Boys Hockey: Second period pushes Red Knights past Brainerd

A 3-goal second period guided the Benilde-St. Margaret's Red Knights to a 3-1 victory over the Brainerd Warriors in the North-South Classic at Essentia Health Sports Center Friday, Dec. 7.

Cooper Gay, Blake Mesenburg and James Callahan tallied for BSM, which outshot the Warriors 28-22. Knights' goalie Carson Limesand stopped 21 shots.

Trailing 3-0 entering the third, Brainerd finally came to life and outshot the Red Knights 10-8 in the period. Mason Kruse scored the Warriors' only goal on a power play at 8:15 of the third during which Luke Saiko replaced Jacob Mitchell in net. Mitchell was involved in a collision in the second and did not return.

After Kruse's goal, Brainerd had a 5-on-3 power play for 41 seconds, but could not score. It also didn't score on the ensuing 1:19 left in the power play.

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Benilde 3, Warriors 1

• The key: The Red Knights scored all three of their goals in the second period
• Overall: Brd 2-2, BStM 3-1
• Next: Brainerd vs. Eden Prairie in North-South Classic at Brainerd 12:30 p.m. Saturday, Dec. 9; Hermantown vs. Benilde-St. Margaret's in North-South Classic 2:30 p.m. Saturday.

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In the second, the Red Knights began to dictate the pace and put the heat on Mitchell. BSM outshot the Warriors 12-6 in the second and seized a 3-0 lead.

In the second, Gay snapped a scoreless tie with a sharp-angle shot to Mitchell's right.

Thirty-four seconds later, Mesenburg stole the puck at the Warrior blue line, skated way from Brainerd defensemen and beat Mitchell 5-hole for a short-handed goal.

At 13:27 of the second, Callahan's slap shot from the point made it 3-0 for the Red Knights.

In the last minute of the second, Mitchell stoned Charlie Warnert on a breakaway.

During a scoreless first, BSM outshot the Warriors 7-6. The Red Knights had the only power play in the period but were unable to capitalize. The Warriors had four quality changes to BSM's two.

BenildeStM 0 3 0-3

Brainerd 0 0 1-1

Second period: BSM-Cooper Gay (Tristan Sarsland) 2:42: BSM-Blake Mesenburg shg 3:16; BSM-James Callahan (Mesenburg, Charlie Bischel) 13:27

Third period: Brd-Mason Kruse (Wyatt Andres)

Shots on goal: Brd 6-6-10-22, BStM 7-13-8--28

Goalies: Brd-Jacob Mitchell (17 saves in first 2 periods), Luke Saiko (8 saves in last period); BStM-Carson Limesand (21 saves).

Hermantown 5, Eden Prairie 3

Justin Thomas scored two goals and Indio Dowd collected three assists as the Hermantown Hawks beat the Eden Prairie Eagles 5-3 in the opening game of the North-South Classic Friday.

The Hawks built a 2-goal lead before Eden Prairie's Keegan Langefels' second goal of the game trimmed the deficit to 4-3. Hermantown's Darian Gotz scored into an empty net at 15:52 to ice the victory.

Blake Biondi and Sam High provided the other Hermantown tallies.

Jack Jensen scored the first Eden Prairie goal.

Cole Manahan stopped 27 shots for the Hawks (2-1-0). Ben Bullis also registered 27 saves for Eden Prairie (1-1-1).

Hermantown plays BSM at 2:30 p.m. Saturday.

For more photos go to https://bit.ly/2Qj3nVD .