Hawks push past Bluejackets for Section 7A title – Duluth News Tribune

DULUTH — It wasn’t the first goal of Charlie Marchand’s career against Hibbing/Chisholm in the Section 7A championship game Wednesday at Amsoil Arena, but it might have been the one with the biggest exhale.

The Hawks’ junior forward crashed the net after a shot, caught the puck on a rebound and flipped it past Bluejacket goalie Rex Walli to put the Hawks up 2-0. Will Esterbrooks put the Hawks up one early in the first, but it took more than 20 minutes of game clock for Hermantown to break through again.

Marchand’s skate back down the ice to the Hermantown student section wasn’t even easy.

“It was tough to skate down the ice to do the celly because we were so gassed from the shift,” he said.

Hermantown coach Pat Andrews said he thought the Hawks first goal woke the Bluejackets up,

a lot like when Proctor took the first goal against Hermantown in the section semi final Saturday.

The Hawks were skating through the neutral zone like “swiss cheese” until Esterbrooks popped his goal through.

“It was like they relaxed,” Andrews said. “The same thing happened to us Saturday. Sometimes with high school kids, you need something to happen — even if it’s bad. Something needs to happen and it was like ‘Ok, we’re at a hockey game.’ I thought our goal sparked them.”

Through the rest of the first period, the Bluejackets were able to keep pace with Hermantown, the No. 1 ranked Class A team in Minnesota, but the Hawks came out firing in the second en route to an eventual 4-0 victory.