Boys Hockey Emerges Victorious in OT

Scoreless through the 1st period taking on the Cloquet Lumberjacks, the Fire were playing stronger and faster and looked good. Halfway through however, Cloquet’s Brayden Tyman finished off a designed play from Kaden Crane to go up 1-0. Holy Family’s Trey Fechko sauced a pass to Nick Blood, who then tapped it back to his fellow sophomore Fechko for a quick wrist shot that sneaked between the right pad and the post with only seconds remaining, tying up the game before the end of the 2nd period. After a bouncing puck got smacked into the net by Cloquet halfway through the 3rd, Fechko drove into the slot of Cloquet for a shot, which was mishandled, leaving the puck solo in the crease, where junior Nick Strand slapped it in. Little over a minute later, a behind the net pass by captain Lucas Jorgenson to Blood ended with a 2 touch snipe to the upper left corner of the net. The fast paced few minutes didn’t stop there, as Cloquet tied the game 12 seconds later. Going into OT, Blood said that the game plan was to “trust the process and get pucks to the net.”  A power play opportunity was lost by the Fire in OT, with only minutes left. As the game seemed to slow down with 30 seconds left, Jorgenson gave a burst of speed, taking a puck from a Lumberjack defender. Circling around in the offensive zone, Jorgenson executed a give and go with Fechko, before stick handling twice and shooting into the back of the net to win the game. “I was happy and relieved when Jorgy scored because our line had played 80% of OT, and it was nice to get a good team win.”

An up and down season will commence through the next 4 games versus all ranked team. Prior Lake upset long time number 1 ranked Eden Prairie a few weeks ago, and are attempting the make it to state for the first time in recent history. Blaine has one of the best players in the state with senior Carsen Richels, and St. Cloud Cathedral, as well as Stillwater have had solid seasons with deep postseason runs expected.