Minnesota High School Boys State Tournament
Class A
Quarterfinal
Little Falls 6, Virginia/Mountain Iron-Buhl 2 | FINAL
Scoring:
1P: LF: Ben Hanowski (Riley Hirsch) 11:54
1P: LF: Riley Hirsch pp (Logan Kalis, Jordan Gosiak) 16:04
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2P: LF: Ben Hanowski pp (Wesley Waytashek, Mitch Gregory) 7:24
2P: LF: Ben Hanowski pp (Riley Hirsch, Izaak Berglund) 14:00
2P: LF: Ben Hanowski (Ben Nelson, Adam Dougherty) 15:53
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3P: LF: Ben Hanowski (Riley Hirsch) 3:40
3P: VMIB: Garrett Hendrickson (Chris Westin, Wes Judnick) 6:51
3P: VMIB: Chris Westin sh (Troy Grivette) 16:28
Saves: LF: Michael Sperl 7-6-4 (17) | VMIB: Will Lustig 7-6-8 (21)
Shots on goal: Little Falls 27 | Virginia/MIB 19
Powerplays: Little Falls 3-5 | Virginia/MIB 0-5
Notes:
Christian Belobaba for Virginia/MIB is not playing tonight. He injured his wrist in the last 30 seconds of the Section 7A championship game against Hibbing/Chisholm. He had surgery on the wrist and is in street clothes on the Virginia/MIB bench.
After 7 minutes, the action has been back and forth. Virginia holds a slim edge in shots at 4-3.
The first penalty of the game comes at 7:47 of the 1st period with a hold on Little Falls' Adam Dougherty.
Izaak Berglund, Ben Hanowski, and Jordan Gosiak showed some speed and nice moves to the net and each got a good shot on goal within a minute of each other at the seven-to-six minute mark. Little Falls is really starting to put pressure on Virginia.
Flyers score! Guess who? Ben Hanowski. A quick move passed a defender and flicked a backhander top shelf past a bearded Will Lustig. Incredible goal.
The Flyers score again on a power play. Riley Hirsch gets credit for the goal as he tried to slide the puck to Ben Hanowski on the backside but it hit a Virginia/MIB skate and it went by Blue Devils' goaltender Lustig.
End of the 1st period.
As we start the second period, Wesley Waytashek gets a break away and goes in all alone against Lustig and rings one off the left post. 30 seconds had not even gone off the clock. After hitting the post, the puck hit off the back of Lustig and looked like it was going to go in but Virginia defenseman Jordan Krebsbach was there just as the puck was about to touch the line to knock it away.
Ben Hanowski made a beautiful pass to Waytashek and Waytashek shot the puck just wide.
Riley Hirsch had two shorthanded chances on the same play but Lustig is holding up well. Little Falls has looked like they have been on the powerplay while shorthanded.
Ben Hanowski scored again. He scored on the powerplay on the right side of the net, Lustig's glove side. He shot the puck from the side, went off of Lustig, and in the net.
Ben Hanowski gets number THREE. Hat Trick. He took the puck behind the net and around to Lustig's glove side. It initially did not go in but he kept poking at it and eventually went off Lustig and in.
Ben Hanowski gets number FOUR. Pure Hat Trick in the second period. Nice pass play from Ben Nelson. Lustig commited on a beautiful move by Hanowski, Lustig went down, and Hanowski easily went around him and slammed the puck home.
Ben Hanowski now has 400 career total points with that fourth goal.
End of the second period.
I have to admit. I didn't think Little Falls would dominate like they have. I took a look at that 1-0 game that they played at the beginning of the year and it looked like an evenly matched game. But, it was played up in Virginia. The Flyers have really come out to play tonight at the X.
The third period has started.
And the Ben Hanowski show continues .... He scored goal number five going five-hole on Lustig.
Garrett Hendrickson shelfs one for Virginia/MIB, finally. It breaks Michael Sperl's shutout bid.
Chris Westin rounds out the scoring with a shorty in the last minute of the game.
Game is over.
A nice win for Little Falls tonight. Unless someone figures out how to contain Ben Hanowski, Little Falls will be Class A champions. The Flyers made it look easy against a team who had 22 wins this season.
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