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St. Cloud Cathedral tops Hermantown for championship

By Loren Nelson, Legacy Hockey, 03/09/24, 1:45PM CST

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State Class 1A championship: Andrew Dwinnell's two goals help push Crusaders past Hawks


St. Cloud Cathedral goalie Nick Hansen (31) watches the puck amidst a scrum in front of the net during the Class 1A state title game between the Crusaders and Hermantown. Photo by Jeff Lawler, LegacyHockeyPhotography.com

Quick Recap

Senior forward Andrew Dwinnell scored twice to lead No. 3 seed St. Cloud Cathedral to a 3-1 victory over No. 1 seed Hermantown on Saturday in the state Class 1A championship at the Xcel Energy Center in St. Paul.

After opening the scoring the first, Dwinnell scored midway through the third to put the Crusaders ahead 2-0. Joey Gillespie made it 3-0 with 4:45 remaining. 

Hermantown scored its lone goal with 1:14 remaining, a rebound tap-in from A.J. Francisco.

Dwinnell scored 3:48 into the opening period to put St. Cloud Cathedral (25-4-1) in front. He finished the season with 29 goals, second most among the Crusaders.

St. Cloud Cathedral outshot Hermantown 9-8 in the opening period. Hermantown (20-8-2), ranked No. 1 in Class 1A, had an 11-6 shots advantage in the second. Hermantown outshot the Crusaders 29-21 overall.

Hermantown beat No. 2-1A St. Cloud Cathedral 3-1 on Jan. 11 in St. Cloud in the teams’ lone regular season meeting.

The state title is the second for the Crusaders, who also won the Class 1A championship in 2019.

Key Moment

Andrew Dwinnell’s second goal came with 8:15 left, putting Cathedral ahead 2-0 and forcing Hermantown to battle both the Crusaders and the clock.

By The Numbers

220 - Number of points Cathedral's top line of John Hirschfeld, Andrew Dwinnell and Joey Gillespie amassed this season.

3 or fewer - Nick Hansen has allowed more than two goals only once (against Warroad in the semifinals) in his last 14 outings.

4 of 6 - St. Cloud Cathedral was credited with blocking four of Hermantown's first six shots in the second period.

They Said It

It’s unreal the amount of times he’s bailed me out. He bailed me out once big-time today. ...

— St. Cloud Cathedral defenseman Vince Gebhardt on Crusaders goaltender Nick Hansen

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