The Pine City Dragon hockey team brought home a trophy this past weekend as they earned the Bronze Division Championship title at the Herb Brooks Invitational tournament at the Super Rink in Blaine. This is an invite only tournament with four different divisions. If you have never seen the Super Rink in Blaine it is a spectacle to behold and this tournament fills up all eight rinks and things are buzzing.
The tournament started on Thursday as Pine City took on an opponent from Wisconsin. Even though they didn't know anything about their opponent, and their starting goalie was home sick, the Dragons rallied behind back up goalie Mason Olson and defeated the Stars 6-3. This was Olson's first career varsity win and McCoy Leger scored his first varsity goal in the win. Head coach Grant Nicoll said, "The boys had all the confidence in Mason Olson, and rightfully so! This was Mason's first varsity experience of his career, and he fit the mold. The boys were victorious sending them to the semifinals."
PC 4 1 1 = 6
Brookfield 1 1 1 = 3
Scoring
George Miller - 2g
Dusty Bergstrom - 2g, 1a
Parker Sell - 1g, 2a
McCoy Leger - 1g (First V goal)
Gabe Westbrook - 1a
Justin Gamec - 1a
Mason Olson - 18 saves on 21 shots
The win over Brookfield advanced Pine City into the semifinals. This time, the Dragons would see a familiar opponent, Simley. The Dragons beat the Spartans with 1.6 seconds left in overtime just a couple weeks ago and the Spartans had not forgotten about it. Everyone expected this to be another barn burner to see who got to advance to the final. The first period was pretty even with the Dragons heading into the locker room with a 1-0 lead, but the second period was dominated by Pine City who netted three goals on their way to a 4-0 victory. McCoy Leger built off the confidence of grabbing his first varsity goal the night before to add two more on Friday night. Alex Laven returned from illness to record a shutout and send the Dragons to the championship.
PC 1 3 0 = 4
Simley 0 0 0 = 0
Scoring
Jimmy Lindblom - 1g
George Miller - 1g, 1a
McCoy Leger - 2g
Seth Linnell - 1a
Dusty Bergstrom - 1a
Parker Sell - 1a
Gabe Westrbook - 1a
Howie Hodena - 1a
Luke Fabini - 1a
Ryder Youngbauer - 1a
Alex Laven - 30 saves on 30 shots
Saturday's championship matchup was at the Tria Rink in St. Paul. Many people around the Twin Cities metro will remember Saturday morning as one of the worst commuting days of all-time as the entire metro area was covered in a layer of ice. While the Dragon hockey players are built to be on the ice, the bus is not. But the players were able to arrive safely and ready to play Section 5A rival Princeton in the championship game. These two teams have seen many back and forth battles over the past several seasons but this game was anything but. The Dragons jumped out to a 4-0 lead thanks to a first period hat trick by Dusty Bergstrom and never looked back defeating Princeton 7-1.
PC 4 2 1 = 7
Princeton 0 1 0 = 1
Scoring
Dusty Bergstrom - 3g, 1a
Gabe Westbrook - 1g
Parker Sell - 1g, 3a
George Miller - 2g, 1a
Aidan Welch - 1a
Justin Gamec - 1a
Alex Laven - 22 saves on 23 shots
The JV team even returned home with some hardware of their own as they defeated Spring Lake Park in the third place game. Coach Nicoll called the weekend, "A great time for DRAGON HOCKEY!!!!!!"
The boys return home with two trophies, a banner, and a ten game winning streak. They sit at 11-2 on the season and are off for a week before playing at St. Paul Highland Park on January 7th.
Photo Credit: Dragon Hockey Twitter
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