High school football roundup: Two Rivers shuts out Hastings, sets up clash with Cadets

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CLASS 5A

Two Rivers 14, Hastings 0: Two Rivers (8-1) avenged its only loss of the season, delivering its second shutout in three weeks.

The Warriors have now won seven straight games after falling 9-7 to Hastings (2-7) in Week 2. Drew Altavilla and Riley Pearce each ran in second-quarter scores for Two Rivers.

Two Rivers will meet intracity rival St. Thomas Academy on Saturday in the Section 3 semifinals.

Other scores:

-Apple Valley beat Bloomington Kennedy 43-7. The Eagles will meet second-seeded Bloomington Jefferson on Saturday in the Section 3 semifinals.

-Central downed Academy Force 52-8. The second-seeded Minutemen will host third-seeded Cretin-Derham Hall in Saturday’s Section 4 semifinals. Cretin-Derham Hall beat Harding/Humboldt 40-0 on Tuesday.

-Tartan topped Highland Park 26-14, setting up a date between the Titans and Mahtomedi in a Section 4 semifinal on Saturday.

CLASS 4A

Simley 28, South St. Paul 6: Freshman fill-in quarterback Christian Urbina tossed four touchdown passes — including two to Lucio Rivera — as Simley (6-3) downed South St. Paul for the second time this season.

The Spartans will travel to Chisago Lakes to play the second-seeded Wildcats on Saturday in the Section 3 semifinals. Chisago Lakes beat North St. Paul 42-8 on Tuesday.

Sincere Casarez-McCampbell hit Dante Mendez for a 47-yard scoring strike in the second quarter to tally the lone score for the Packers (3-6).

-The Section 3 quarterfinal between Como Park and Johnson was postponed, and it is scheduled to be played Wednesday

Ryan Hartman hat trick leads Wild’s rally past Edmonton

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Bad start, no problem.

After a series of bad starts this season, the Wild upped the ante with two on Tuesday at Xcel Energy Center, falling behind a skidding Edmonton team 1-0 in the first 54 seconds, and 3-2 just 32 seconds into the second period.

But it wasn’t the difference this time.

Ryan Hartman scored a hat trick, and Marco Rossi, Mats Zuccarello and Joel Eriksson Ek each added one as the Wild beat the Oilers, 7-4, and nip an 0-1-1 skid in the bud before starting a three-game road trip on Thursday in Philadelphia.

Minnesota scored five third-period goals to overcome an Oilers team that arrived in St. Paul with a 1-3-1 record and without superstar wing Connor McDavid, sidelined one to two weeks with an upper body injury.

McDavid led the NHL with 64 goals and 153 points last season, but the Oilers didn’t appear to miss him early.

Even as Minnesota focused coming out strong after a series of slow starts — really in every game but a 5-2 victory at Montreal on Oct. 17 — Evan Bouchard scored on a slap shot 54 seconds into the first period, and Warren Foegele scored two go-ahead goals, the second giving the Oilers a 3-2 lead just 32 seconds into the second period.

But Minnesota tightened its defense, a focus for a team that has struggled defensively with veteran blue liner Jared Spurgeon sidelined by an upper body injury, and finally tied the game, 3-3, on Hartman’s second goal 33 seconds into the third period.

That started a flurry for the Wild, who took a 4-2 lead on Zuccarello’s one-timer from the right circle, and Eriksson Ek finished a long forecheck with a wrist shot from the crease to make it 5-3 at 9:32.

Evander Kane scored on a redirect to make it 5-4, but Hartman finished his hat trick on a rush to make it 6-4, and Marcus Foligno added an empty-net goal.

Hartman finished with five points.

Filip Gustavsson stopped 25 of 29 shots for the win, and Jack Campbell stopped 24 of 32 for Edmonton.

Bruins handle Blackhawks, 3-0, remain perfect on season

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No, offensive wizardry has not been the Bruins’ calling card so far this season. But when you keep the puck out of the net like they have in their first six games, it’s no surprise their record is spotless thus far.

Again, the B’s got the timely goals – Pavel Zacha, Matt Poitras and Trent Frederic tallied – and Jeremy Swayman (23 saves) delivered the B’s first shutout of the season to defeat the Chicago Blackhawks 3-0 at the United Center on Tuesday.

The B’s 6-0 start ties the season start by the 1937-38 squad for the franchise’s best start, sweeping their four-game road trip. They have allowed a grand total of seven goals in those six games.

