Hermantown’s varsity hockey and basketball teams all posted impressive early-season victories last week.
The defending Minnesota Class A state champion Hawks hockey team opened its season with Champions Cup wins against Class AA powers Cretin-Derham Hall, 6-3, and Hill-Murray, 3-1, in Eden Prairie.
Six different players scored against Cretin-Derham Hall, and Dallas Vieau, Kade Kohanski and Wyatt Carlson each scored against the Pioneers.
Defenseman George Peterson had four assists in the two games, while Dane Callaway and Garron Opsahl each picked up a win in goal for the Hawks.
Hermantown (2-0) will visit Centennial (2-2) on Saturday afternoon.
“We’re off to an awesome start,” Hawks coach Patrick Andrews said over the noon hour Monday. “We competed hard, which was a point of emphasis leading up to the openers, and we couldn’t be happier with the players’ effort.
"We did have some wide eyes and slow feet in the first period of the opener, but we responded well to it. Our forecheck was suspect, and we still need to work on faceoffs. But it’s still early in the season.”
Andrews singled out the strong play of Peterson, Kohanski, Vieau, Callaway and Opsahl. Kohanski suffered an upper body injury against Hill-Murray and will be out of the lineup for an undetermined amount of time, Andrews said.
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The defending Section 7AAA champion Hawks boy’s basketball team opened last Friday with a 90-55 Lake Superior Conference win at Cloquet.
Abe Soumis scored a team-high 20 points for Hermantown, and teammates Keaton Christianson added 17 points, Blake Schmitz 16 and Broc Sundlund 14.
Hermantown (1-0) visits Denfeld (1-0) on Tuesday night.
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Hermantown will visit Superior on Tuesday and plays host to Proctor on Thursday in Lake Superior Conference girl’s basketball games this week, before facing Duluth Marshall at 11 a.m. Saturday in Superior.
The Hawks (1-3) defeated North Branch 61-50 at home last Tuesday, and has suffered losses against Bemidji 68-42, Cloquet 57-45 and Irondale 60-40.
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The defending Minnesota Class A state champion Proctor-Hermantown fell to unranked Champlin Park/Coon Rapids 5-2 in a high school girl’s hockey matchup Friday night at the Champlin Ice Forum.
The Mirage are led in scoring by Hannah Graves (3 goals, 9 points) and Reese Heitzman (team-high 5 goals, 7 points).
Freshman goaltender Suri Langley is 2-1, sporting a 1.0 goals-against mark and .936 saves percentage.
Hermantown (3-2) will travel to Grand Rapids-Greenway (4-3) at 7 p.m. Thursday and Orono at 1 p.m. Saturday.
HAWKS NEST
Winnipeg Jets defenseman Dylan Samberg of Hermantown scored his first National Hockey League goal, on a wrist shot from the left point, in the Jets’ 5-2 home victory against the Anaheim Ducks on Sunday afternoon.
Hermantown’s Max Plante scored the game-winning goal to lift the U.S. Under-17 National Team past the USHL’s Madison Capitols 4-2 on Friday night. He has two goals and 18 points and minus-6 in 22 games for the U.S.
đź“· : Earl Ebensteiner