WADENA — It wasn’t the result anyone who followed the Wadena boys hockey team this year wanted to see, but it took three periods and a little over a minute of overtime for Morris-Benson Area to end the Wadena-Deer Creek boys hockey team’s season in a back and forth section 6-A quarterfinal thriller.
The fourth-seeded Wolverines (14-12) fell 5-4 to the fifth-seeded Storm at the Wadena Ice Arena on Thursday night.
It only took a little over three minutes into the first period for Wadena sophomore Jaeger Pettit to give the Wolverines a 1-0 lead. Junior Jack Koranda would pick up the assist on the play. Three minutes later Morris-Benson junior Blake Bruns responded with a goal of his own to even the score. Brady Peterson and Cole Blume assistd on the game-tying goal.
Both teams went into the intermission tied at 1-1 with 8 shots on goal each.
The Wolverines came out fast in the second period and caught the Storm on its heels. Junior Aaron Sutherland put Wadena up 2-1 less than a minute into the frame after he walked in from the corner and slid a backhand under the right leg pad of Storm goaltender Christopher Danielson. Connor Davis earned an assist on the play.
ADVERTISEMENT
Cole Woods made it 3-1 Wolverines after he redirected a shot from Pettit. Things looked promising for the Wolverines before a cross-checking penalty put the Storm on the power play shortly after.
Storm junior Trevor Buss buried a power play goal, with the assist going to Brett Hanson, bringing MBA back to within one goal. The Storm would even the score 3-3 a little over two minutes later after Wadena turned the puck over in the neutral zone and Buss snuck one through the five-hole of Wolverine goaltender Gunner Olson. Hanson nabbed the assist on the play.
MBA took its first lead of the game in the third period after senior Brady Dehaan found the back of the net with just over 10 minutes remaining. Tim Blume and Kaleb Breuer picked up assists on the play.
Not even two minutes later, WDC's Sutherland would pick up his second goal of the game in flamboyant fashion. He walked in and sniped a shot over Danielson’s glove to tie things up at 4-4, where the score would stay going into overtime.
It only took a little over a minute for the Storm to crush the Wolverines dreams of getting to move on to the section semifinals against Alexandria on Saturday. Trevor Buss walked the puck out of the corner and sent it out front to Brett Hanson, who snapped a perfect wrist shot to the top right corner for the 5-4 win. Both teams finished with 28 shots on goal.
“Obviously, this is a devastating loss for the guys,” WDC head coach Scott Woods said. “When you're the higher seed playing at home against a team you’ve had success against, you obviously wanna come out on top. This team played hard all season, though, and they left everything on the ice tonight.”
The Wolverines finish the season with 14 wins and should be returning the majority of the team back next season.
“Our top two lines, top defensive pairing and goaltender should all be returning next season," Woods said. "It’s gonna be painful to lose our seniors, but we have a lot of talent to work with and I look forward to seeing what next year brings us as a program."
