Irish can’t manufacture a victory at state hockey

Rosemount girls fall to Andover, Roseau, finish 14-11-5

The sizable Rosemount student section chose a Red-out, White-out and Blue-out theme for the state Class AA girls hockey quarterfinals.

Not coincidentally, Feb. 22 was the 44th anniversary of the greatest upset in the sport’s history – the U.S. men’s national team’s 4-3 victory over the Soviet Union in the semifinals of the 1980 Olympic tournament, now known as the Miracle on Ice to anybody who has watched hockey for more than a minute.

Unfortunately for the Irish girls, they couldn’t tap into the Olympic mojo. In this case, the superior team won. Andover stopped Rosemount in the state quarterfinals 6-0 at Xcel Energy Center. Rosemount quickly readjusted its goals, aiming to finish its season with two victories. But that didn’t happen either as the Irish fell to Roseau 4-1 in the consolation semifinals Feb. 23 at the TRIA Rink in downtown St. Paul. Rosemount, which made its second consecutive state tournament appearance, finished 14-11-5.

Andover was in the Class AA championship game four years in a row, starting in 2020, and won in 2020 and 2022. Although they finished fourth in this year’s tourney, the Huskies are the kind of program Rosemount aspires to be. Junior captain Sophie Stramel said the Irish will keep working to get there.

“For the past two years we’ve made it known that we’re good enough to be here, no matter how our seeding is, no matter how our section play goes,” Stramel said. “You can’t just come to a state tournament for the first time and blow it out of the water. We know that’s going to take some progress. And we know that we have to work together and play with each other and play for each other. I think that’s what we’re getting to in these next couple of years.”

Last year an obviously jittery Rosemount team was outshot 20-2 in the first period of a state quarterfinal game Andover eventually won 9-0. Irish co-head coach Kyle Finn said nerves were still evident this year, but the Irish skated with Andover for the first few minutes. But they took a penalty about six minutes in, and Andover converted. Later in the period the Huskies scored again, shortly after a Rosemount power play expired.

Trailing by two against Andover, a team with three future Division I college players on defense, is a place no team wants to be. Eventually the Huskies took away almost all of Rosemount’s space in the offensive zone. Rosemount had just 11 shots for the game and none in the third period.

“Andover did a great job of keeping us to the outside and we didn’t quite get into the things we’re capable of doing,” Finn said. “Their defensemen are big, physical, strong players and made it very difficult for us do to the things we wanted to do.

“(In the 2023 quarterfinal game against Andover) there was maybe one shift where we played our hockey. There was more than that this year. We’re definitely trending in the right direction. But there were extended periods where we were doing things we haven’t done since November and December. I heard the (Youth Hockey Hub) podcast call it the ‘state tournament scaries,’ and there’s some truth to that.”

Goals by Avery Kasick, Ella Thoreson and Cailin Mumm put Andover ahead 3-0 by the end of the second period, and Maya Engler scored two of the Huskies’ three goals in the third. Rosemount’s best scoring chances came in the second period on a backhand by Annalee Holzer as she drove to the next, and on a wraparound attempt several minutes later.

Rosemount goalie Natalie Kendhammer made 31 saves.

Roseau jumped to a 2-0 lead in the first period of the consolation semifinal and made it 3-0 early in the second. Holzer scored with assists from Cece Hanson and Stramel at 2 minutes, 16 seconds of the third period, but Roseau scored again with 2:02 remaining to put it away.

Kendhammer, Hanson, forward Hollee Munson and defender Kayla Bartol are the four seniors on the Rosemount state tournament roster. Next year’s task already is clear to the returning Rosemount players.

“We will come here next year and we will compete even harder,” Stramel said.

Hanson, also a member of Rosemount’s defending state champion softball team, said she was aware of the effect a state tournament appearance can have on future classes of players.

“I’m not going to be here next year,” said Hanson, who has signed to play softball at South Dakota State University, “but I would like the little girls in the stands to know they can get to this level and make it here.”