan Schmidt (who had 21 saves) after that, but Wood chipped in an empty-net goal with 1:05 remaining.
After a slow start to the season, the Crusaders are right back to where they thought they’d be.
“There were some games earlier this season where we were out-shooting teams by 20 shots sometimes and not winning,” Stocker said. “We couldn’t buy a goal. It’s a testament to our seniors that they’ve stuck with it. We were hovering around .500 when the calendar turned.
“There were plenty of opportunities for guys to turn on each other. But this group kept pushing through it. We’re seeing the fruits of that mentality, which is great.”
Orono 0-0-1—1
Cathedral 2-1-1—4
First period
1. SCC — Joey Gillespie (Griffin Sturm, John Hirschfeld), 5:32; 2. SCC — Jaeger Wood (Caden Johnson, Connor Stockman), 7:21.
Second period
3. SCC — Bo Schmidt (Wood, Sturm), 8:25.
Third period
4. O — Ethan Pagel (Lachlan HOffman, Luca Decubellis), 13:39; 5. SCC — Wood (Sturm, Gillespie), 15:55.
Goalies: O — Evan Schmidt (18 saves); SCC — Keaton LeGrande (22 saves).
Shots on goal: Orono 23, Cathedral 22.
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