18 Section 7/8 Hand Senior Section 1/3 First Loss, Capture Championship

It was a high-paced, high scoring contest for the Great 8 title game. Back and forth action saw HP 18 Section 7/8 come out on top, 9-6 over Senior Section 1/3. 

18 Section 7/8 jumped out to an early 1-0 lead, courtesy of a wrist-shot by Zack Kilen (Virginia). 

Senior Section 1/3 took possession and was tough to let it go, testing 18 Section 7/8 goalie Hudson Hodges (Moorhead) who made 16 saves. Carter Eha (Bloomington Jefferson) tied it up 1-1 at 15:24. 

Section 7/8 took back the lead, 2-1, at 12:03 with a Dakota Oman (Duluth Marshall) breakaway and a snap shot top shelf. Jake Braccini (Buffalo) added another one 2:39 later on the power play for a 3-1 score. 

But Senior Section 1/3 tallied two back-to-back goals of their own, 17 seconds apart, first from Adam Harvey (Lakeville South), who tapped in a rebound back door, followed by a Nico Vega (St. Thomas Academy) snipe to the corner for a 3-3 tie. 

Elliot VanOrsdel (Evelth-Gilbert) put 18 Section 7/8 up 4-3 with a shot low to the corner but Senior Section 1/3 had a shot deflect in past Hodges as the buzzer sounded for the half to tie it again, 4-4. 

Section 7/8 pushed the pace early on and made it 5-4 with another goal from VanOrsdel but Dustin Sorenson (Rochester Lourdes) took a shot off the crossbar to keep the game knotted, 5-5. 

Three unanswered goals put Section 7/8 on a roll, beginning with Braccini's feed down low to Luc Laylin (St. Michael Albertville) for a 6-5 lead. Gage Everson (Evelejh-Gilbert) increased the lead 7-5 with a shot from the blue line that took a weird hop and in and second from Kilen at 10:31 made it 8-5. Sam Schulz (Mankato East) tallied one more for Section 1/3 but Kilen completed the hat trick and sealed the game with an empty netter. 

Additional Sunday games

Senior Section 2/6: 5, 18 Section 1/3: 0

Senior Section 2/6 soared to a 5-0 shutout win over 18 Section 1/3 in Sunday's first contest. Blake Woodson (New Prague) bookended the scoring with the game's first and last goal. Matthew Conroy (Breck) had two assists and Noah Amundson (St. Cloud Cathedral) and Bailey Huber (Holy Family Catholic) combined for 13 saves. 

Senior Section 4/5: 3, 18 Section 2/6: 1

Garrett Sawyer (Northfield), Josh Hermes (Centennial), and Jack Karges (Champlin Park) each had a goal and an assist en route to a 3-1 victory for Senior Section 4/5. Ben Luetdke (Wayzata) scored the lone goal for 18 Section 2/6. 

Senior Section 7/8: 7, 18 Section 4/5: 1

Nick Dainty (Andover) had a three-point game (one goal, two assists) and Tanner Mack (East Grand Forks) scored twice in a dominating third-place victory. Nick Richert (St. Cloud) had two assists for Senior Section 7/8 and Robby Lawler (Champlin Park) had the solo tally for 18 Section 4/5.