BLOOMINGTON-Sophomore Jake Heikkenen took the puck the length of the floor and scored 22 seconds into overtime to give North Conference No. 3 Brainerd a 4-3 upset victory over the South No. 2 Rochester Raiders in the quarterfinals of the state tournament Friday at Bloomington Jefferson High School.
Heikkenen's goal was his third of the night, the first two coming unassisted in the first five minutes of the game to put Brainerd up 2-0, before Rochester fought back to tie the score at the end of the first period.
Seventh-grader Matt Allord put the Warriors up 3-2 with an unassisted goal 3:31 into the third, but the Raiders were able to rally for the tie forcing the overtime.
"As we have done all season, we came out fast and ready to go with a quick two goal lead, but then let the Raiders back in it," said Brainerd head coach Todd Person. "We worked hard all week in practice on positioning especially on defense and in the third period, things started to click and we played much better and finally started to get some shots on goal."
Brainerd was outshot 25-7 in the first two periods and Rochester finished with a 39-17 shots-on-goal advantage.
ADVERTISEMENT
Junior goalie Zachary Denny recorded 36 saves for the Warriors.
"Our players really played hard tonight and we got some quality minutes from Ray Borg and
Blaise Edinger off the bench tonight which made the difference late in the game," said Person.
Brainerd next faces the North's top-seeded Anoka/Hennepin Mustangs in the championship semi-finals 10:30 a.m. Saturday with the title game to follow at 2:30, and third-place game at 2:15. All games are at Bloomington Jefferson high school.
The 6-4 Warriors handed the 9-1 Mustangs their only loss of the season 4-3 Jan. 21 before losing to them 4-2 Feb. Feb. 9. Anoka-Hennepin defeated Maple Grove 11-3 Friday to advance to the semi-finals.
Rochester 2 0 1 0 - 3
Brainerd 2 0 1 1 - 4
First period: Brd-Jake Heikkenen 0:49; Brd-Heikkenen 4:52; R-Gavin Gerdt (Sean Healy) 9:24; R-August Williams 14:26
ADVERTISEMENT
Third period: Brd-Matt Allord 3:31; R-Gerdt 11:31
Overtime: Brd-Heikkenen 0:22
Shots on goal: Brd 4 3 10 - 17, R 12 13 14 - 39
Goalies: Brd-Zachary Denny (36 saves); R-Gordon Maass (13 saves)
Overall: Brd 6-4. Next: North No. 3 Brainerd vs. North No. 1 Anoka-Hennepin in state semifinals at Bloomington Jefferson 10:30 a.m.; third-place 2:15 p.m.; championship 2:30 p.m.
