WILLMAR - A savage St. Cloud Apollo outburst in the second period ruined any chance of the Willmar boys hockey team pulling an upset the Cardinals’ final regular-season game on Thursday.
Apollo, leading 3-1 at the time, scored four more in a four-minute stretch of the second period and downed the Cardinals 7-3.
The Cardinals ended the regular season 5-20. They have the No. 6 seed in the Section 3A playoffs and will host Worthington at 7 p.m. Tuesday at the Civic Center.
“We’re a young team,” said Cards head coach Jamie Hagen, “but we can make a little run in our section.”
Apollo’s Steven Maus scored two first-period goals before Willmar’s Austin Smith tallied on assists from Cooper Delp and Isaac Kobienia.
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Smith scored a second goal in the third and Nate Ackerman scored on the power play. Kobienia assisted on both goals.
SC Apollo 7, Willmar 3
SCA (12-3-1, 19-4-2) 3 4 0 - 7
Willmar (1-12, 5-20) 1 0 2 - 3
FIRST PERIOD – A: Steven Maus 1:33 … A: Maus 1:53 … W: Austin Smith (Cooper Delp, Isaac Kobienia) 7:28 … A: Noah Bissett 7:44
SECOND PERIOD – A: Tanner Breidenbach (Travis Imdieke) 9:03 pp … A: Carter Rieland (Danny Wieber, Brandon Bissett) 9:35 … A: N. Bissett (Hunter Simonson, Breidenbach) 10:53 … A: Simonson (Brandon Baker) 13:46
THIRD PERIOD – W: Smith (Kobienia) 7:49 … W: Nate Ackerman (Kobienia) 12:18 pp
GOALIE SAVES – St. Cloud Apollo: Nick Althaus 14 … Willmar: Jacob Anderson 22
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Sartell 3, River Lakes 0
Sartell poured on 53 shots as they went on to defeat River Lakes to close out the regular season.
River Lakes goalie Trevor Meed stopped 50 shots in the loss.
Up next for the Stars will be Roseau on Tuesday at 7 p.m. in Roseau to start the Section 8AA playoffs.
Sartell (10-4-2, 16-6-2) 0 1 2 - 3
RL (4-9-2, 12-11-2) 0 0 0 - 0
FIRST PERIOD – none
SECOND PERIOD – S: Colin Johnson (Austin Gohl) 4:37
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THIRD PERIOD – S: Keenan Lund (Spencer Meier) 14:15… S: Spencer Zwiener 8:15
GOALIE SAVES – Sartell: Carter Kasianov 23… River Lakes: Trevor Meed 50
