The Duluth East Greyounds went into the state boys hockey tournament on a roll, with 16 straight wins.

Thursday they were seeking their 17th straight victory as they faced Moorhead, a team they already beat this year during the regular season.

Not a lot of goals, but a Hounds victory. A low scoring, defensive battle as East won 1-0 on a Jack Kolar goal, his 5th of the year.  Assists went to Alex Toscano and Phil Beaulieu.

Head Coach Mike Randolph said the key was team defense, “They bought into the fact that playing team defense first gives us a good chance to win, we are not a high scoring team.”

Junior Jack Kolar on the victory, “My line is a line that specifically takes shots and tries to get rebounds and opportunities so we are lucky we buried it this time.”

Senior goaltender Dylan Parker with 12 saves for the Duluth East shutout.  They will play Edina in the state semifinals on Friday night at 6pm.  East beat Edina during the regular season.

In Class A, the Hermantown Hawks were off Thursday; they will play again Friday morning in the Class A semifinals vs. Breck.

Hawks Head Coach Bruce Plante is pleased with the upper classman on the team, he said, “Leadership is everything in high school, when you have good seniors and they care, your whole team just follows right along.”

The Duluth Marshall Hilltoppers won their consolation game on Thursday 4-1 over Marshall, MN and will now play in the state consolation title game on Saturday in Minneapolis.

 

Plenty of Hoops

A couple huge girls basketball section title games Thursday night.

At Denfeld, Chisago Lakes topped Grand Rapids 64-45.  The Wildcats move on to the state tournament next week.

In the 7A title game, the Braham Bombers move to 30-0 on the season and will advance to the state tournament by defeating the Esko Eskomos in the Section 7AA Championship game at UMD.  The Eskomos end the season at 26-4.  Braham’s Becca Dahlman scored 31 points and Dani Braund had 10.  The Eskomos were led by Claudia Turner’s 18 points, followed by Marisa Shady’s 13 points, and Savanna Trapp’s 11 for the Eskomos.

Esko Head Coach Scott Antonutti said, “I am exceptionally proud of how our girls followed our game plan, unfortunately it wasn’t enough.  We had a fantastic season, but it is always difficult to have it end the way it did when we were once again just a few buckets short of advancing to state.  We wish the Bombers well at the state tournament.”

 

Superior girls basketball a win away from state.

Junior Jessica Lindstrom of the Spartans hit a three pointer in the 1st quarter to put the Spartans up by 8.  Abby Clemons hit a three and tied the game at 41.

Alysaa Correll with the three and Superior would take a 44-41 lead and goes on to win 52-49.

They are now 22-3 overall and will play Saturday in the section final at D.C. Everest H.S. in Schofield.  The winner of that title game will move on to the state tournament.

 

WI State Boys Basketball

Drummond Lumberjacks were making back to back state tournament trips to Madison at the Kohl Center.

They were 24-2 on the year heading into the semifinal game.

Senior Ben Best led the way with 19 points and 15 rebounds.  Mitch Bird added another 10 points, but they fell by three, 52-49 to Green Bay New Lutheran.  The Lumberjacks lost to them by four points in the regular season.  Lumberjacks finished the year at 24-3.  Green Bay New Lutheran is now 28-0 on the year and will play in the state title game.

 

UMD Hockey

The UMD mens hockey team plays Nebraska-Omaha this weekend in their final WCHA series before moving into the NCHC conference.  UMD will also honor their seniors on Saturday night.  One of them, is Duluthian Keegan Flaherty who said, “Every team I’ve played on since I have been here have been a great group of guys, the coaching staff, the training staff and everybody it’s been a positive experience.”

 

Keep Smile’n Northland

I will.

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