#2 Hermantown @ #4 Orono (2/1/23)

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Who wins ?

Hermantown
11
100%
Orono
0
No votes
 
Total votes: 11

ClassAGuy
Posts: 2564
Joined: Tue Jul 16, 2019 6:51 pm

#2 Hermantown @ #4 Orono (2/1/23)

Post by ClassAGuy » Wed Feb 01, 2023 7:50 am

Class A Game of the night who wins?

A fun Wednesday night Class A game to start the month of February with two teams having excellent years will meet at Long Lake. Hermantown is coming in looking to wrap up the #2 seed overall for the State Tournament. Meanwhile, Orono is looking for some respect as many have doubted the strength of this team at times despite having a wonderful year. Big time game that has some State Tournament flavor possibly to it as these two teams could very well meet up again in March at the Xcel Energy Center St Paul.

Offensive Spark Plugs- The Spartans will roll three lines, but they are led by their 3 offensive spark plugs in senior #21 Bradley Walker, Junior #15 Cayden Effertz, and senior #7 Avery Anderson who has really been the catalyst of the Orono attack all winter. They also get solid contributions from #9 Joey Greennagle and #6 Easton Sankey. They play a heavy game and if they can play their style without going to the box all night they are an effective 3 line group that can wear on opponents.

The Hawks have some really good offensive fire power of their own as Seniors #4 Wyatt Carlson and #17 Matthew & #19 Joshua Kauppinen has been excellent all year for the Hawks. However, as we saw on Hockey Day MN the return to the lineup of Senior #11 Kade Kohanski has really sparked this team. Eventhough he was quite on Hockey Day Junior standout #24 Dallas Vieau has been their top offensive player all winter and and sophomore #23 River Freeman continues to improve to give the Hawks a dangerous group of forwards.

Offensive Defenseman - The Hawks defensive unit is led by #22 George Peterson who loves to insert himself into Hermantown’s offense and is currently their 2nd leading scorer. #9 Will Esterbrooks is another top defender and as he showed vs Moorhead he can bury a big goal in big games when needed. #8 Drew Nelson, #12 Nolan Baker and #13 Weston Bohlman adds to a very solid Hermantown D-core.

The Spartans have a good defensive core as well as Juniors #5 John Engebretson and #27 Joey Mugaas contribute offensively as a top defensive pair. Both are big and mobile defenseman who each have an impressive 20 points on the season from the back end. Add in the the senior captain #8 Caden Bickett and Orono have been very good on the blueline with their unit as well.

The battle in the nets- The Hawks have split their goaltenders this year #32 Dane Callaway has posted good numbers at (7-1-0) record 2.03 GAA .898 SV% on the year so far. The senior #31 Garron Opsahl has been better looking at numbers this winter posting (8-1-1) 1.22 GAA .953 SV %. Both goalies have been really good in different moments this year. It will be curious to see who gets the start tonight.

In goal for Orono, senior #1 Brock Peyton who missed the early part of the year to injury but since coming back from injury in late December is (9-1-0) with a 1.80 GAA and .926 SV%. These are the kind of games he tends to shine as last year he routinely stopped 40-50 shots as a young team grew up in front of him.

2nd Period Explosion- One of the interesting stat is that both teams appear to really love taking over the game in the second period. Orono has been a slow starter all year up until their last game that had 8 consecutive games where they trailed after one period. However, they have outscored their opponents 37-11 in the second period. The Hawks have been very good in their own right in the 2nd period as they have outscored opponents 33-11. One could wager the 2nd period could be the period to watch tonight and what should be a great match-up and more than likely the preview of a game we could see at the Class A State Tournament again in March.

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