Hermantown's Josh Kauppinen celebrates his first period goal in Friday's Class 1A semifinal at Xcel Energy Center.
Seven players scored goals and nine had at least one point as top-seeded Hermantown ran away from No. 5 Alexandria, 7-1, in a Class 1A semifinal Friday afternoon at Xcel Energy Center.
The Cardinals scored just 2:09 into the game on a Tyler Kludt blast, but it didn’t take long for the Hawks to get rolling.
Josh Kauppinen, Ty Hanson and Kade Kohanski all scored first-period goals to give Hermantown a 3-1 lead at the first intermission, then the Hawks struck for three more in the middle period and an early goal in the third to put the contest into running time.
Hermantown outshot Alexandria 42-7 for the contest.
With the game still tied midway through the first period, the Hawks high-flying power play got back-to-back chances. They scored on both.
Game. Set. Match.
Hanson scored the first one to put Hermantown in front for good when he waited out an Alexandria defender and fired a shot through traffic and just inside the post. Kohanski made it 3-1 when he slapped home a perfect Zam Plante cross-zone pass.
No. 1 Hermantown advances to play No. 2 Warroad in what will be one of the most anticipated Class 1A championship games in recent memory.