State hockey: Roseau rallies to end Blaine's season run

By Jason Olson
SportsPrepZone editor

Coming off the toughest loss of the season less than 24 hours before, Blaine showed remarkable resilience Friday morning at Mariucci Arena to come back and score five of the game's first six goals in a consolation semifinal against Roseau.

But it was not enough; Roseau came back to score the next five goals, then capped the rally by adding an empty net goal during the game's final moments for a 7-5 victory.

"[Roseau] just played harder in the third period," Blaine head co-head coach David Aus said. "We played well, but [Roseau was] better down the stretch."

The Bengals showed a scoring touch which they did not have the night before during a frustrating 2-0 loss to Apple Valley at the Xcel Energy Center.

Briggs Fussy tapped in a long rebound for the lone goal of the opening period at 4:51 into the game. Blaine had other chances to score, too, but did not connect. So did Roseau, which was denied by  goalie Danny Harper, who collected everything around the net to protect the lead.

Blaine 's Jake Jensen scored 4:23 into the second period before Roseau's Ryan Leverington snuck the puck under Harper's pads to make it 2-1.

A flurry of Bengal goals spanning three minutes, however, booted Blaine into its comfortable 5-1 advantage. Jonny Brodzinkski made it 3-1, then Gavin Tufte, who was assisted by Eric Scheid twice, added the next two goals.

"We had a lot of chances and we were making some really beautiful plays," Blaine co-coach Peter Aus said. "The guys were really relaxed after the second period."

Roseau was on the ropes and headed back to the bus (for a return trip north) before Taylor Hedlund scored with 4:08 left to provide momentum going into the third. And for Roseau it was quite a third period. Two goals by the 3:18 mark made it a 5-4 game, then back-to-back power play goals at 9:45 (when Blaine was two skaters short) and at 10:15 (still one skater short) gave Roseau a lead it did not relinquish.

"We played very well for the first two periods, but like I always tell the guys, a game is 51 minutes long," Peter Aus said.

"[Roseau] just came on like wildfire. They really took it to us at the start of the third even though we were on the power play."

The emotions from Thursday night's loss didn't affect the Bengals until the adrenaline began to wear off Friday.  Added Aus: " [Thursday] was really tough on the kids after coming down here with the intentions of playing three games at the [Xcel Energy Center]."

The open net goal came with four seconds on the clock to seal Blaine 's fate and its season.

Peter Aus, who has more than 40 years of experience coaching said the second guessing is what gets to him the most. "I've been around long enough that you start to say 'we could've done this or should've done that,' but that's in the past now," he said.