Page 14 • Thursday, Feb. 28, 2019
St. Louis Park
sailor.mnsun.com
(SUN SAILOR STAFF PHOTOS BY JASON OLSON)
Left: Benilde-St. Margaret’s junior Blake Mesenburg is greeted by sophomore Jonah Mortenson (27)
after tying the Section 6AA semifi nal up at 2-2 just 2:41 into the second period.
Right: Red Knights junior Charlie Bischel skates across the neutral zone with the puck during the
second period of the Feb. 23 Section 6AA semifi nal against Wayzata.
BSM knocks off Wayzata 3-2 in the hockey semifi nals
They will make fi rst trip
to section fi nal since 2014
By JASON OLSON
[email protected]
Benilde-St. Margaret’s returned to its
fi rst Section 6AA fi nal since 2014 and
were looking for its fi rst state appear-
ance since the 2012 state championship
season following a 3-2 upset of No. 2
Wayzata in the Section 6AA semifi nals
on Saturday.
Third-seeded BSM entertained the
festive crowd gathered at Bloomington
Ice Gardens for the fi rst of two semifi nal
games to help determine who would play
at 3M Arena at Mariucci on Wednesday,
with a trip to the state tournament on
the line.
Jackson Bisson gave the Red Knights
a 1-0 lead midway through the opening
period before Wayzata responded with
a pair of power-play goals, 41 seconds
apart after BSM’s Adam Marshall took
a fi ve-minute kneeing penalty to create
the 5-on-4 advantage.
Red Knights junior Blake Mesenburg
came through with his 23rd goal of the
season to tie it up at 2-2 just 2:41 into the
second period.
They came out strong to start the pe-
riod off the faceoff and were not going
to be denied. Adam Marshall rang a shot
off the crossbar after intercepting the
puck at mid-ice.
He collected the puck in the corner,
made a move to look to pass, instead
walked in on the Trojans goalie and
snapped a wrist shot in front the red-and-
white clad BSM student section.
Jonah Mortenson and James Callahan
picked up the assists on the goal.
Mortenson found himself in another
good position to make a play with just
under three minutes to play as he carried
the puck into the Wayzata end of the rink
on a 2-on-1 rush. He fed Coper Gay who
was crashing the net and in a prime spot
to receive and score on a one-timer from
the edge of the crease for what would be
the game-winner.
BSM goaltender Carson Limesand
made 28 saves for the game including
turning away all 20 shots in the second
and third periods.
Benilde-St. Margaret’s won the earlier
meeting by a 6-3 score during the holi-
day tournament at the St. Louis Park rec
center on Dec. 28. Mesenburg had two
goals and two assists in that contest while
Bisson and Marshall each had a goal and
assist while Limesand made 32 saves.
BSM opened sections with a convinc-
ing 7-1 win over No. 7 seed Holy Angels
on Feb. 21. Gay, Tristan Sarsland and
Charlie Bischel gave the Red Knights a
Swim
CONTINUED FROM PAGE 13
fl y fi nal in 56.17 with An-
derson seventh in 54.82.
Freshman Andres Bara-
jas was eighth in the 200
free (1:51.24) and seventh
in the 500 free (4:56.58) with
Bechtold eighth in 5:02.50.
Schwietering was 11th in
the 50 free in 22.80 and tied
Anderson for sixth place
in the 100 back in times of
55.25.
(SUN SAILOR STAFF PHOTO BY JASON OLSON)
Park’s Zach Affeldt takes a breath during his butterfl y leg of the 200 medley relay during the Section
6AA true team meet in January at Edina.
BSM at 2A
Benilde-St. Margaret’s
competed in the Section
2A meet which concluded
3-1 lead after the fi rst period. Junior cap-
tain Nate Schweitzer scored on the play-
er play before Will Thompson scored 41
seconds later and Charlie Warnert added
another goal to bring it to 6-1 after two
periods while maintaining a 34-21 shots
edge.
Park
St. Louis Park’s season came to an
abrupt end by way of a 4-3 overtime loss
at Hopkins in the Section 6AA play-in
game on Tuesday, Feb. 19. Hopkins, the
No. 8 seed No. 9 Park 2-0 going into the
third period. Park rallied to score three
times from the 7:48 on in period as Drew
Boyum scored his fi rst goal of the season
followed by sophomore McCabe Dvorak
with his 16th goal and Austin Amelse
tied it up at the 15:02 mark with his third
goal of the season.
Follow Jason Olson on Twitter @SunSportsJason.
Saturday at Richfi eld Mid-
dle School. Breck/Blake
cruised to a 662 points
total ahead of runner-up
Watertown-Mayer-Dela-
no’s score of 326 followed
by BSM with 300 points
to place third. Orono was
fourth with 250 points,
Richfi eld was fi fth scoring
224 points and Mound We-
stonka was sixth with 139
points.
BSM senior Matt Mc-
Gonigle qualifi ed for state
with a second place fi nish in
the 500 free of 4:49.08 and
was fourth in the 200 free
early in the meet in a time
of 1:46.37. Junior team-
mate Johnny Freytag was
seventh in both events the
500 free in 5:06.21 and 200
free in 1:53.84.
Sophomore Liam Noble
was fourth in the 100 back
in a state-qualifying time
of 55.84, well ahead of the
state cut time of 57.04. He
was also sixth in the 100
free in 50.44 and led off
the BSM 400 free relay to
end the meet with a second
place fi nish in 3:20.64 to
qualify for state. Joining
Noble in the relay is junior
Kevin Hollahan, sopho-
more Josh Waulters and
Freytag.
Follow Jason Olson on Twitter
@SunSportsJason.