Boys Hockey 2025: St. Cloud Cathedral blazes path to Class A championship berth
Posted: Friday, March 7, 2025 - 1:13 PM
This is the 13th trip to the Minnesota State High School League’s Boys Hockey State Tournament for St. Cloud Cathedral. Alas, there’s no Unlucky 13 going on with these Crusaders.
The No. 2-seeded Crusaders posted their second victory in two days, this time a 4-1 win over No. 6 Orono in the Class A semifinals on Friday, March 7 at the Xcel Energy Center in downtown St. Paul.
Senior forward Jaeger Wood scored two goals and assisted on another in sending the Crusaders (20-8-2) into the small-school championship game for the second consecutive season.
In Wednesday’s Class A quarterfinals, St. Cloud Cathedral posted a 3-0 victory over No. 7-seeded Mahtomedi. If the Crusaders are successful in their title defense against the winner of the second semifinal between No. 1 Hibbing/Chisholm and No. 4 East Grand Forks, St. Cloud Cathedral will be the first team to win consecutive Class A crowns since Hermantown in 2017.
Senior forward Joey Gillespie got the Crusaders started early with a rebound goal just 2 minutes, 10 seconds into the first game of Semifinal Friday. Wood doubled the lead on his first goal of the game three minutes later.
St. Cloud Cathedral pushed its lead to three goals when ninth-grade forward Bo Schmidt converted on a power play opportunity in the second period.
Orono (16-11-3) used a power play to its advantage, too, in finally solving Crusaders junior goalie Keaton LeGrande. Orono senior forward Ethan Pagel scored on a shot that was taken from behind the goal line to the right of the goal. His shot ricocheted in off LeGrande with 3:21 left in regulation.
Wood thwarted any Orono comeback hopes when he scored into an empty net in the final minute of regulation.
