Hermantown boys hockey coach Patrick Andrews on Monday's 3-2 Section 7A semifinal victory over Hibbing-Chisholm and looking ahead to Wednesday's championship against upstart Rock Ridge:
"I credit Hibbing for playing a great game. They were well-coached and executed their game plan to perfection. Coach Rewertz does a tremendous job up there and I would expect them to be contenders for the foreseeable future.
"I was happy with our level of compete and our depth. I thought we got better as the game went on. We didn't give Hibbing much, but give credit them as they capitalized on what they had. We used our speed well but I thought we overcomplicated the game. We tried to make the extra pass and made things hard on ourselves with high turnovers and extra moves. Credit them for making our guys feel like the only play was the second or third option, but as a coaching staff, we would like to see our guys make the first play, the simple play, every time and then go from there.
"I was very pleased with the play of Dane (Callaway) in the net. Hibbing didn't get a lot of looks but the ones they got were good. I was also very impressed with our seniors, especially Aaron Evjen who came through with two big goals and Sam Swenson who made a great play to get us going in the second by batting the puck out of the air into the net. One of the hallmarks of Hermantown Hockey is the fact that every year we have seniors who play huge roles for us who played two years of JV hockey, which takes a lot of dedication and trust in the process that their hard work will be rewarded. Our senior line of Evjen, Sundbom, and Erickson was particularly strong on Monday night. It is a great luxury to have 18-year-old seniors on your 'third' line playing against sophomores from the other team. I was also pleased with our special teams, the PK was 100% and the PP, although we didn't score, generated a lot of grade-A looks that their net minder found a way to keep out of the net. Several times the puck was in behind him but somehow stayed out. If Kade (Kohanski), Dallas (Vieau), George (Peterson), Esty (William Esterbrooks) and Wyatt (Carlson) can keep getting those looks on the power play I like our chances.
"Rock Ridge will pose another tough test for the boys. They are heavy and skilled. I would love to get pucks going in transition and use our speed, but I also know that a lot of the game will come down to getting pucks off the half walls and turning them into offense, something I thought we didn't do enough of against Hibbing. If we can do that I like our chances.
"We are excited about the section final and the opportunity to play for a state tournament berth. Our goal since day one is to get back to the X for a shot at repeating and Rock Ridge is the next challenger standing in our way. I know the boys would love to see the whole community out on Wednesday night to pack Amsoil in blue and gold."