Hill-Murray lines White Bear Lake in OT – Twin Cities

Hill-Murray scored with less than a minute left in Minnesota’s Hockey Day game against rival White Bear Lake on Saturday. The Pioneers had pulled their goalie in overtime when suddenly the fireworks started going off prematurely.

But neither the gravity of the situation nor the chaos lighting up the skies in late January fazed senior Brady Ingebritson, who made a rebound to tie the game and later hit the game-winner in overtime as Hill-Murray upset the Bears 3. -2 at Polar Lakes Park in White Bear Township.

We knew we could win this game, Ingebritson said. We said before we came back (to the ice) to keep it simple. Takes the goalies out of sight and just throws pucks over the net. That’s what we did, and success came our way.

Pioneers coach Bill Lechner said he emphasized a steady approach during the overtime period.

They were still at a hockey game, he told his team. Take it easy. Don’t worry about it.

We always talk about playing between glasses. If they’re really focused, they don’t know if 10 people are watching or 10,000.

Or if the game has pyrotechnics.

It just fired me up,” Ingebritson said of the exploding fireworks. It got my adrenaline going.

Despite the single digit temperatures, both teams started the match hot.

Hill-Murray got on the board first when sophomore Boden Sampair scored less than a minute into the game, but White Bear Lake wasted no time answering, tying things 1-1 on a goal by senior Aiden Welch just 51 seconds later.

From then on, however, things cooled down considerably. In fact, no one would score again until Bears junior Nolan Roed put his team up 2-1 with 6:48 left. Before that, the teams combined for just three shots on goal during a scoreless second period.

Our emotions were so high, Ingebritson said. The game was physical. It was good hockey in that second period. It went back and forth. Then when they scored, our energy went up. We know we were a good enough team to come back in short order.

However, it wasn’t until the final minute that it looked like Class 2A state No. 9 White Bear Lake was ready to skate away with the win.

Instead, Hill-Murray did, thanks to Ingebritson, whose first goal came with just 46.7 seconds left in regulation, and whose second goal came at 2:06 of overtime.

(Fieldmate) Landon Cottingham had a great game, Ingebritson said of the game-winner. He shot it down onto the pillows. We said that before we came out. Keep it low key. Shoot it at the pillows. I was just in the right place at the right time and clicked it in.

The loss was tough for the Bears, whose community was this year’s Hockey Day Minnesota host.

It’s unfortunate, Roed said. We always want to beat these guys. We just didn’t do what we needed to do to win.

But despite the loss, he said the whole Hockey Day experience has been amazing.

It’s incredible, he said. Not many children get to play in this event, let alone host it. So it’s pretty special for us. A day I will never forget.

One Ingebritson will probably remember it for a long time too.

I am speechless, he said. To play Hockey Day in Minnesota against White Bear Lake. You couldn’t ask for better than this.