Playing high school hockey in Minnesota, you are either the team climbing towards the top of the mountain, or you stand at the summit continuously trying to boot climbers back down the sides.

If you suit up for St. Paul Academy, you have played both roles.

“We always were the hunter, now we’re the hunted,” Spartans’ coach Matt Funk said after his team edged perennial power St. Cloud Cathedral, 5-3, on Saturday night at St. Paul Academy’s Drake Ice Arena. “We’re going to get everybody’s best game all year long,” Funk added.

For the better part of Saturday’s contest the Crusaders gave the Spartans their best game, not to mention played like the better team until the final five minutes of the third period.

The Crusaders (4-1-1) took a 3-2 lead into the third period, with Mack Motzko, Jeron Hirschfeld and Jake VanHalbeck each tallying one goal.

Riley Bowman scored one of his two goals just 1:36 into the first period for the Spartans (3-1-0), and netted his second with 2:48 remaining in the game to tie the score 3-3.

“He’s an under-the-radar guy, but not (under) ours,” Funk said of Bowman, a senior who’s in his fourth season with the St. Paul Academy varsity.  “He just does whatever you need,” Funk continued. “When we went up by a goal, we put him out there because he’s smart in our own zone.”

Matt Dahlseide scored the game-winner for the Spartans with 67 ticks left in regulation, and Dev McCabe added an empty-net goal to seal the win. Dom Picciano also scored for St. Paul Academy.

Bowman racked up 11 goals and 34 points as a junior last season, helping the Spartans to their first Class A State Tournament appearance where he played on a line with leading scorers Matt Dahlseide and Dev McCabe.

“Playing with someone like Dev McCabe and Matt Dahlseide last year, you learn a lot from those guys,” Bowman said, elaborating that part of his learning included where to be on the ice.

St. Paul Academy, rated No. 3 in the latest Let’s Play Hockey poll rankings, also got an active performance from junior goaltender Andy Beran, who’s been given license to vacate his crease almost at will by the coaching staff.

“We’ve got young (defensemen), so we’ve been telling him to play a puck a lot more this year,” Funk explained. “I think that’s the one thing in his game that’s really improved.”

Beran routinely plays the puck near his face-off circles, occasionally setting up the Spartans with a breakout pass.

Named to the American Family Insurance All-USA Preseason team with Dev McCabe, Beran posted a 24-7-0 record last season with four shutouts.

“You gotta live up to it,” Beran said of the national recognition. “It doesn’t mean anything if you don’t produce during the season.”

Bowman feels the same way about his team’s trip to the Xcel Energy Center last year, where the Spartans bounced Saturday’s opponent No. 5-1A St. Cloud Cathedral in the first round before being beaten twice to wind up with fourth place.

“Last year we made it to state, and that’s good, but it’s not what we want,” Bowman said. “We want to win the thing.”