Hermantown Boys Hockey Set to Make 4th Straight Appearance at State

Hermantown will face Luverne for the 3rd time in program history at the state tournament.

HERMANTOWN, Minn.- For the fourth straight season and 13th time in the last 14 seasons,  the Hermantown boys hockey team is getting set for the class A state tournament.

The Hawks will make the trek to the X on Wednesday as they will take on Luverne in the Class A quarterfinals.

This isn’t the first time Hermantown has seen Luverne at the state tourney, Wednesday’s contest will mark the 3rd time the two teams have dropped the puck against one another.

The Hawks boast a 2-0 record all-time against the Cardinals, with their most recent win against them coming in the 2017 quarterfinals.

Head Coach Patrick Andrews says their past recent meetings are in the past and their focus is on this year’s matchup.

“They have a lot of skill up front. They have a couple sixty point scorers. They have some guys that can get up and go. They like to push the pace, spread the ice. They remind me a lot of the mammal teams that we’ve run into the last few years too. We’ll probably get some zone time on them with our depth but they’re going to pop pucks. Very opportunistic on odd man rushes so we’re going to have to have our head on a swivel, take care of the middle of the ice and get our D to be tight,” said Andrews.

As for the players, it’s all about playing their own game.

“I was looking at the Hermantown history and they took us into overtime one year when they really weren’t supposed to. Obviously we’re going to give them our best game and they’re going to come hard at us. We have to be ready and bring our game,” said senior captain George Peterson.

“We just have to keep on working and getting better everyday. We need to showcase our depth a lot because we have more depth than a lot of teams I think from top to bottom. So if we use all our lines, I think we’ll be rested and ready to go,” added senior defenseman Nolan Barker.

Puck drop is at 11 AM on Wednesday.