Max Cullen and the Moorhead Spuds are still in pursuit of their second-straight state title.
But senior goalie Keaton LeGrande and his Lakeville South teammates made them work for it.
Cullen scored two goals to lift Moorhead past the Cougars 4-1 in the Class 2A state quarterfinals Thursday night at Grand Casino Arena.
But the Spuds (25-3-1) had a difficult time getting the puck past LeGrande for much of the game, despite managing 33 shots-on-goal.
Still, it is Moorhead — the tournament’s No. 2 seed — advancing to face the winner of Thursday’s late matchup between surprising No. 6 seed Andover and No. 3 seed Edina in the semifinals at 8 p.m. Friday.
The Spuds are attempting to become the first Class 2A team to repeat as state champions since Edina in 2013 and ’14.
Lakeville South (14-12-3) managed a few shots early before Moorhead began steadily keeping the puck on the opposite side of the ice.
But the Cougars defense did a good job in front of LeGrande, who played well – finishing the first period with nine saves.
Senior forward Carter Ernst managed to get off Lakeville South’s first shot in over six minutes late in the period, but after Spuds sophomore Will Arnold recorded the save, Cullen took the puck down the ice to score unassisted on the other end with 4:31 to play.
It was his 26th goal of the season and put Moorhead on top 1-0 going into the first intermission.
The Spuds kept up the pressure in the second period, taking 11 shots-on-goal in the first 10 minutes of play to the Cougars’ two. But even after Moorhead went on the power play with 6:32 remaining, LeGrande continued to assure they came up empty.
In fact, the best opportunity to score in that stretch came on a short-handed shot from directly in front of the Spuds’ net by Lakeville South junior Charlie Hunst that was stopped by Arnold.
Yet Moorhead finally struck again with 28 seconds left in the period on Cullen’s second goal of the game, extending its lead to 2-0 going into the third.
The Spuds went on another power play early in the final period, but the Cougars again killed it off. Then, seconds later, senior forward Tristan Lawrence got to a rebound off a shot by Hunst and drove it home to cut the gap to 2-1 with 14:08 to play.
But Lakeville South could not tie things up, despite gaining a five-on-three advantage for almost a minute-and-a-half.
That left it to Max’s cousin Joey, a sophomore forward, to put things out-of-reach on a goal with 6:01 remaining.
After killing off a Cougars’ power play, the Spuds added a final goal from senior Mr. Hockey finalist Tyden Bergeson with 2:51 to go.
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