Hermantown’s State Title Run Ends in Championship Loss

Hawks held scoreless through first 49 minutes

St. Paul, Minn.- After two victories in the Class A State Tournament, the Hermantown Hawks were unable to win their final game, falling to St. Cloud Cathedral 3-1 in Saturday’s State Championship.

In the first period, St. Cloud Cathedral wasted no time in finding the back of the net with Andrew Gwinnell scoring with 13:12 on the clock. Hermantown’s offense was starting to find some good looks at the net until Hunter Bohlman was sent to the penalty box for high sticking with about a minute remaining in the period.

In the second period, Hermantown found more frequent looks at the net, leading 19-15 in shots at the second intermission. However, another scoreless period meant the Hawks would enter the final 17 minutes with their backs against the wall.

After failing to score on a power play at the start of the third period, Hermantown’s chances of catching up with Dwinnell once again scoring for St. Cloud Cathedral to make it 2-0 with over eight minutes left.

Straight out of a timeout with 4:45 remaining, the Crusaders delivered the final blow with Joey Gillespie knocking it in for St. Cloud Cathedral.

With an empty net, Hermantown scored their first goal of the game off the stick of AJ Francisco with 1:14 left in the game. However, with not enough time to stage a comeback, St. Cloud Cathedral held on to their comfortable two-goal lead enroute to a 3-1 Championship victory.

Following the loss, Hermantown’s Francisco, River Freeman and Henry Peterson were all named to the Class A All-Tournament Team.