Midway through the second period of Wednesday night's Class 2A, Section 6 semifinal at Parade Ice Garden in Minneapolis, Cretin-Derham Hall was trailing Wayzata by two goals and given a golden opportunity in the form of a power play.

The Raiders went to work with their speedy and crafty special teams unit. For a second, it appeared it all clicked when a shot from the top of the zone clanked off the crossbar iron.

But the officials signaled no goal, and play resumed. A few minutes later, Wayzata's Maddie Wolsmann capitalized on a centering pass that redirected off the skate of a Cretin-Derham Hall defenseman and into the net, pushing the Trojans’ lead to three before they came out on top with a 4-2 victory that put them into the section championship game.

It summed up the respective fortunes of two teams and put another round in the books as the section tournament rolls towards state.

“That goal was probably the true turning point tonight,” Wayzata coach Becky Wacker said. “To fire a shot off the crossbar like that, and then a moment later we score on what really was a mistake…it’s a heartbreaker for them.”

Not that Cretin-Derham Hall hung it up at that point. Quite the contrary, as the irritated Raiders played for their playoff lives. But that stretch of play in the second proved to be a tough pill to swallow for Cretin-Derham Hall, which outshot Wayzata 35-28 on the night.

“It’s tough,” Raiders coach John Pohl said. “We worked really hard and felt like we had control of the play for much of the game. You’d have to imagine what would happen if our goal goes in and theirs doesn’t.

"But hockey is a game of bounces, and we didn’t make the most of our opportunities. (Wayzata) did, and you have to give them credit for that.”

Part of why second-seeded Cretin-Derham Hall (20-6-1) had little to show for its efforts was Trojans senior goalie Sarah Stelter, who stopped 33 of the 35 shots she faced. Stelter was particularly impressive in the second as she made 16 saves when the Raiders’ pressure was perhaps at its peak.

While Cretin-Derham Hall had to battle uphill, Wayzata worked hard to create scoring chances from the start. Trojans junior forward Lindsay Czech scored just 2 minutes, 35 seconds into the first period. Less than a minute later, teammate Natalie Heising scored her team-leading 18th goal of the season to make it 2-0, and the momentum was in hand.

“Whoever scores the first goal is huge, it helps set the pace for the entire game,” Czech said. “Our mindset was to get that first one. Then get the second one and the third one and so on. We came out strong early, and it made a big difference.”

Four different skaters scored goals for No. 3 seed Wayzata (16-9-1) in the victory, but Wolsmann was the only player to finish with multiple points, notching a goal and an assist.

The Trojans stuck to their game plan of working the puck deep and relying on the forecheck to counter the Raiders’ speed and guile. It worked, as the bigger Wayzata squad built a lead early, then sat back a bit and let its opponent make a mistake on which to pounce.

Pohl made it clear that playing from behind is not the preferred way Cretin-Derham Hall likes to operate.

“It doesn’t change the way we play, but I think it changes the way (opponents) need to play us,” he said. “When we are able to lead, then other teams take chances, and that usually provides us with more opportunities for offense. But Wayzata is a big team and we are not, and they did a good job of sitting back and keeping us on the outside. Although we had a lot of pressure in the second and third periods, we weren’t able to get into the areas for those second- and third-chance opportunities.”

At the center of it all was Stelter, whose play in net proved strong enough to carry the Trojans into a section title tilt with top-seed and Lake Conference foe Edina.

“We told her that she didn’t need to be perfect, but she needed to be good enough,” Wacker said. “Tonight, Sarah was outstanding, and she stood on her head when she needed to.

“(Stelter) made some outstanding backdoor saves that bailed us out more than a few times,” Czech said. “Sarah had a great game.”

First Report

Wayzata picked up a 4-2 victory over Cretin-Derham Hall Wednesday night in Class 2A, Section 6 semifinal action at Parade Ice Garden in Minneapolis. 

Junior forward Lindsay Czech scored just 2 minutes, 35 seconds into the first period to get things started for the Trojans, ranked No. 11 in Class 2A by Let's Play Hockey. Less than a minute later, teammate Natalie Heising scored her team-leading 18th goal of the season to make it 2-0.

Four different skaters scored goals for No. 3 seed Wayzata in the victory, but Maddie Wolsmann was the only player to finish with multiple points, notching a goal and an assist.

The No. 7-2A Raiders (20-6-1) outshot the Trojans 35-29 for the night, but No. 2 seed Cretin-Derham Hall fought an uphill battle from the start and was never able to close the gap.

Wayzata senior goaltender Sarah Stelter stopped 33 shots in the victory and her counterpart, Raiders' freshman goalie Megan Meyers finished with 25 saves in defeat. 

The Trojans (16-9-1) move on to Friday night's section final at Ridder Arena against Lake Conference foe Edina. The Hornets advanced on the other side of the bracket by soundly defeating Benilde-St. Margaret's 6-0 in the early game Wednesday at Parade. The Hornets and Trojans split during the regular season, each winning on the road.

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