Moorhead concluded its regular season with an overtime victory against Hill-Murray fueled by ugly, grinding goals.
Class 2A boys' hockey quarterfinals: Shorthanded goal inspires Moorhead past Hill-Murray
![Morhead's Jack Stetz (21) and Ethan Frisch (5) celebrate the win with goaltender Lance Leonard (30) Thursday. ] ANTHONY SOUFFLE ï anthony.souffle@startribune.com Players competed during the boys' hockey state tournament Class 2A quarterfinals Thursday, March 9, 2017 at the Xcel Energy Center in St. Paul, Minn.](https://arc.stimg.co/startribunemedia/S3XM4S4TOM47GBPJHYW5A2VTME.jpg?&w=712)
The Spuds' goals were beautiful things in the state tournament quarterfinal rematch Thursday. They scored three times in the second period, each goal more awe-inspiring than the last, for a 4-2 victory at Xcel Energy Center. Four players scored, three of them burying pucks high in the Pioneers' net.
Junior forward Jack Stetz kept Moorhead out of reach with a shorthanded goal scored with only 32 seconds left in the second period. As he glided toward the net with teammate Jake Holtgrewe in position to take a pass, Stetz wisely used the time and space.
"When I got the puck, the defender was kind of cheating over to Jake and I was thinking, 'OK, I'm going to shoot this, but now where am I going to shoot it?' " Stetz said. "The goalie was kind of cheating to his blocker side and I gave it a shot top shelf."
The Spuds' 4-2 lead went unchanged in large part because of the psychological effect Stetz's goal had on both teams.
"That was a tough moment, really tough," Hill-Murray coach Bill Lechner said. "Before that we had three or four great chances, we started to get the fever and then we have a breakdown."
As the Pioneers (19-6-4) slumped, No. 3 seed Moorhead (23-3-3) soared.
"That goal really gave us the big momentum push to win the game," Holtgrewe said.
DAVID LA VAQUE
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