Benilde-St. Margaret's Boys' Hockey

Every time Benilde-St. Margaret’s has taken the ice this winter, they’ve carried a giant bulls eye about them. The Red Knights are unbeaten and have been top-ranked in the Class 2A coaches’ poll for most of the season.

On Thursday night before a better than standing room only audience at Plymouth Ice Center, BSM weathered a mighty storm brought on by a hungry Wayzata (No. 7-2A) team, and endured through the misfortune of losing its top player and Mr. Hockey finalist to an apparent shoulder injury.  

BSM took all that in stride, coming out on the other end with a 4-2 victory (empty-netter) that tested the team’s leadership to the core.

That’s what the deep, deep Red Knights are this year.

“I don’t like to emphasize that we are undefeated,” BSM coach Ken Pauly says. “But we haven’t lost a game, and there is a reason for that.

“We’ve been down (before), but our guys know how to respond. And when you know how to create offense, it’s easy not to let you dabber get down. There is that belief.”

Benilde-St. Margaret’s fought back from a disastrous opening period against the Trojans, and eventually worked its way to a gutsy victory that keeps the unbeaten (23-0-1) Red Knights charging through the final week of the season.

Very early in the opening period, senior Cade Gleekel, the Red Knights’ top scorer (22-36-58) top forward and Mr. Hockey finalist, went down following a body check, and watched the rest of the period from the bench with an ice pack on his shoulder. He never returned. Made worse, Wayzata hammered on BSM in the opening period, seizing an early 1-0 lead while outshooting their guests 12-5.

“With Gleekel going down early like that, it knocked us out for a while in the first period, things were really discombobulated,” Pauly said.

“It was a reality check,” senior forward Auggie Moore says of the first period. “We all know that that kind of job (in the first period) wasn’t going to get it done. We needed to get better.”

A little more than two and a half minutes in, the Trojans converted on a power play goal as sophomore Grant Anderson scored with a single assist to Luke Paterson to give confirmation to Wayzata’s early seize of momentum.

“Wayzata took the initiative in the first period,” Pauly says.

The second was a different story and the third period was up for grabs, and seemed to be tipping Wayzata’s way midway through when senior Amer Batra scored (7:41) to push the Trojans out front.

Short lived however was the lead for Wayzata as BSM’s Connor Mayer struck for the second time of the night, this time at 8:07 to level the score.

Then senior Auggie Moore stepped up big for the Red Knights, scoring the game-winner with 4:25 remaining.

About three minutes later, he added another, his 18th, on an empty-netter to seal the win for the Red Knights.

“There were times we were looking at each other on the bench in frustration after we couldn’t get anything going,” Moore said. “But we’ve got a lot of seniors and guys with experience on this team. That kind of (maturity) helps us in situations like this.”

“I think that our depth carried the day today,” Pauly added.

Wayzata’s physical play indeed played a factor throughout the night, and the Trojans were slowed only by one minor penalty. It slowed BSM significantly at times, though the Red Knights were ultimately able to work through it.

“There’s a fine line between playing physical but at the same time being smart about it,” O’Leary says. “That was something we emphasized.”

After losing Gleekel, BSM wasn’t going to start throwing the body around—tempting as that was when tempers are high—at the cost of changing the DNA of the team.

“The key is to play that game, to play with grit, without losing who you are,” Pauly says. “It’s still a contact sport where you play the body. You have to give a hit and take a hit, but you can’t over emphasize that to the point where you aren’t playing with the puck anymore.”

Wayzata falls to 15-8-1, and can find some silver lining in learning it can hang with the heavyweights on the eve of the section tournament.

“Hockey is difficult and little plays can mean everything,” O’Leary said. “(BSM) made two more plays tonight than we did, and that was the difference.”

BSM too will find something to take away from this kind of game and atmosphere.

“We don’t really care about the record,” Moore says. “That’s not important. We want to continue to improve into late February and hopefully into March. More than the result, it’s good to build off the process of learning how to win a game like this.”

Complete statistics from tonight's game are available here.

Senior captain Auggie Moore scored twice in the final five minutes to help lift Benilde-St. Margaret over Wayzata 4-2 Thursday night before a packed house at Plymouth Ice Center.

The Red Knights, ranked No. 1 in the Class 2A coaches' poll, had to fight from behind without the services of its top scorer and Mr. Hockey finalist Cade Gleekel, who left the game early in the first period with a shoulder injury.

Instead, Gleekel's teammates picked up the slack. Moore and junior defenseman Connor Mayer each finished with two goals to push the Red Knights past the Trojans, ranked No. 7 in Class 2A.

Ryan Bischel earned the victory between the pipes, stopping 21 of 23 shots he faced. His counterpart, Alex Schilling made 17 saves for Wayzata.

Amar Batra and Grant Anderson each scored a goal for the Trojans.

With the victory, Benilde-St. Margaret's improves its record to 23-0-1. Wayzata drops to 15-8-1.

Complete coverage from the Minnesota Hockey Hub can be found here.