Cathedral Shocks Warroad With Late Comeback To Clinch Spot In Championship Game

The Cathedral Crusaders are headed to the state championship game after shocking Warroad with a 4-3 overtime win Friday afternoon at Xcel Energy Center.

Warroad got on the board first when Taven James put home a rebound of a Carson Pilgrim shot just 26 seconds into the opening period. The Warriors made it 2-0 on a Ryan Lund power play goal at 8:13. The second goal was also a rebound, this time of a Marvin Murray-Cordes shot.

The Crusaders got a power play with just under five minutes left in the first period. Despite a couple of chances from in close, the Crusaders were unable to find the back of the net before the Warriors got back to even strength.

Shots on goal favored Cathedral 12-9 after the first period.

Cathedral fought off a five-on-three Warroad power play early in the second period before breaking through with a Griffin Sturm power play goal at 10:03 of the second. Sturm carried the puck into the corner before sliding it behind the net to Jaeger Wood, who found Sturm cutting to the net.

Cole Hwang tied the game at two for Cathedral immediately after the Crusaders killed off another Warroad power play. A fantastic diving play by Landon Swenson led to the goal from Hwang, his 13th of the season.

The Warriors took a 3-2 lead on a controversial power play goal by Ryan Shaugabay at 10:37 of the third that initially was waved off due to an inadvertent whistle. The goal was eventually counted after replay review.

John Hirschfeld provided the heroics for Cathedral with a power play goal with just over one minute left in the third period, sending the game to overtime.

The Crusaders prevailed in overtime when Hirschfeld scored again from close range at 1:53 of the extra period to send Cathedral to Saturday's championship game.

Puck drop is set for Noon on Saturday on AM 1390 and FM 93.9 Granite City Sports.