Moorhead wins its first boys hockey state championship, outracing Stillwater

Moorhead’s game plan included a fast start, and what the Spuds got was a deflection off a Stillwater defenseman’s skate for a goal that ended the Ponies goaltender Cal Conway’s shutout streak at 1:22 of the first period.

The flub started a chain reaction of miscues that proved to be beyond Stillwater’s power to stop. The result was a historic 7-6 victory in the Class 2A championship game and the first state tournament title for Moorhead and its communities — finally. An announced record crowd of 20,491 at the Xcel Energy Center was on hand bear witness.

Mason Kraft and teammate Brooks Cullen added the next two goals of the first period. Under siege, Stillwater raised a white flag of sorts with its timeout at 2:24 of the first period. Another Kraft goal followed.

Then, with 2:12 left to play in the first, Stillwater senior Matthew Volkman slung a pass across the slot to sophomore Luca Jarvis, who one-timed it past goalie Charlie Stenehjem for his 23rd goal of the year.

Kraft got the last word, however, with a goal at 16:20 of the first period. The Minnesota State Mankato recruit produced his second four-goal game of the tournament, this one coming off a would-be pad save by Conway.

Kraft celebrated by shrugging calmly, but his work echoed through state tournament history. Kraft tied Eveleth legend John Mayasich’s tournament record for goals in a period, set in 1951.

Their fast start meant no need for Moorhead to rely on its resiliency this time. Just closing the deal would do.

Moorhead’s hockey program has lost all eight state championship games it has played in, a streak that started in 1992 and most recently continued in 2017, a confounding slump that came with more questions than answers.

“The one thing that this team has been really good at is staying in the moment, not getting too far in front of what’s happening,” coach Jon Ammerman said before Saturday’s game. “They’ve stayed where their feet are. This is a different group of kids, and this is their chance to create history.”

Loveable losers no more, the Spuds had changed the narrative by first intermission Saturday night. And they bobbled the title at times the rest of the evening.

The burden shifted to the Ponies to mount a comeback. And the Ponies did show life, cutting the deficit to two goals at 8:39 of the second period and again at 10:37 of the third period. Volkman made it 7-6 at 13:40 of the third period.

“We could have easily folded the tent,” Ponies coach Greg Zanon said. “We could have been down 12-1.”

Ammerman settled his troops with a timeout after Jarvis' second goal. It worked as junior defenseman Brandon Mickelson restored a three-goal lead with his goal at 8:59.

“We’ve talked for two days now about how poor our starts have been, but we had them on their heels,” Ammerman said. “And you could see in the end that we were on our heels.”