5-Goal Period Puts Apple Valley Boys Hockey in Section Final

Its confidence never wavering, the Apple Valley boys hockey team scored five goals in the second period of its section semifinal against Cretin-Derham Hall on Saturday, en route to a 6-2 win. Consequently, they scored a date in the section final with Eagan.

“It’s the matchup everyone’s wanted since the beginning of the season, the matchup we wanted, the matchup Eagan’s wanted," said Apple Valley’s Kris Goodman, who had one goal. "It’ll be a good game.”

A.J. Michaelson scored twice for Apple Valley, and Michael Berens, Sean Lang and Hudson Fasching each had one goal. Adam Gretz stopped 18 shots.

The second-seeded Eagles (20-6-1) will face the top-seeded Wildcats (19-6-2) at 7 p.m. Thursday at the State Fair Coliseum. Apple Valley beat Eagan in overtime in last season’s section semifinal.

“We’ve had a grudge with them for as long as we all can remember,” said Eagan’s Nick Kuchera. “It’d be nice to beat ‘em especially after last year. … We want revenge.”

Apple Valley lost 4-2 at Eagan in early January and rallied from a 3-0 first-period deficit to earn a 3-3 tie three weeks ago.

“We’re going to have to play very well,” said Apple Valley head coach Jerry Hayes. “They’re firing on all cylinders. They’re big, they’re strong, they’re skilled. We’ve got our work cut out for us, but we’re happy to have the opportunity.”

That chance exists because the Eagles didn’t tense up or get down on themselves against Cretin, instead scoring three times in just more than three minutes early in the second period to turn a 2-0 deficit to a 3-2 lead. 

Michaelson scored on a feed from Berens to get the Eagles on the board at 3:41, before Berens deflected a shot from Vince Pedrie into the net and Goodman scored on a pass in front from Fasching.

“We had five or six good opportunities to score up to then, and we knew we were going to bury one sooner or later," Michaelson said. "We just kept on going."

The Apple Valley student section spent part of the period directing “sieve” chants at Raiders goaltender Joe Schneider, who got a piece of two of the first three Apple Valley goals, and gave up a soft wristshot to Fasching in the slot with under two minutes to play in the period to make it 4-2. Lang scored with 30.7 seconds left in the period.

“We just kept going hard to the net and they just came,” Goodman said. “Garbage goals are all right too.”

Michaelson scored his second goal midway through the third period.

“Sometimes high school kids try to get too cute and they pass up on shots, and what they found out with that little flurry was just get the puck to the net,” Hayes said. “On Hudson’s goal he came down and just shot it. We’d been waiting for him to do that all day. Instead of passing back door we told them to just shoot it.”

A few weeks ago, Hayes split up Fasching and Michaelson to give the team more balance. Fasching now plays with Goodman and Trent Heuer, while Michaelson is paired with Berens and Tate Erickson.

“We just looked at the competition we’re playing and they all have some pretty skilled defenders, and you hate to put your eggs all in one basket," Hayes said. "It only takes one night if they get shut down and other people don’t respond, then it’s a long night for everyone. We felt we could be more consistent with offensive pressure by splitting them up a little bit. Both lines contributed tonight, which is huge for us.”