Update: BSM routs Lakeville South to reach title game
by Mike Shaughnessy
Thisweek Newspapers
Benilde-St. Margaret’s has been riding a wave of inspiration ever since injured teammate Jack Jablonski has been able to attend boys hockey playoff games.
When the Red Knights won the Section 6AA championship, they brought Jablonski on the ice and handed him the trophy. Now they’re one victory from giving him another one.
He wasn’t at the Xcel Energy Center on Friday night, but the Red Knights didn’t have to call on the Jablonski karma. They put on a clinic in the state Class AA semifinals, destroying Lakeville South 10-1.
Plans are for Jablonski to be there when BSM (24-6) plays the state championship game against Hill-Murray at 7 p.m. Saturday. Lakeville South (21-9), which upset No. 1-seeded Duluth East in the quarterfinals, faces Moorhead in the third-place game at 4 p.m.
Lakeville South, which pulled one of the biggest upsets in state tournament history by beating No. 1-ranked Duluth East 3-2 on March 8, had no answers for BSM’s onslaught.
“The list is long of things we didn’t do well,” Lakeville South coach Kurt Weber said.
Other than a 5-1 loss to Edina in the season opener, the Cougars hadn’t lost by more than two goals in any game this season.
“This is a shock,” Weber said.
The Red Knights struck quickly, with junior forward Dan Labosky scoring on a wrist shot from a sharp angle 61 seconds into the game.
Grant Besse, a junior who has committed to the University of Wisconsin, snapped a wrist shot over Lakeville South goalie Tyler Schumacher’s shoulder at 6 minutes, 40 seconds of the first period, making it 2-0.
Moments later, BSM goalie Justin Quale stopped Lakeville South’s Justin Kloos on a breakaway and the Red Knights sailed up the ice. Labosky beat a South defenseman and beat Schumacher to give his team a three-goal lead.
At that point, “the difference in shots was 5-4 and we were losing 3-0,” Weber said. “I think we started to panic and they kept coming.”
Goals by Tyler Ellegard and Alec Anderson 21 seconds apart stretched BSM’s lead to 5-0 before the first period ended.
Labosky completed his hat trick with a shorthanded goal in the third period. Besse had two goals and an assist.
Lakeville South junior forward Weston Baumann broke up the shutout with 1:33 remaining.
“Lakeville South played the game of their lives in upsetting Duluth East, and it was going to be a challenge to duplicate that,” Benilde-St. Margaret’s coach Ken Pauly said. “Trying to do that back-to-back when you don’t have preparation time (for the second game) is extremely difficult.”
The BSM-Hill Murray championship game is the first Class AA final between private schools in 10 years.
