Friday, March 8, 2013
Hockey (B)

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1A semifinals: Hermantown 4, Breck 3

By Staff Report
St. Paul, Minn.

Wide open nets. Half-open nets. Penalty shots.

That's what Hermantown had to work with in Friday's Class A semifinal. Getting great looks at the net is always good. The bad news was that the Hawks weren't able to put many pucks in.

That changed when Zach Kramer picked up a loose puck and fired to the far side, beating Breck goalie Henry Johnson in the second overtime to give Hermantown yet another berth in a state title game.

"Yeah," Kramer responded when asked if this was the biggest goal of his life.

After burying the game-winner, Kramer skated behind the net, then into the arms of his swarming teammates. If it looked like he didn't know what to do, that's because he didn't

"He's never scored a big goal like that," Hawks coach Bruce Plante said with a smile. "He wasn't sure what to do."

Next for Hermantown is something the program knows very well: state title games. The Hawks will be playing in their fourth-straight Class A championship, but titles have been elusive in those years. With losses to St. Thomas Academy, twice, and Breck in those three trips, Hermantown hopes to break the title-game slide Saturday afternoon against the winner of the second Class A semifinal, either St. Thomas or East Grand Forks.

Scoring
1st period
H-Chris Benson (Bo Gronseth, Neal Pionk) 8:22
2nd period
B-Thomas Lindstrom (Matt Colford, Jorgen Salveson) 16:46
3rd period
B-Jack O'Connor (Matt Colford) 0:12
H-Travis Koepke (Pionk, Benson)
B-Colford (Andrew Keiser) 8:57
H-Koepke (Gronseth) 11:07
1st overtime
No scoring
2nd overtime
H-Zach Kramer (Pionk, Jake Zeleznikar) 2:26