A blur of orange flew across the ice inside the St. Louis Park Rec Center on Thursday, Feb. 26, as Delano hockey players celebrated winning the Class 1A, Section 2 championship with a 6-2 victory over Blake.

Sophomore forward Lance Halonen’s hat trick helped secure the Tigers’ first state tournament appearance in five years.

“This is the first time in our history that we’ve won our conference and our section in the same year,” said Delano coach Gerrit van Bergen, smiling as his roster carried the section trophy.

Delano beat Orono 7-3 in the section semifinal to reach the section championship while Blake beat Minneapolis Hockey 4-2. Delano and Blake last met on Jan. 28 in a 5-4 Tigers overtime victory that was settled by Delano’s top scorer and the older Halonen, Daniel, who scored the game-winning goal.

The Tigers went into the section championship with a different approach.

“At our leadership dinner before the season, they said they wanted to be extremely aggressive in every area of the ice,” van Bergen said. “They referenced the Florida Panthers in their forecheck. And I said, ‘Are you sure guys? It’s an incredible amount of work to do it.’ We hadn’t run a forecheck of that nature for a number of years, but they said that’s what they wanted.”

The first period remained scoreless with both teams slicing up each other’s territory. Blake outshot Delano 10-8, finding traction on the power play when Delano senior forward Brady Kangas was served a tripping penalty. But any chances from the Bears were undermined by Delano goalie Evan Geyen.

The second period compensated for any lack of on-net activity. Delano opened up scoring four minutes into the period when Lance Halonen wrapped the puck around the crease with help from his older brother and Kangas.

The Bears quickly bounced back with a shot by junior defender Axel Bisbee that slid just shy of the goal line. Less than a minute later, Bisbee tied the score with a tidy play into the right corner.

The Tigers, set on returning to the state tournament after a five-year absence, racked up two more goals before the period ended. Kangas pocketed one with just over five minutes left in the second period and Lance Halonen found another open space 29 seconds later.

Blake continued to outshoot the Section 2 rivals 16-14 but couldn’t find an inch of space to bury the puck.

With 14 minutes on the clock, Blake senior forward Landon Bell faked out the Tigers goalie with a shift to the left before dumping the puck into the right corner. Joe Erickson racked up an assist on the play.

Daniel Halonen responded three minutes later with his 39th goal of the season.

The Tigers sealed their state tournament fate with another goal from Lance Halonen to get the hat trick and the sixth and final goal from senior forward Brody Geislinger 20 seconds later.

“I had some brothers come to this program and they went to state, and it’s always a dream to go to state,” Lance Halonen said.

“It feels really good,” van Bergen added. “Obviously, it’s been heartbreaking. We’ve been really close a number of times. I think one of the hardest things for us to stomach through that experience is that we would see four or five teams multiple years make the state tournament that we beat during the regular season. That kind of haunts you. But I’m just so proud of these guys.”

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1/14

Cougars prevail in evenly-matched championship

ROCHESTER – Stuck in a scoreless battle against Farmington’s Chris Bade, one of the state’s best goaltenders, Lakeville South knew it must be opportunistic in the Class 2A, Section 1 boys hockey championship on Thursday, Feb. 26.

The best chances started coming at the game’s midpoint, and Lakeville South’s snipers were ready to pounce.

Roan Zielie, Nate Neyer and Calvin O’Reilly scored during a seven-minute second-period stretch, and Lakeville South goalie Keaton LeGrande made 24 saves in a 3-1 victory before a near-capacity crowd of about 2,500 at the Rochester Rec Center.

Lakeville South (14-11-3) is headed back to the state tournament for the seventh time in eight years, and Farmington (20-7-1), the section’s No. 1 seed, missed a chance to go back for the first time since 2016.

“We do have some kids who’ve played at the state tournament,” Lakeville South interim coach Kurt Weber said. “We have quite a few who have never played [in the tournament]. And as everybody who’s been there knows, this is the hardest game.”

Lakeville South, the section’s No. 2 seed, has been through turmoil since the school district placed head coach Josh Storm on administrative leave, pending an investigation, on Jan. 28. Storm had led the Cougars to the state tournament in three of his first four seasons.

Storm, who teaches physical education at South, was reinstated as a teacher, but remains on leave as a coach.

In his place, South’s girls hockey coach Kurt Weber has stepped in as the boys’ interim coach.

After splitting the season series against Farmington, Lakeville South once again saw how physical and structurally sound the Tigers are.

Lakeville South had a goal from Justin Olson disallowed with 13:47 remaining in the second period and the game still scoreless. Bade entered with a 92.7 save percentage (fifth-best in the state) and a 2.13 goals against average.

“Especially as talented as that goalie is, when you put that one by him, it kind of lets us lean forward a little bit and take a breath,” Weber said. “And then when it didn’t, we kind of recoiled a little bit, but then we kicked it back in.”

The Cougars kept pushing and senior captain Carter Ernst made the play of the game with 7:45 remaining in the period. Nearing the left side of the crease, Ernst patiently waited for the defenseman to clear and made a quick pass to Zielie for the goal.

“The defender kind of was baiting me, wanted me to take the shot,” Ernst said. “So he dropped down, and I just faked around him, and I had a teammate wide open on the back door, and he didn’t miss it.”

Neyer’s goal less than three minutes later was a rebound off a shot from Zielie, and O’Reilly skillfully deflected a shot from the point for the third goal.

Mason Rodgers scored late in the third period for Farmington to end LeGrande’s shutout bid.

Section 5, Class 2A

Andover 9, Centennial 5: Camden Langfeld had four goals and an assist and K.J. Sauer had a goal and three assists to pace the Huskies past the Cougars. The section title is the sixth in the past seven seasons for the Huskies (11-14-3). Centennial won the section title in 2024. Nolan Border scored twice for the Cougars (18-10).

Andover, the No. 5 seed, defeated top-seeded Maple Grove, 3-2, in overtime in the section semifinals, while the third-seeded Cougars defeated No. 2 seed Blaine, 1-0, in the semifinals.

Section 7, Class 2A

Grand Rapids 4, Rock Ridge 1: Dylan Clayton scored twice in the third period as the Thunderhawks rallied for the victory. Rock Ridge (16-12) led 1-0 after Caz Carlson’s first-period goal, but the Thunderhawks (15-12-1) got two power-play goals 37 seconds apart — from Will Shermoen and Seth Carlson — in the second period to take a 2-1 lead. Clayton scored with 10:04 remaining in the third to make it 3-1 then added an empty-net goal with 1:42 remaining to close out the scoring.

Section 8, Class 1A

Warroad 3, Detroit Lakes 0: The Warriors earned their fourth consecutive section title with the shutout win. Ryan Chamernick and Ayven Hontvet scored in the second period and Thomas Grapentine’s empty-net goal in the final minute sealed the victory for the Warriors (22-5-1). Goalies Patrick Kennedy and Finn Hanson combined on the shutout for the Warriors.