Grand Rapids Defeats Cloquet to advance to Section 7AA finals vs Duluth East
Rapids advances to seventh section title game in 14 years
By Tim How, 02/20/16, 05:15PM PST
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The Timberlake Lodge Game Recap: Grand Rapids 5, Cloquet-Esko-Carlton 1
The Grand Rapids Thunderhawks are heading back to the section finals for the seventh time since 2003. Thanks to a convincing 5-1 win over No. 4 Cloquet-Esko-Carlton, Rapids will meet No. 2 Duluth East in the finals for the fifth time in the last seven final appearances. East steamrolled No. 3 Elk River 6-3 earlier in the day.
The route to pick up a 12th win in 13 games for Grand Rapids started early in the first period when sophomore Blake McLaughlin made it 1-0. The Minnesota Gopher commit picked up his first career playoff goal and shoved that seed of doubt back at Cloquet-Esko-Carlton. Rapids rolled the Lumberjacks 5-0 and 5-1 in the regular season.
Rapids doubled the lead two minutes later when John Stampohar scored his first goal in seven games and his seventh of the season. Stampohar, a defenseman, took a sweet feed from junior forward Micah Miller, then beat C-E-C goalie Eric Newman for the goal. This game was very quickly starting to look like the first two meetings.
Cloquet-Esko-Carlton made things interesting with a goal late in the first period. Jacob Johnson was the goal scorer with less than two minutes left in the period. It looked like the teams would head to the locker room with a 2-1 score.
Then, Gavin Hain turned in the play of the game. He blocked a shot in the defensive zone and streaked in all alone the rest of the way on the Lumberjack goal. Hain made one quick move to the backhand and shoveled in his first goal of the game to make it 3-1 with 16 seconds remaining in the period. It was a back breaker for Cloquet.
Hain said after the game that first-year head coach Trent Klatt is always telling him to block shots. Klatt had to have been pleased with that block.
Senior forward Alex Adams continued his torrid pace with the lone goal of the second period. Adams finished with two points to push his seven-game total to a whopping 18. He, along with Hain and Mitchell Mattson, have combined to form a dynamite top line down the stretch.
Rapids hit the 30 shot mark for the 13th consecutive game early in the third period. They ballooned the lead to four at 5-1 shortly thereafter. Hain scored his second of the game and picked up his eighth point of the playoffs to put the icing on the cake. Adams and Mattson assisted on the goal. Mattson finished with two points to up his total to 10 in two playoff games and 56 total on the season.
Sophomore goalie Gabe Holum made 15 saves for Grand Rapids to improve to 15-1-0 on the season. Newman stopped 33 shots in a losing effort for the Jacks.
Now, Grand Rapids finds themselves in a familiar position. They have a postseason game at Amsoil Arena against Duluth East. That’s how the season has ended three straight years. East won the 2013 section final over Rapids and won the 2014 and 2015 semi-final matchups. In total, the Greyhounds have won seven straight 7AA titles, including two over Grand Rapids.
Amazingly, either Duluth East or Grand Rapids has represented 7AA at state in 12 of the last 13 seasons. Cloquet-Esko-Carlton was the outlier, winning the 7AA title over Anoka in 2009.
