Cretin-Derham Hall keeps St. Thomas Academy’s Mike Randolph from boys hockey coaching record

Mike Randolph left something on his to-do list Friday.

St. Thomas Academy’s boys hockey coach had a chance to become Minnesota’s leader in boys hockey coaching victories with his 708th, but he’ll have to get back to that next season. Cretin-Derham Hall defeated St. Thomas Academy 3-1 at Braemar Ice Arena in the Class 2A, Section 2 final and advanced to next week’s state tournament.

Cretin-Derham Hall (17-10-1) got two goals from Chuck Owens, the second into an empty net. Owen Nelson made 35 saves. Peter Murray scored for St. Thomas Academy (17-9-2) four minutes into the third period, making it 2-1, before Owens’ empty-netter settled it.

Randolph, in his third season with the Cadets, remains tied with Lorne Grosso, who had 707 victories in 49 seasons at Rochester Mayo. Roy Nystrom, who had 705 victories in 44 seasons at Albert Lea, is in third place. Willard Ikola, who coached Edina and Edina East to 616 victories in 33 seasons, stands fourth.

The Raiders’ victory and White Bear Lake’s 3-0 win over Hill-Murray on Friday set the field for the Class 2A state tournament, which begins Thursday at Xcel Energy Center. Other qualifiers: Rochester Century/John Marshall (22-4-2) from Section 1, Chanhassen (23-5) from Section 2, Centennial (19-7-2) from Section 5, Edina (23-4-1) from Section 6, Grand Rapids (17-11-0) from Section 7 and Elk River/Zimmerman (18-9-1) from Section 8.

The qualifiers in Class 1A: Northfield (22-4-2) from Section 1, Orono (20-8) from Section 2, New Ulm (23-5) from Section 3, defending champion Mahtomedi (17-11) from Section 4, St. Cloud Cathedral (23-4-1) from Section 5, Alexandria (19-9-1) from Section 6, Hermantown (18-8-2) from Section 7 and Warroad (23-5) from Section 8.

The brackets will be seeded Saturday morning.