Rosemount coach Ricky Saintey didn’t credit individual players or his team as a whole in the immediate afterglow of a section championship Tuesday night, Feb. 24. He shouted out everyone in the Rosemount community, the fans and supporters.

“It’s for everybody,” Saintey said. “I typed in my phone it’s been 12,698 days or something since we’ve been to the state tournament in 1992.”

Actually, it has been 12,400 days since Rosemount’s boys hockey team played in the Tier II state championship game March 14, 1992, falling shot to Greenway-Coleraine.

But who’s counting?

Rosemount’s 3-2 victory over St. Thomas Academy in the Class 2A, Section 3 tournament championship game Tuesday, in front of a standing room-only crowd at Lee and Penny Anderson Arena on the University of St. Thomas campus, put the Irish in the state tournament for the first time in 34 years.

“This is for every single one of those people that believe in Rosemount, stayed in Rosemount, trusted it,” Saintey said. “Because guess what? You don’t need to go to a private school to get better, to do your thing. Believe that it’s here. And we just proved that being in Rosemount for every single one of these kids, that it can happen here in Rosemount.”

Rosemount (23-4-1), the top seed in the tournament and the sixth-ranked team in Strib Varsity’s Minnesota Top 25, defeated defending Section 3 champion and No. 3-ranked St. Thomas Academy (21-5-2) behind a pair of goals from junior Connor Schubert, solid goaltending, backchecking and, maybe most importantly, shot blocking.

“Honestly, I don’t think we win this game without them,” Rosemount sophomore goaltender Drew Sherman said of his team’s shot blocks. “They were going all out, every period, every shift. I think they score a few if we don’t block a few.”

The Irish never trailed in the game. It seemed as if the game would head into the first intermission scoreless after St. Thomas Academy failed to convert on a couple of early power plays, but Rosemount made one last rush up the ice.

Schubert finished a tic-tac-toe passing play with his 18th goal of the season. He scored with 5.3 seconds remaining in the period for the 1-0 lead.

“I had no idea how much time was on the clock,” Schubert said. “I mean, I just got a pass from my neighbor, Channing Goodwin, and just slid it home and the place erupted.”

The Cadets tied the score roughly halfway through the second period when senior Oliver Marvin pounced on a rebound for his fifth goal of the season. The teams skated to the second intermission tied 1-1.

“Coach just said in the locker room, ‘Whoever gets the first one’s going to win,‘ ” Schubert said. “He was right.”

On their first power play of the game, the Irish regained the lead 2 minutes and 17 seconds into the third period on Schubert’s second goal of the game. Set up in the offensive zone, Rosemount cycled the puck, sending a cross-ice pass to Schubert, who ripped a shot for his fourth power-play goal of the season.

With an empty net at the other end with 1:15 on the clock, Rosemount’s Goodwin won a faceoff in the Irish end. He cleared the puck the length of the ice and right into the empty net for a 3-1 lead with 1:08 left in regulation.

“I just tried to get it out,” Goodwin said. “Because if they have the puck in the zone, they’re a good team, so they’re probably going to score, so just chip it out, and I think it got a lucky bounce. I didn’t even see it, and then it went in somehow.”

The Cadets continued to pressure with the extra attacker, and Mr. Hockey candidate Cole Braunshausen scored with 34.9 seconds left to get STA to within one again. Those last few minutes were “probably the slowest minutes of my life,” Schubert said.

When the final buzzer sounded, Goodwin’s “lucky bounce” held up as the game-winning goal.

Sherman made 25 saves, while Cadets freshman goaltender Owen Ryan stopped 22 shots.

The loss ended the Cadets’ 13-game unbeaten streak. They entered the game hoping for back-to-back section championships and a 16th trip to the state tournament, eighth at the Class 2A level.