Hockey seasons end with losses

Talk about it

The Mariners boys’ hockey team’s 2011-12 season came to an end with a 7-0 quarterfinal loss to the Duluth Marshall Hilltoppers.

It took the Hilltoppers, the No. 1 seed in the section and the state’s No. 7 ranked team, just 2:31 to score the game winning goal. The Mariners simply had no answer for the Hilltopper’s speed and depth.

They scored three times in the first, three times in the second, and once in the third period. The Mariners had five shots on goal in the first period with three of four excellent scoring chances, but couldn’t take advantage of them and managed only two more shots the rest of the way.

Anthony Miller scored twice for Marshall and Judd Peterson and Matt Klassen each had a goal and an assist. Cameron McClure, Nick Miller, and Jake Bushey scored the other Marshall goals. Caden Flaherty had the seven stops in the Marshall nets.

The lone bright spot for the Mariners was the performance of freshman goaltender Alex Murray. Murray set a Mariner single game record with 66 saves. It also unofficially set a Minnesota record for saves in a playoff game.

Hibbing ends Agates season

Last Thursday the Two Harbors Agates suffered a 1-12 loss to Hibbing. Coach Steve Wasko said it was David versus Goliath situation in many ways. “They’re a larger school than we are and they have a bigger roster,” he said.

Wasko said his team went out and worked hard but Hibbing’s depth just took over. After that, “things went south” for the Two Harbors boys. However, Wasko praised goalie Micky Smith’s playing. “He made some huge saves for us,” he said.

Smith said it had been a long season and while he’s happy it’s over, he will miss playing. “It’s kind of a love/hate thing,” he said.

Next year Wasko plans to concentrate more on getting his players into the weight room. “I think that by utilizing that weight room, we really saw an increase in strength and confidence, one of the things that helped build us,” he said.

Tags: two harbors, silver bay, sports