Blake 5, Red Wing 3
Shoves and word exchanges in the opening minutes of Friday's Class 1A semifinal fueled the Blake girls' hockey team.
Physicality is a big part of the Bears' usual efforts and played a big role in a 6-3 victory over Red Wing. First it was Maddy Hall doing the shoving, then Karlie Lund, then Haley Aldrich, each using the moment to show the Wingers there would be no relenting.
"I think the physicality of [our style of play] just generally comes along," Dani Cameranesi said "It gets me kind of fired up when people are trying to come at me."
The teams combined for eight penalties and Red Wing suffered the most from its four. Three of the Wingers core players missed eight minutes of action, with the state's leading scorer Nicole Schammel sitting out four minutes.
Blake turned two of these opportunities into points. Carly Bullock and Cameranesi scored goals four and six on power plays to give the No. 3-seed Bears a cushion to advance to today's noon championship game.
No. 2-seed Red Wing rallied from a 3-1 deficit to briefly tie the game 11:48 into the second period. Katelyn Hadler scored a shorthanded goal, but 10 seconds later Bullock followed up her blocked shot to score the first of three Blake unanswered goals.
Though Blake goaltender Tori Johnson limited Schammel's high-powered offense, the Red Wing junior forward arguably recorded what could be the tournament's top play. Schammel broke away from a defender and created an open look at the goal by pushing the puck behind her and through her legs. The defender fell to the ground, but the crossbar saved a would-be goal.
