The Gray team from Sections 6A/AA skated its way to an impressive 6-3 victory over Royal Blue (4A/AA) in Friday’s CCM High Performance Boys’ 17 Festival opener at Plymouth Ice Center.

Gray jumped out early and held the advantage in zone time and better of play for most of two halves.

The Grays’ offense was able to routinely spread things out on the attack in the zone, and whipped the puck around the perimeter and across the slot until they found a backdoor opportunity that warranted a shot. Gray scored three of their five goals in this manner, while Royal Blue struggled at times to counter it.

Jonah Mortensen (Benilde-St. Margaret’s) and Blake Perbix (St. Cloud Cathedral) combined for three goals and five points in the victory for Gray, and defenseman Nate Schweitzer (Benilde-St. Margaret’s) added a pair of assists. A pair of Blake forwards also scored for Gray as Tristan Broz and Jack Sabre would each score the first goal of the half Friday.

Scoring for Royal Blue was AJ McMahon (St. Paul Johnson), Brock Bertelsen (Tartan), and Nikolai Dulak (Mahtomedi).

In net for the victorious Gray team, Dane Couture (Little Falls) and Edina’s Louden Hogg combined for the effort by stopping 24 of 27 shots. Couture had 16 saves on 18 shots, and Hogg stopped eight of nine in the second half. 

At the other end, Thomas Kurisack (St. Paul Academy made 14 saves on 16 shots, and shared the crease with Vincent Castelletti (Minnesota Blue Ox), who stopped 15 of 18.

Team 6A/6AA advances to the semifinal round Saturday evening, where they will face the winner of the following game between Section 1 (A/AA) and Section 2 (A/AA). 

Box Score Gray vs. Royal

Red used its speed, strong vertical passing and aggressive forecheck to roll past Orange for a 5-2 win Friday afternoon at Plymouth Ice Center.

Representing Section 1 (1A/1AA), the Reds battled back from an early two-goal deficit and scored five unanswered to pull away after the sluggish start. 

Orange (Section 2A/2AA) jumped out early with two goals in the first two eight minutes of action. First, Marshall Boyles (Minnetonka) opened the scoring 2:45 into the first half, Orange went ahead 2-0 a short time later when Owen Thomas (Chaska) buried a shot.

Momentum proved short lived however, as Red began clicking and worked steadily to swing things the other way. Over a eight-minute span to close the first half, Red got scores from Brody Lucas (Mankato West), Lyncoln Bielenberg-Howarth (Rochester Century) and Owen Baumgartner (Shattuck-St. Mary’s), and Section 1 would never trail again. 

A second half-goal by Jacob Kazenbach (Mankato East) would see to that, as would an empty-netter scored by David Nesburg (Shattuck-St. Mary’s) in the waning seconds to seal the win for Red.

Zach Weise (Owatonna) and Carsen Stokes (Shattuck-St. Mary’s) combined in net to etch out the Red victory. Stokes played the second half and shutout Orange over the final 24 minutes by stopping all 11 shots he saw. Weise started, and made 11 saves on 13 shots for Red.

For Orange, Josh Weyant (Chanhassen) started between the pipes and made 15 saves on 18 shots before yielding in the second to Axel Roselund (Eden Prairie). Rosalund stopped eight of 10 shots in goal for Section 2. 

Red advances to Saturday’s semifinals, where they will face the Gray team representing Section 6A/6AA.  

Box Score Red vs. Orange

The Gold squad from Section 7A/7AA kicked off their portion of the festival with a thorough 6-0 victory over Sky Blue (5A/5AA) in quarterfinal action Friday afternoon at Plymouth Ice Center.

Gold hammered out nearly twice as many shots (35 to 17) as did Sky Blue, while the final line of defense put up a wall in net as goaltenders Carter Clafton (Grand Rapids) and Josh Koziol (Elk River) collectively stopped all 17 shots they saw to allow Gold to run away with the one-sided win.

Six different skaters scored for Gold, while only Greenway’s Mitchell Vekich (a goal and an assist) and Andover’s Luke Kron (two assists) finished with more than one point. 

It took nearly 16 minutes of game clock before Gold began clicking, but once Hunter Jones buried a wrist shot with 8:22 left before the break.

From there, Gold used its speed and puck control to frustrate a Sky Blue squad that was left frustrated. and careless with the puck.

In the second half Gold used puck possession and zone time to finish off Sky Blue, who had trouble with its breakout and were slowed by icing calls as transition breakdowns mounted.

The victory moves Gold into the semifinal round Saturday, where they will face the winner between White (8A/8AA) and Kelly Green (3A/3AA).

Box Score Gold vs Sky Blue

The nightcap of Friday’s quarterfinals proved to be the most intense, and the most competitive as the White team from the northland Section 8A/8AA and the Greens from Section 3A/3AA battled for most of 48 minutes before White pulled away to a 3-2 victory.

Perhaps it was the move from the A-Rink to the drab and compact B-Rink that brought out the grit on both sides, but the only HP17 game not played on the main rink proved to be the most exciting, and the only contest decided by three goals or less.

Section 8 struck first with a power play goal late in the first half. Tucker Skime (Thief River Falls) buried a shot with 5:34 left, assisted by Calvin Hanson (Kittson Central) and Josh Nelson (East Grand Forks), and the White team would take the momentum into the halftime break. 

Early in the second, a pair of forwards from Burnsville went to work for the Green, and connected less than three minutes in when Kade Nielson scored for Section 3, assisted by teammate Grant Ahcan to level the score. The two would connect again, this time with Ahcan converting on a feed from Nielson with 3:10 to go, but in between Section eight would score twice over a five-minute span to pull ahead.

With 9:01 left, Grant Slukynsky (Warroad) gave Section 8 the lead for good, and a short time later Jens Richards (North Star Christian) scored what would prove to be the game winner, with assists going to Evan Bushy (Thief River Falls) and Zak Kennett (Red Lake Falls). 

Noah Ruppercht (Thief River Falls) shutout the Greens in the first half by stopping all 12 shots he faced, and Luke Saiko (Brainerd) sealed the victory for the Whites when he turned away 17 of 19 second half shots by the hard-charging Section 3s. 

In net for Green, Dominik Caspers (Marshall) made 13 saves on 14 shots  before yielding to Derek Manzella (Eagan) in the second half. Manzella faced 19 shots and stopped 17 of them.