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Photo published with permission of Katie Braman

Sophomore goalie Andy Beran stands in his net. Beran has posted a .902 save percentage on the year and stopped 27 of 30 shots on Saturday afternoon.

Teachers packed the Drake Arena stands wearing SPA hockey jerseys for the third of three games against a top 10 team for St. Paul Academy’s boys hockey team on Faculty and Staff Appreciation Day.

The Spartans came out of one of the toughest and most important stretches of the season 2-1, beating the two teams bordering a Dakota, Luverne and East Grand Forks. Both match-ups are possible previews of state tournament games in March, but there’s one team that could possibly derail SPA’s hopes of even getting to the X. If section 4A foe Mahtomedi beats SPA in the section tournament as they did last year and as they did this past Tuesday night, there will be no need to worry about Luverne or East Grand Forks, because the season will be over before those match-ups.

On Saturday Dec. 5 SPA’s boys hockey team looked like a completely different team compared to Tuesday night’s game against Mahtomedi. The score reflected that difference as SPA beat East Grand Forks 7-3, the 2x defending Class A champs. While losing to Mahtomedi 3-2. East Grand Forks, like Mahtomedi, are a big team with three skaters taller than six feet tall and big hitting a team. “Right from the get-go we just got the puck wide” junior Jack Johnston said, “We just kept our feet moving, and since we did that, they weren’t able to stop us with their hitting.”

East Grand Forks came into Saturday afternoon’s game after losing to the Breck School Mustangs 9-1 fewer than 18 hours before puck drop at Drake Arena. They had tired legs and don’t have very good team speed. This allowed SPA to take advantage of their great team speed to break into the offensive with ease throughout the afternoon. Great skaters like senior Justin Jallen were most effective bringing the puck up the wings and funneling it into the center.

While East Grand Forks outshot SPA 30-23, SPA’s chances were more high quality chances especially because they were coming off the break, and the poor save percentage from the Green Wave’s goalie Jarod Reak isn’t reflective of his play. “The defense was moving the puck really well,” Johnston said, “They were chipping the puck up and was there to get the reward.”

However, on two of Johnston’s three goals, Johnston made Reak look silly. On both occasions Johnston forced his way through the defense and went backhand to forehand and tucked the puck into Reak’s five-hole as Reak stretched his legs across the crease.

The dominance from the Spartans started right from the puck drop, they rattled off the first five shots of the game and had incredible chances to break the scoreless dead lock before Will Kelly punched in a rebound off of an Evan Dahlseide slap shot. SPA was able put two more goals up on the board before East Grand Forks defenseman Davis Beauchamp sent a rocket from the point right off a faceoff whistling by sophomore Andy Beran who made 27 saves on the afternoon. The first period came to a close with SPA leading 3-1.

Coming right out of the intermission East Grand Forks got on the powerplay, a powerplay that played very well on Saturday going 2 of 4, but SPA put together the best penalty kill on the day and killed all the momentum gained by the late Green Wave goal. The Spartans turned momentum in their favor under two minutes later when junior Riley Bowman slotted home the third look at an open net to make the game 4-1.

The Green Wave and SPA traded goals to end the period and the score was 5-2 ending into the third with an East Grand Forks powerplay. The Green Wave capitalized on the opportunity to make the game 5-3. Justin Jallen responded minutes later and unsticked a defender and blew by the defense to make the game 6-3 and Jack Johnston finished off his hat trick on a perfectly executed 3 on 2 to make the game 7-3.

Several scouts were at Drake Arena on Saturday to see the top 10 match-up. Including one from the WHL team Vancouver Giants (the team drafted sophomore Dev McCabe last year) and each of the scouts in attendance had a word with Johnston after the game.

The win brings the Spartans record to 3-1 with a three game week this week, including another top 10 match-up against IMAC foe and second ranked Breck on Saturday at 2pm at Blake’s Anderson Ice Arena.