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Hermantown slides past New Prague

03/09/2022, 8:30pm CST
By Matt Harrington

www.letsplayhockeyexpo.com


Hermantown slid past New Prague to advance to the semifinals. Photo by Matt Harrington

Plante brothers help Hawks advance

St. Paul, MN– The top-seeded Hermantown Hawks are one step closer to their first Class A State Championship since 2017. A hot start, led by brother duo Max and Zam Plante, helped the Hawks to a 5-1 victory over the New Prague Trojans Wednesday night at the Xcel Energy Center. 

The Hawks came out flying to begin this one, scoring three goals in the opening 3:01 of the game. Wyatt Carlson, Zam Plante, and Dominic Thomas each tallied a goal during that time frame. 

Later in the first, star junior and University of Minnesota-Duluth commit Zam Plante scored his second of the game to open up a 4-0 Hermantown lead. The goal was Plante’s 22nd of the season. 

Minutes later, New Prague had a pivotal opportunity on the power play and cashed in, giving the Trojan faithful something to cheer about. Will Andersen put it home for the Trojans, his second in three games. That goal concluded an eventful first period with plenty of goals.

Despite the bevy of goals in the first period, neither team was able to tickle the twine in the second. Hermantown still had plenty of offensive chances, but New Prague was able to settle in. Shots on goal still remained heavily in favor of Hermantown (33-12) after the second. 

The Hermantown offense found its groove again in the third period. Max Plante collected his second point of the game, burying a puck out front just 3:40 into the period. The Hawks then played a solid and stout defensive game for the remainder of the third period, closing it out with a 5-1 win.

While the Trojans didn’t come away with the win, they did limit the damage, only allowing five goals to a team that is accustomed to scoring in bunches. If you take away the first three minutes of the games, New Prague only loses 2-1– they managed to compete with the state’s top ranked team in Class A for the majority of the game. 

Hermantown is off to the state semifinals once again, where they will meet the winner of tonight’s Minneapolis-Alexandria tilt. Should the Hawks advance past the semifinal, they’ll take on either Warroad or Mahtomedi for the Class A Championship Saturday afternoon. 

Tag(s): State Of Hockey