Benilde-St. Margaret's Boys' Hockey

Eden Prairie scored just 20 sconds into the game and Benilde-St. Margaret's was never able to overcome the early deficit as the Red Knights' season came to an end with a 3-1 loss to in the Section 6AA semifinals.

The Eagles' first goal came when Joe McQuillan got the puck behind the BSM goal and tried to center the puck. BSM goalie Jacob Meyers tried to use his stick to prevent the pass but, instead, the puck deflected off his paddle and between his legs.

The goal seemed to set the Red Knights on their heels and allowed Eden Prairie to control the early portion of the game before BSM went on the attack.

"Other than the first six minutes, I really believe that we carried the play the entire evening," Red Knight head coach Ken Pauly said. "Unfortunately, those first six minutes would come back to haunt us because it proved to the difference tonight."

After the goal in the game's first minute, neither team was able to score again until the final minute of the second period.

With 29 seconds to play in the middle stanza, Mitch Rogge put the Eagles up by two goals but the elation from that tally quickly died as Bryan Glynn got BSM on the scored just 17 seconds later.

"Honestly, after all of the chances we had to score, I though we were in huge trouble when they made it 2-0," Pauly said. "But that's a testament to our kids that they came right back and got the next goal so quickly. That’s character."

Again, the score remained unchanged through much of the next period. Finally, BSM pulled goalie Jacob Meyers for an extra attacked, and, when Mitch Rogge and Taylor Wolfe got a 2-on-0 breakaway in the final minute the game appeared over.

However, Wolfe missed an easy tap-in attempt on the breakaway and the Red Knights had new life.

The second chance didn't help, though, and Mike Erickson finally scored into the empty net with 17 seconds to play in the game.

"It’s pretty tough to single out one or two players tonight because it was such a complete team effort," Pauly said. "The guys played their hearts out and left nothing on the ice. They deserved a better result but what you deserve has very little to do with it sometimes."

Meyers kept his team in the game by stopping 26 of the 28 shots he faced but was bested by Andrew Ford's effort as the Eagle goalie turned aside 24 of 25 shots.

"I’m very proud of our seniors: Pat Borer, Pat Duda, Bryan Glynn, Gunnar Knutson, Rob Ankeny, Ben Sauer, and Pat Cron," Pauly added. "They did a great job in helping this team to a successful season and they did everything that they could to move us on, but we just couldn’t get a bounce tonight.

"It hurts right now, but in no time they will be able to look back on this season with a great deal of pride. They did Red Knight Hockey proud and they were deserving of the honor of being the 50th team in this school’s history."