Cathedral Hockey Skates Past Northfield To Advance At State Tourney

The Cathedral Crusaders streaked past the Northfield Raiders 5-1 Wednesday afternoon at Xcel Energy Center in St. Paul. The Crusaders advance to take on #2 seed Warroad in the semifinal round Friday.

The Crusaders scored early when John Hirschfeld cashed in a turnover by Northfield goaltender Max Frank just :18 seconds into the game for a 1-0 Cathedral lead.

It didn't take long for the Raiders to find the equalizer, with Cayden Monson beating Cathedral goalie Nick Hansen on a spin-o-rama to tie the game at one.

Cathedral got the eventual game-winning goal when Landon Swenson scored his seventh goal of the season at 9:28 of the second period on a rebound of his own shot. Assists were credited to Thomas Rosenkrans and Hwong.

Joey Gillespie made the score 3-1 with a power play goal just over a minute later, assisted by John Hirschfeld and Griffin Sturm.

The Crusaders added a power play goal from Andrew Dwinnell at 6:29 of the third period and another Gillespie goal at 11:34 to chart the 5-1 win.

Friday's game is set for an 11 a.m. puck drop on AM 1390 and FM 93.9 Granite City Sports with pregame coverage beginning at 10:55. The Crusaders beat Warroad 3-2 in overtime in their second game of the season back on November 25th.

Warroad defeated New Ulm 8-1 in their state tournament quarterfinal. The Warriors scored five goals in the second period en route to the running time win. New Ulm will play against Northfield in the consolation tournament at Aldrich Arena Thursday morning.