Hermantown's Aaron Evjen took the puck from an opponent behind the Luverne goal, wrapped around the net and jammed away until the Hawks had a one-goal lead in the first period.
Hermantown scores early, often to blank Luverne in 1A quarterfinals opener
The Hawks, seeded second, produced three goals in 71 seconds in the first period.
By Heather Rule
March 9, 2023 at 2:25AM
"It's an amazing feeling to come through for my team when they need me," Evjen said.
Hermantown coach Patrick Andrews said Evjen was being too humble. He was the first of six different goal-scorers for the second-seeded Hawks on the way to a 6-0 victory over unseeded Luverne in Wednesday's first quarterfinal of the Class 1A boys hockey tournament at Xcel Energy Center.
Andrews called Evjen, a senior, the "hottest guy on the team." He scored four goals in the regular season, but he's more than doubled that in the postseason, scoring five goals in his past four games.
He's playing with a ton of confidence now, Andrews said.
"There's been flashes of it throughout the year," Andrews said. "It wasn't that he wasn't playing well throughout the year. I just think the goals weren't there. But he's playing at another level of speed."
Defending champion Hermantown (26-2-1) quickly made it a 3-0 lead in a 71-second span in the first period.
"To see those three goals go in within a minute in the first period, that can break a lot of teams," said Luverne coach Phillip Paquette, whose team fell to 21-7-1. "I've very proud of the way this group hung with it."
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Heather Rule
Six players plus head coach Garrett Raboin and assistant coach Ben Gordon are from Minnesota. The tournament’s games will be televised starting Monday.
