Bears miss state tourney by 1 overtime goal

John Oren
Williams Northern Light

For Warroad, it’s just another trip to the Minnesota State Hockey Tournament — its second in a row and seventh in the last 11 years.
For Lake of the Woods, it’s the end of the finest season in local history, the first trip ever to the Section 8-A championship game, and perhaps the end, at least for the immediate future, or for hopes of getting to the state tournament.
The 4-3 overtime game Thursday (March 4) night at East Grand Forks was everything you could ask for a championship game involving the first and fourth rated Class A teams in the state.
When the puck crawled through a mass of players and slipped into the net not two minutes into overtime, it ended a stunning Lake of the Woods comeback as well as hopes for that trip to St. Paul. Down two goals with less than three minutes left in the third period, Lake of the Woods came back to tie things up. Senior Darrin Becklund broke in all alone and slipped the puck past Warroad netminder Tony Sorrels with 2:19 left in the third period and the teams skating five men each.
Lake of the Woods coach Mike Pepera pulled the goaltender with just over a minute left in the period, a strategy that works on the odd occasion but far more frequently backfires with an empty net goal.
This time, it was the odd occasion. Brent Olson, another of those seniors so vital to the Lake of the Woods cause this season, hit with 52 seconds left to knot the score at 3-all.
But then Tanner Wightman of Lake of the Woods faced a goaltender’s nightmare just over a minute into overtime. In something akin to a rugby scrum, Lake of the Woods and Warroad players both clogged the area in front of the net. Eric Olimb, one of those players developed by the Warroad youth hockey system who had come all the way through the ranks, blasted one from the point. It found its way through the mass of bodies in front of Wightman and into the goal.
Wightman never stood a chance. That mass of bodies, players from both teams, completely blocked his view of the shot.
And so ended a 23-4-1 season for Lake of the Woods, the finest by far since Baudette and Williams consolidated back in 1972 and certainly one of the finest in local area history stretching back into the years before consolidation.
While Lake of the Woods finished at 23-4-1, Warroad carries a 26-2 record into the state Class A tournament at St. Paul this week. The Warriors face Section 6-A champion Orono in a 7:00 p.m. game Wednesday, the prime time game of the entire Class A quarterfinal round.
Orono might just give Warroad its biggest challenge until a possible championship game appearance. While Warroad was rated on top of the regular-season-ending Class A state poll, Orono was rated fifth, one spot behind Lake of the Woods. It enters the game with a 24-3-1 record.
Warroad is also the defending state champion and held down that number one position in the poll virtually the entire season.
By way of contrast, St. Cloud Cathedral was ranked ninth and Hibbing not ranked at all in the final poll. Those two teams play at about 9:00 Wednesday eventide for the semifinal spot opposite Warroad or Orono. Hermantown and Duluth Marshall were the favorites to come out of the Section 7-A tournament, but it was Hibbing, which enters the state tourney with an 11-14-1 record, that prevailed.
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The Section 8-A championship game was played before a capacity crowd at the East Grand Forks arena, a crowd that with the exception of fans who came down from Warroad appeared to overwhelmingly favor Lake of the Woods.
It was a game of rally and counter-rally, though few in the relatively quiet Lake of the Woods crowd toward the end of regulation time anticipated that final counter-rally.
Wightman, a junior goaltender, was especially effective in the opening period. Junior defenseman Aaron Gens hit on a power play with 4:56 left in the opening period to give the hockey Bears a 1-0 lead, a lead that stood up through to the end despite a shot advantage of 10-7 for Warroad.
But Warroad came back in the second period to take a 3-1 lead. Ben Bengtson, another of those juniors on a Warroad team loaded with juniors, hit exactly a minute into the period to tie things up. Joe Harren, just a sophomore, scored with 9:59 left in the middle period to put Warroad up 2-1. Then Tyson Gravelle, one of eight seniors listed on the Warroad roster, gave his team a seemingly insurmountable 3-1 lead with 7:12 left in the period. Gravelle and Kyle Hardwick, another of those juniors, broke loose with Warroad short-handed and Lake of the Woods pushing its players toward the Warroad net.
That 3-1 score was how the period ended and that’s how things stayed until the dying minutes. Then, with Warroad pressing in the Lake of the Woods zone, Gens intercepted a pass and hit Becklund, who had broken out of his defensive zone behind two Warroad defenders. Becklund was perfect with his shot, and the Bears were back to within a goal.
Then Olson tied things up with 52 seconds left and no one in the Lake of the Woods goal to send the game to overtime.
And then came the scrum, the puck that worked its way through all those bodies, the goal, and Warroad‘s seventh trip to the state tournament in the last 11 years.
The loss was the third to Warroad in as many tries, but it was by far the closest and showed just how far the Lake of the Woods team progressed this season.
Warroad won the first time around back in late December, a 6-2 decision at Warroad. It was a 3-1 game when the two teams met at Baudette on Feb. 5 in a game that never appeared to stand much of a chance of going to overtime.
While Warroad had eight seniors listed in the tournament program, only four — goaltender Sorrels plus Gabe Harren, Andrew Hasbargen and Gravelle — were featured players. Most of the central players in the Warroad scheme of things will be back for at least one more season.
Lake of the Woods, by way of contrast, loses just five seniors; all of them, though, were major players — first liners Olson and Becklund, top defenseman Brett Nylander, second line center Ryan McInerney and third line center Jordan Block.
Lake of the Woods played its best hockey of the season going into the sectional tournament. After that second loss to Warroad in early February, Lake of the Woods won its last five games of the regular season, four of them by margins of eight goals or more. Then the Bears took care of Kittson Central 8-1 in the quarterfinal round of the section tournament. That result was mostly expected.
What wasn’t expected was a 7-1 win over East Grand Forks, a very good hockey team, in the semifinal round. That set up the championship game against Warroad, which struggled past Thief River Falls 3-1 in the other semifinal game.
Gens was in on all three goals, scoring the first one and assisting on Olson’s and Becklund’s late goals. Olson finished with a goal and an assist.
Lake of the Woods outscored its opponents 162-44 this season, allowing under two goals a game.