Cathedral, Sauk Rapids-Rice Advance in 5A Boys Hockey

The boys hockey section playoffs got underway for local teams on Tuesday night. Here's a look at the scores and highlights from February 17th.

SECTION 5A

CATHEDRAL 11, PRINCETON 2 

The Crusaders cruised over the Tigers in a game in which they outshot their opponents 59-16.

Griffin Sturm opened the scoring for Cathedral at 9:19 of the first period for a 1-0 lead before the Crusaders scored a pair of goals in the period's final 1:02 for a 3-0 lead. Caleb Trant scored at 15:58 and Sturm struck again at 16:33.

Luka Miller got Princeton on the board at 3:30 of the second to make the score 3-1, but Cathedral would rattle off five straight goals before the end of the period. Elijah Van Heel scored at 8:59, Sturm completed his hat trick at 13:10 and Bo Schmidt, Noah Klein and Nolan Bigaouette all tallied goals before the horn to end the second period.

Brandan White scored less than a minute into the third period for a 9-1 Cathedral lead, with Van Heel and Tanner Ruprecht capping the scoring for CHS.

SAUK RAPIDS-RICE 6, LITCHFIELD/DASSEL/COKATO 5 (OT)

The Storm overcame a pair of two-goal deficits to beat LDC in overtime at Sports Arena East.

With Sauk Rapids-Rice trailing 2-0 in the first period, Elijah Fitch scored his first of four goals on the night for SRR at 12:57 of the first period, then scored again just eight seconds later to tie the game at two.

Dominic Stucke briefly gave the Storm a 3-2 lead with a goal at 10:15 of the second period, but LDC scored twice before the end of the second to take a 4-3 lead into the locker room.

The Dragons made the score 5-3 on a Brody Berggren goal at 12:11 of the third period, but Sauk Rapids-Rice answered with Fitch's third goal of the game at 12:50 and Cullen Rock's game-tying goal at 15:49.

Fitch scored just seven seconds into overtime to clinch the win for the Storm.

PINE CITY 7, RIVER LAKES 6 (2 OT) 

Pine City outlasted River Lakes in a back-and-forth game at Pine City Civic Center.

Pine City opened the scoring at 7:05 of the opening period, but the Stars got a goal from Eli Engebretson with 30 seconds left to hit the first intermission tied at one.

Brock Bruntlett's short handed goal at 6:41 of the second gave River Lakes a 2-1 lead, and Lucas Bayer's goal just over two minutes later made it 3-1 in favor of the Stars. However, Pine City would score twice before the end of the second to tie the score at 3-3.

A frantic third period saw the teams combine for six scores. Griffin Mayhew scored for River Lakes just 30 seconds into the period, followed by an Isaac Blaschko power play goal at 3:40 that gave the Stars a 5-3 lead.

Pine City rattled off three straight goals to stun the Stars and take a 6-5 lead, but Breck Schultz tied the game for River Lakes at 15:22 of the third.

After a scoreless first overtime period, Ethan Aagaard notched the game-winner for Pine City at 6:31 of the second overtime.

MONTICELLO 7, BECKER/BIG LAKE 1 

Clyde Middleton and Ashton Stoll each scored a pair of goals in Monticello's convincing win.

SATURDAY, FEBRUARY 21st 

#4 Sauk Rapids-Rice @ #1 Cathedral 1 PM
#3 Pine City @ #2 Monticello 1 PM

SECTION FINAL

Wednesday, February 25th @ ELK RIVER ARENA