It appeared the Blackhawks had taken a 1-0 advantage with 6:44 left in the first off an egregious turnover from Charlie Coyle, who threw a blind backhand pass into the slot, setting up super rookie Connor Bedard for a one-timer goal. But the B’s challenged that the Hawks were offside – a good 22 seconds before the goal – and their challenge was upheld when review showed that Andreas Athanasiou barely put himself offside with a pass at the blue line.

There was no score in the first period, which in part led to coach Jim Montgomery continue his search for the right mix in his top six He flipped 19-year-old rookie Matt Poitras up to the top line with Brad Marchand and David Pastrnak and dropped Pavel Zacha down to the second line with Jake DeBrusk and Morgan Geekie.

It didn’t pay immediate dividends, but it did early in the second, helping Zacha to finally get on the board this season. Geekie won a puck below the goal line, fishing it out for DeBrusk at the right circle. He dished it up to Kevin Shattenkirk at the blue line and the defenseman picked up his first point as a Bruin after Zacha deflected home his shot past Petr Mrazek, Zacha’s first goal of the season.

The Bruins controlled much of the second, outshooting the Hawks 18-7, but they didn’t have much by way of high danger chances after the Zacha goal.

Evey time the B’s gained momentum, it seemed they would earn a power play – and that would take care of the momentum. They were 0-for-4 on the PP through the first 41 minutes of the game and looked pretty bad in the process, constantly giving away the puck so the Hawks could make easy clears.

Meanwhile, Swayman hadn’t been asked to do a lot through 40 minutes but he did get tested later in the second when Chicago broke in on an odd-man rush. Lukas Reichel had a glorious chance from just above the hash marks in the slot but Swayman gobbled it up without a rebound.

The B’s finally took full control of the game with a two goals in 56 seconds early in the third period.

After Montgomery went back to his original lines, the B’s took a 2-0 lead at 4:06 of the third on another terrific play from Poitras. The rookie had scored his first two goals of his NHL career on Sunday night in Anaheim and he got his third to extend the lead in electrifying fashion. He pounced on a loose puck at his own blue line and then outraced veteran Corey Perry and defenseman Wyatt Kaiser to create a breakaway for himself. He calmly beat Mrazek with a low wrister, giving the B’s some breathing space at long last.

Less than a minute later, Trent Frederic made it 3-0 when he cleaned up a strong rush by James van Riemsdyk for his second of the year.

*The B’s lost Jakub Lauko when he took an errant skate from Jason Dickinson to the face while he Lauko was along the ice. He left the ice bleeding badly.

*Milan Lucic (foot) missed his second consecutive game after having a shot deflect off him in Saturday’s win in Los Angeles.

*Derek Forbort (groin) returned to the lineup after missing a game. Ian Mitchell took a seat.

 

 

 

Unseeded Park’s Cinderella story continues with defeat of Minnetonka in Class 3A boys soccer quarterfinal

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The Park Wolfpack took down the Minnetonka Skippers 1-0 in the final minutes of the Class 3A state tournament quarterfinals matchup Tuesday night.

Defense and conservative strategies were the story of most of the game. Both teams had a couple of shots on goal in the first half, but the game went into intermission with no score. Mother Nature provided a steady drizzle for most of the night, making footing and catching the ball more difficult than usual.

The second half was filled with more defense, both teams getting within a few feet of breaking the tie but failing to score.

Finally, in the 74th minute, the tense stalemate was broken when Wolfpack senior Brayden Kortus scored on a header off of a corner kick. From there, with only five minutes left to play, Park bolstered its defense and played it safe with its one-goal lead.

The win for the Wolfpack comes as the second installment of their Cinderella story. The unseeded team came into the state tournament with an upset win last week. Tuesday’s victory over Minnetonka is even more of an upset, as the Skippers held the third seed in the tournament.

“It’s a whirlwind right now,” Park head coach Andrew Bourgoine said. “That’s probably one of the best, if not the best, team we’ve played all year. We just played amazing today. Our strategy against Rosemount was to dig deep on defense and try to get offense when we can. And once we get set pieces, that’s when we make our chance, and we did that again tonight.”

When asked about the next round, Bourgoine said the team is already doing what it needs to do.

“I think we’re playing with house money at this point,” he said. “We’re going to U.S. Bank Stadium, and that’s super exciting. Now it’s pretty much just play how (we) are playing. I mean, we’re in the top four teams. We just need to keep doing what we’re doing.”

Minnetonka head coach Mike Rogers congratulated his team on a successful season, though it didn’t end the way they wanted.

“The boys played hard, it just wasn’t our night,” Rogers said. “We had a terrific season. We just really thought we were going to go forward tonight. I’m not really prepared to say much, just trying to shore up the pain right now.”

Park will take on the winner of Thursday’s match between second-seeded Maple Grove and unseeded Andover.

 

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