It was a tough way to go out, but the Litchfield/Dassel-Cokato boys hockey team was blown out 8-1 in the Section 3A Boys Hockey Tournament Final against Hutchinson on Wednesday at Gustavus Adolphus College.
Coming in the to the game, team was on a little bit of a roll, dominating the first two games of the tournament to get to the championship. It came down to a test against a team that has beaten them in a couple close games this season: the Hutchinson Tigers.
It was a very up and down season for the Dragons. But they made it this far, nobody likes to lose in the section championship, but they still put together a strong season.
“I think we played some good games and we played some bad ones too,” Trent Raisanen said. “We just needed to be more consistent to make it as far as we did.”
The first period went about as expected in this rivalry championship game. It was back-and-forth with both teams equal in shots with 14 apiece. Each were able to find the find in the period as well.
Hutchinson took the lead when leading scorer Austin Jozwick connected on his seventh goal of the playoffs. But the Dragons came back later in the period when Gavin Hanson scored off a rebound for the one-timer off a Gavyn Lund shot for the goal to tie the game.
The Tigers took the lead back late in the second period off of some perfect timing. Tristan Hoppe was called for a penalty about 11 minutes into the period. As Hutch was about to kill the penalty, the cleared the puck right as Hoppe got out of the box and he was all all alone with the goalie and scored the eventual game-winner.
The Tigers then exploded for six goals in the third period. Blake Schmidt, Holtz, Hayden Jensen, Jozwick, and Brady Knorr all scored as Hutch flexed their muscle to win the title.A tough pill to swallow after getting handled like that, and the boys know that it wasn't their best game.
“The penalties really got to us,” Raisanen said. “We just didn't play our game as good as we should of and could of.”
L/DC committed the same amount of penalties in the third, three, but led to two power play goals for the Tigers. It was evident that some frustration was starting to spill over late in the third period which led to some of the penalties.
In the end, Hutch just came out and wanted it more than L/DC did in the end. They were relentless all night with their for check and the pressure ended up paying off. Again, nobody wants it to end like it did Wednesday, but the team still put together a great season getting to the section finals.
“I'm proud of the way that we played and the season that we had,” head coach Bryce Berggren said. “We made it this far, you never want it to end whether you end now or a week from now.”
Section 3A Boys Hockey Championship (Feb. 26)
#1 Hutchinson 8, Litchfield/Dassel-Cokato 1
Hutchinson......................... 1 1 6 – 8
Litchfield/Dassel-Cokato... 1 0 0 – 1
Scoring Summary:
First period: H – Austin Jozwick (Hayden Jensen) 4:51, L – Gavin Hanson (Gavyn Lund) 13:40
Second period: H – Tristan Hoppe (Gavin Hutchins) 13:00
Third period: H – Blake Schmidt (unassisted) 1:03, H – Logan Holtz (Riley Anderson) 2:44, H – Jensen (Anderson) 7:13, H – Jensen (unassisted) 10:44, H – Jozwick (Jensen, Cam Longie) 11:04, H – Brady Knorr (Anderson, Ty Glaser) 14:32
PP: L/DC (0/3); Hutch: (2/4)
Shots: L/DC 24 (14-4-6); Hutch 39 (14-12-13)
Saves: L – Cade Marquardt (31/39), H – Austin Hagen (23/24)
