St. Cloud Cathedral Crushes Northfield, Advances to Class A Semis

(KNSI) — The St. Cloud Cathedral Crusaders boys hockey team is moving on.

In the opening round of state tournament play, number three seed Cathedral downed the Northfield Raiders 5-1. The Crusaders came out swinging after John Hirschfeld found the back of the net just 18 seconds into the game. Northfield’s Oliver Benjamin tied it up just a few minutes later to end the first period tied at one apiece.

In the second, it was all Cathedral as they scored twice in just over a minute. Landon Swenson was in the right place at the right time to catch a shot made by Thomas Rosenkrans but deflected by Northfield goalie Max Frank. Swenson grabbed the rebound and took the shot, and when that didn’t work, he fired again, this time sending it past Frank and lighting the lamp to take the lead. A short time later, Joey Gillespie sent a power play wrister zipping across the line to put Cathedral up 3-1.

A pair of goals in the third gave the team an insurmountable lead as Andrew Dwinell slapped one in, making it 4-1. Around five minutes later, it was Gillespie who found the back of the net again to put it away 5-1 for the Crusaders and sending them on to the next round.

The Class A semifinals will see Cathedral (24-4-1) taking on number two seed Warroad (24-5-0). The two meet Friday morning. Puck drop is at 11:00 a.m.

Warroad beat New Ulm in the opening game of the semifinal round 8-1. Warroad and Cathedral met up during the first weekend of the hockey season and Cathedral came out on top in overtime.

___