Adapted hockey produces a pair of undefeated state champions

Eric Fordyce sneaked a shot past a Dakota United defender and its goaltender to give Brainerd a 3-2 overtime victory Saturday in the adapted hockey championship game in the physically impaired division at Coon Rapids High School.

Brainerd was shorthanded when Fordyce sent a seeing-eye shot from his own end. It was perfectly placed in a corner of the net.

“That was a crazy shot,” Brainerd forward Aiden Olsen said. “Full court, shorthanded even. It was super awesome.”

It was the second goal of the game for Fordyce, an eighth-grader. He whistled a shot into the top far corner from the side boards with 8:40 left in the third period to give the Warriors a 2-1 lead.

“He’s an amazing player,” Olsen said of Fordyce. “He still has four years of playing. So I think he’s going to be a top player.”

The Warriors (12-0) held a lead for just 18 seconds of the game, but they controlled a lot of the play. The defensive duo of goalie Tommy Juberian and defender Bennett Herrmann stood strong for the Hawks (11-4).

“[Juberian] made a stop that was just unbelievable [in the second period],” Brainerd coach Todd Person said. “I thought for sure it was going in. He made a glove save that was unlike anything I’ve ever seen before.”

The Warriors and Hawks met twice during the regular season. The physical and spirited battles between the two teams were each decided by one goal. Person expected nothing less than a tight game in the championship.

“We knew coming in that this was going to be a battle all the way,” he said. “We beat them twice during the regular season and knew it was going to be difficult to beat [them] three times in a row.”

The Hawks (11-4) scored first, 1 minute, 45 seconds into the game. Cayden Needham put a shot past Warriors goalie Andrew Kargel right off the faceoff. The Hawks sent the game to overtime with a goal by Jae Bahma with 8:22 left.

Josh Pence scored off a rebound to get the Warriors on the board 5:01 into the second period.

The championship in the cognitively impaired division was less dramatic but still exciting. New Prague/TCU/Le Sueur-Henderson/Belle Plaine/Jordan capped off an undefeated season with an 11-8 victory over Stillwater/Mahtomedi.

The forward duo of Elliot Soukup and Lorelai Hamre along with defender Trystan Seger helped the Trojans (11-0) control play in the offensive zone. They combined for seven goals, Soukup with three, Hamre two and Seger two.

“They’ve been playing for five years with us. They know the drill,” New Prague coach Jeremy Kalal said. “We practice it every day and drill it into them. They know exactly where to be and when to be there. That leads to a ton of opportunities for us.

“[Seger’s] solid. That leads to so much of our offense. He shuts everything down on defense and sends the puck. He can score on defense, and he’s one of our leading scorers and he never plays offense. And just by him shoving the puck into [the offensive zone] we play 90 percent of our game on our offensive side.”

Logan Bermel added four goals, including two late to help the Trojans pull away.

Mason Mora-Clark led the Ponies (8-3) with five goals. Sam Enright had two goals and Zach McCarty one.