Didn't stay to the end? Too bad, because Moorhead saved its best for last

Moorhead coach Jon Ammerman said he tends "to watch a lot out there" when he's behind the bench. He definitely noticed a lot more green at Xcel Energy Center about midway through the third period, when his unseeded Spuds trailed Edina 6-3.

He wasn't talking about the apparel of Edina fans. The seats in the building are green.

"There were people leaving the seats in the middle of the third," Ammerman said at the postgame news conference. "You guys saw it, too. I don't know if they [the players] did."

No, they didn't.

"We were locked in," Moorhead senior Aaron Reierson said.

The Spuds were locked in on quite the third-period comeback, one some hockey fans perhaps saw on TV after they left the building. Attendance for the afternoon session of the Class 2A quarterfinals was 18,989.

"This is not making fun of our team. They had a reason to leave, right?" Ammerman said. "That was a pretty exciting 2½ minutes there at the end."

"I wasted a lot of energy getting there, but wow," Kreier said. "It was a trek. It seemed like it was a mile long."

Cretin-Derham Hall coach Matt Funk said his heart "skipped a beat" when the Class 2A tournament brackets were set and his unseeded team drew No. 2 seed Maple Grove. Funk knew his team needed to be detailed, disciplined and dialed-in.

The Raiders also smiled a bit when they drew the 11 a.m. game for the second year in a row, because experience helps with that early starting time. The "pomp and circumstance," as Funk put it, that surrounded last year's team, back at state for the first time since 2009, was gone this year.

So how did they handle things differently this year, looking for a different result? They waited until after Thursday's game to check the team into a hotel for the tournament, rather than spend the night in downtown St. Paul on Wednesday like last year.

"So we all got to sleep in our own bed, got a good night's rest," Raiders senior defenseman Simon Houge said. "We got to the rink around the time we'd be showing up for school, so we're all kind of used to that."

"For us, we were able to tell the new guys how that felt last year, and from the back end all the way up to the third, fourth lines, everyone bought in," Houge said. "We were willing to stick to the game plan."

No penalties were called in the first Class 2A quarterfinal of the day. Could a power play have provided the momentum Maple Grove needed to avoid being upset? Perhaps. The Crimson power play cashed in 44% of the time this season.

"Hats off to them [officials] for letting us play the game and giving everyone an entertaining game," Maple Grove coach Todd Bergland said. "We have a phenomenal power play. … It's probably been a long time since we've seen zero penalties."

Penalty-free play continued into the second quarterfinal, until interrupted at 10:30 of the third period by coincidental minors on Edina and Moorhead. The Spuds cashed in on the only power play of the early session a few minutes later, when Caleb Anderson's tip in front of the net got Moorhead within a goal during its third-period comeback.

Minnetonka coach Sean Goldsworthy has said a state tournament champion gets there by mastering six pressure-filled games played like a deciding seventh contest of a professional playoff series.

"I just watched and thought, 'The field is wide open. The team that plays the best three days in a row is going to walk out of here with the title. And I don't think anyone can worry about their ranking,' " said Goldsworthy, who led Minnetonka to the 2018 state title.

His Skippers survived a second consecutive overtime playoff game, which he credits to playing a difficult regular-season schedule and a collection of Section 2 foes tougher than frozen beef jerky.