By Jake Schroer
Crow River News Sports
STMA fared well at the Schwan Cup in Blaine over the holiday week. Playing in the Silver Division, the Knights beat Mounds View 7-5, lost to Mahtomedi 6-4 and defeated Breck 6-1 in the third place game.
The Knights scored and scored often in a 7-5 win over the Mounds View Mustangs.
Matt Gretsch (Ryne Mohrman) scored the first goal of the contest. Mitch Bourgerie (Tucker Bjorlin) struck back to tie the game in short order. Carson Wooters (Blake Spetz, Bourgerie) gave the Knights a 2-1 lead on the man advantage before Tom Nagle (Joe Sutton, Evan Mattson) tied the game 2-2.
Still in the first, Bourgerie (Marshall Bjorlin) got his second goal to make it 3-2 Knights.
John Reim (Gretsch, Alex Plasencia) and Alex Plasencia (Colin Baird) scored and the Mustangs took a 4-3 lead in the second period, but Marshall Bjorlin tied the game 4-4 toward the end of it.
The Knights took momentum back for good in the third period with three goals. Blake Spetz scored first (Mitchell Bourgerie, T. Bjorlin), Cam Fuerstenberg (T. Bjorlin) made it 6-4, and Hunter Wilcox scored on an empty net. Joe Sutton (Plasencia, Spencer Ovshak) scored very late for the Mustangs as the Knights won 7-5.
Head coach Jerr Johnson said that it was a long time from the Breck game to the tournament, so they had time to change some things.
“It was good to be able to get back on the ice and actually play a game and get that taste out of our mouth,” Johnson said.
MAHTOMEDI
STMA faced Mahtomedi in the second round and lost 6-4 in another tightly-contested game. Luke Posner scored five of the six goals for the Zephyrs.
Jordan Drobinski (Connor Greenwood, Nick Putnam) got the Knights on the board first in the opening period for a 1-0 lead. This carried into the second period, where the Zephyrs tied the game on Posner’s first goal (Jake Anderson).
Posner scored again (Andrew Kangas, Patrick Wigstrom) and the Zephyrs found themselves in front 2-1. Connor Greenwood (Jack Kelly, Putnam) responded with the tying goal on the power play and Mitch Bourgerie (Carson Wooters) followed suit with another PPG to give STMA the lead.
Posner (Alex Jensen, Kangas) notched his hat-trick goal late in the second to tie the game at 3-3. Posner (Kangas) followed that by giving his team a 4-3 lead early in the third. Nick Putnam (Wooters) tied the game, but Jack Heinsch (Tyler Chalupsky) scored the game-winner in the final minute.
Posner scored on an empty net on the final second of the game for a 6-4 final.
BRECK
The third place game saw STMA get revenge against Breck for a 9-1 loss just days before the tournament with a 6-1 win.
Mitch Bourgerie scored a hat trick in the game. He scored the first (Blake Spetz) two (Carson Wooters) to give the Knights a 2-0 lead in the opening period before Breck answered with a Dalton Weigel PPG (Tyler Scott, Chase Ellingson).
Tucker Bjorlin (Hunter Wilcox, Cam Fuerstenberg) and Carson Wooters (Bourgerie) extended the lead to 4-1 in the second period. The Knights never let Breck back into the game, as Bourgerie completed the hat trick and Bjorlin (Wilcox, Fuerstenberg) tallied the final goal for the win.
WOODBURY
After taking third in the Schwan Cup, the Knights returned home and put up six more goals on Woodbury in a 6-3 victory.
Woodbury scored the first goal, with Sasha Choporov getting the credit (Ian James, Marshall Tschida). Carson Wooters answered back with a PPG to tie it (Casey Crandall).
STMA had a big second period. Blake Spetz (Wooters, Crandall), Marshall Bjorlin (Mitch Bourgerie), Ryan Copeland and Tucker Bjorlin (Cam Fuerstenberg, M. Bjorlin) all scored. Ronnie Sweeny (Ben Wahlin, Alex Stuckert) tallied for Woodbury.
Jared Markeson scored for Woodbury in the third, but Connor Greenwood (Nick Putnam, Jordan Drobinski) put the game out of reach late.
STMA (6-4-2) begins a three-game road trip Thursday at North Branch.