ST. PAUL — The Mankato East/Loyola boys hockey team knew it had to contain St. Cloud Cathedral’s offense if it had any hope of playing with them.

Averaging more than six goals per game, the Crusaders have one of the state’s best lines, featuring Nate Warner, Jack Smith and Blake Perbix, a Mr. Hockey finalist.

The Cougars got a first-hand look at the explosive Cathedral offense in a loss in December.

“They come at you hard. They come at you fast,” Cougars coach Adam Fries said. “That’s a dynamic group of Division l college athletes, who look like they’ve been playing together for four years.”

East/Loyola struggled to slow down the defending state champions, falling 11-2 in the quarterfinals of the Class A tournament Wednesday at Xcel Energy Center.

“Sometimes you lose one and it’s kind of your fault, but sometimes you just get beat,” Cougars forward Matthew Salzle said. “We just got beat today.”

It’s been an impressive few weeks for East/Loyola, which started the playoffs as the No. 4 seed in Section 1A. They took out No. 1 Dodge County, along with rival Mankato West en route to a second state-tournament berth in three seasons.

“Coming up as a younger kid, I’ve seen other teams go to state, but not really us,” Salzle said. “Now with this new generation, there’s this idea that we’re the team that’s going to go every year, and I think we’re really going to hold that standard in the future.”

It was a wild start for the Cougars, who got a power-play goal just 46 seconds into the game. After surrendering a shorthanded goal at 1:42, Jake Schreiber quickly tied it for East at 2:44 with assists going to Layten Liffrig and Jake Kazenbach.

Schreiber fired a slap shot from the right point that beat Crusaders goalie Grant Martin. East’s Daniel Bequette did a great job screening Martin on the play.

Salzle nearly scored on a second power play later in the frame, but Martin made a great pad save. The Crusaders outshot East/Loyola 17-5 in the opening period and took a 4-1 lead into the intermission.

It was all Crusaders from that point on, as it seemed like every bounce went their way.

The Warner, Smith, Perbix line showed its class, as Warner and Perbix each scored power-play goals midway through the second period.

“I thought we did a pretty good job keeping the puck to the outside, but their power play is deadly,” Fries said. “That team is on fire right now.”

East/Loyola’s Parker Anthony scored the Cougars’ second goal on assists from Salzle and Reid Bogenholm, as East/Loyola trailed 9-2 after two periods.

Back in December, Cathedral beat East/Loyola 9-3.

Shots on goal for Wednesday’s game favored the Crusaders 48-13.

The final period brought running time, and with it, an opportunity for Fries to get the future of the program some valuable playing time on high school hockey’s biggest stage.

“As one of the few seniors, I’m glad I made my impact,” Salzle said. “The younger kids have a really bright future.”

East/Loyola (14-14-1) plays in the consolation bracket against Monticello at 10 a.m. Thursday at 3M Arena at Mariucci.

“We’re going to get here again,” Fries said. “Getting here is great, but getting here and winning a hockey game is even better.”

React to this story:

2
1
0
0
0