Luverne boys bow out of Section 3A event

The 2019-20 boys’ hockey season came to an end for the Luverne Cardinals during Section 3A Tournament play last week.
The fifth-seeded Cardinals upset No. 4 Marshall during a quarterfinal-round game played in Marshall Thursday.
Top-seeded Hutchinson eliminated LHS from further competition by saddling the Cards with a five-goal setback during Saturday’s semifinals in St. Peter.
Luverne ends the season with a 16-11 record.
 
Hutchinson 6, LHS 1
Luverne played with the top-seeded Tigers for one period Saturday in St. Peter before coming up on the short end of a five-goal decision.
The score was tied at one after 17 minutes of play, but Hutchinson scored five unanswered goals in the final two periods to earn the right to play for the section championship.
Riley Anderson gave the Tigers a 1-0 lead 9:37 into the game, but Luverne’s Austin Watts-Boll knotted the score with a power-play goal that was set up by Colby Crabtree with 10 seconds remaining in the opening stanza.
The rest of the game belonged to Hutchinson, which outshot LHS 63-17 in the contest.
Brady Knoor snapped the deadlock for the Tigers 4:59 into the second period, and Joey Croatt scored with 9:05 remaining in the stanza to make it a 3-1 game.
Hutchinson iced the win by scoring three goals in the first 11 minutes of the third period.
Austin Jozwick scored twice in the first 8:34 of the period to up the lead to 5-1.
Hayden Jensen added a power-play tally with 6:02 remaining in the game.
Shaid Shearer made 48 saves in 54 attempts during a two-plus period stint in goal for the Cards.
Colton Schutz stopped all six shots he faced in the final five minutes of the game.
 
LHS 4, Marshall 3
The Cardinals pulled off a mild upset to open the tournament Thursday in Marshall.
Fifth-seeded LHS dropped a pair of games to the Tigers during the regular season, but the Cardinals never trailed in what ended up as a one-goal victory over fourth-seeded Marshall.
Senior Tyler Roberts netted a pair of goals and Shearer turned in a strong performance in goal to highlight the win.
The score was knotted at one when Roberts scored his first goal of the game with 6:16 left in the first period to give the Cards a 2-1 edge they would take into the second period.
Brock Behrend increased the lead to 3-1 when he scored the lone goal of the second period 9:04 into the stanza.
Marshall climbed back into contention when Bryson Whyte scored 48 seconds into the third period, but Roberts countered for LHS with 5:41 left to regain a two-goal (4-2) advantage for the Cards.
Marshall’s Jackson Bladholm did trim the difference to one goal (4-3) with 2:45 left in the game, but Shearer blanked the Tigers the rest of the night to seal the victory.
Shearer made 43 saves for an LHS squad that was outshot 46-15 by the Tigers.
Crabtree gave the Cards a 1-0 lead 29 seconds into the game before Marshall’s Landon Frost tied the score with 11:11 left in the opening period.
Easton Braun recorded two assists for the winners, while Watts-Boll, Cooper Arends, Cade Wenninger, Jacob Von Tersch, Crabtree and Roberts kicked in one assist each.