For the second game in a row, Hermantown allowed an opponent to come back from a three-goal deficit to force a third-period tie. This time, it cost the Hawks.
St. Thomas Academy fell behind 3-0 in Saturday's Class 1A title game, only to roar back to force overtime at 4-4 and win it with 1:26 left in the first session after Taylor Fleming's shot from the point found its way through traffic and into the net.
STA got on the board late in the first period and drew within 3-2 on Peter Krieger's goal early in the second. Hermantown went back up 4-2, but St. Thomas Academy's A.J. Reid's goal with 2:03 left in the second brought the Cadets within 4-3. Andrew Commers' second goal of the game tied it in the third period.
Hermantown trailed in shots 41-20 at one point, but cut that deficit to 44-33 with a flurry late in the third and at the start of overtime. But the Hawks -- who also lost in last year's title game on a late goal by Breck -- couldn't put a goal home.
This is St. Thomas Academy's third title in the past six years. The Cadets also won in 2006 and 2008.
-- Michael Rand, Star Tribune
