St. Cloud Cathedral didn’t deploy shadowing tactics in an effort to slow Providence Academy superstars Johnny Hendrickson and Louie Wehmann on Saturday. At least not in the traditional sense of assign-defenders-to-follow-their-every-move shadowing.

Instead, the Crusaders sent out sophomores John Hirschfeld and Joey Gillespie and who, in a pinch, could pass as stunt doubles for Providence Academy’s high-scoring tandem.

With Gillespie in a Wehmann-like power forward groove and Hirschfeld in a dead-bang Hendrickson-like motor-and-snipe mode, St. Cloud Cathedral beat the Lions at their trademark high-flying, high-scoring game, winning 8-5 at the Plymouth Ice Center.

“When you get into a run-and-gun, Wehmann and Hendrickson are a problem,” St. Cloud Cathedral coach Robbie Stocker said. “A team that can put up five, six, seven goals on any given night scares you just because, you know, a stick gets hot, a Wehmann gets hot, you can find yourself down three, four goals without really doing anything all wrong.”

That’s pretty much what happened Saturday. In reverse. 

No. 12-1A Providence Academy (12-9-0) opened the scoring on an Andrew Owen goal 1:38 into the opening period. And then it was track-meet time for the No. 11-1A Crusaders (12-9-0) as they scored five unanswered goals in the first period, the first three coming in a span of 2 1/2 minutes.

Hirschfeld scored two of the goals and Gillespie had three assists in the first period.

“I mean, if we’re scoring goals, I like that obviously,” Hirschfeld said about the goal-a-minute tempo. “But we can’t be letting up that many goals, obviously.”

Providence Academy closed to within 7-5 on a Hendrickson goal 7:22 into the third period, but the 6-foot-4 Gillespie answered two minutes later on a partial breakaway. Partial in that he had a Providence Academy defender draped on his waist and still managed to score.

“Joey always finds a way to use his body to his advantage,” said Hirschfeld, who finished with two goals an an assist.

Gillespie and Hirschfeld were only recently paired on the same line, and not coincidentally, Cathedral’s offense has found a new gear.

“We could definitely do a lot better but I'm happy we're still producing every game,” Gillespie said.

Cathedral won despite the lingering effects of a bout of illness that has ravaged the team in recent days. Stocker said 13 players between the Crusaders’ varsity and junior varsity were out of the lineup in Thursday’s 4-3 loss to Section 5A rival Little Falls.