Since the Class A state tournament began seeding the top five teams in the field, the first and second-seeded teams have never lost in the quarterfinals.

That all changed today. For the first time in seeding-era history, one of those top seeds fell in the first round. And, for possibly the first time in any tournament history, the good luck charm for the winning team was a sweater emblazoned with cat faces.

“It’s absolutely ridiculous, I know,” Monticello/Annandale/Maple Lake coach Eric Nelson said while revealing the aforementioned sweater after his Moose edged No. 2 seed Delano 3-2 in Wednesday’s quarterfinal. “But we’ve had good fortune with it, and it’ll have to stay with me.”

In almost-perfect juxtaposition with the feline apparel, the Moose (22-6-1) employed a style of play predicated on grit and rebounds to pull off the upset, with its penalty-killing unit offering a snapshot of that philosophy.

“The confidence is huge on the PK,” Nelson said, acknowledging Delano’s nearly 50 percent success rate with the man-advantage this season.

The group killed off all three penalties for the Moose, with senior forward Nick Zwack scoring one of his two goals on a beautiful shorthanded effort late in the second period.

Zwack also scored the first goal of the game, giving the Moose a 1-0 lead and helping shake some of the jitters out of his teammates. 

"We had to get the first goal to make it a game,” Zwack said. “I just followed the puck up and found an open net and put it in.”

Delano senior John Keranen scored the first goal for the Tigers, tying the game at one-all midway through the second period before Zwack’s shorthanded tally and Moose sophomore Troy Dahlheimer’s rebound goal. 

Even trailing 3-1 entering the third period, Delano coach Gerrit van Bergen said that his staff was confident the Tigers (24-4-1) would prevail.

“In the hallway we said, ‘if we pop one in the first three minutes, they’re going to deflate (and) out fans are going to explode’,” van Bergen said.

Junior forward Justin Daly scored 41 seconds into the period, and two of van Bergen’s three predictions came true, just not the one that would eventually matter.

“Those things happened,” van Bergen said, referring to the goal and the Delano crowd’s delight. “But (the Moose) didn’t deflate. They just kept sticking to their defensive game and they did a nice job.”