With Jared Spooner attacking the net on the right side, Tre Kautzman cut in on the left looking for a pass.
“I was calling for Spoon to dish,” Kautzman said. “If he’d put it on net, I was ready to crash. But I was looking for a pass.”
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Spooner passed. Kautzman scored. And, for only the second time, the North Dakota boys high school hockey title is going to the West Region.
Kautzman’s goal at the 6:18 mark in the third snapped a 1-1 tie and Bismarck went on to beat Grand Forks Central 2-1 in the title game of the North Dakota boys high school hockey tournament Saturday night at Ralph Engelstad Arena.
It is the first state title for a West Region team since Minot beat Bismarck 8-7 in the 1992 final. “It feels good to bring one out west,” Kautzman said.
The win broke a run in which the Demons had lost in the state final in two of the previous five years under coach Mike Peluso.
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“It was extremely frustrating,” Peluso said. “You start to wonder if you’ll ever get a crack at it again.”
But Spooner-to-Kautzman made it happen.
Spooner attacked the net and, from the right circle, he connected with the cutting Kautzman, who scored from close range.
“Jared made a great play and Tre buried it,” Peluso said. “(It was) big players making big plays.”
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Spooner, who was selected as the tournament’s most valuable player, gave Bismarck a 1-0 lead in the first period. On a 2-on-2 rush, Spooner was open in the left circle and wristed in a shot with 2:25 left.
Central pulled even on a Cole Kirchoffner goal at the 4:25 mark in the second. Bismarck goalie Brett Malkmus stopped a shot from the point and scrambled to block the rebound. But Kirchoffner picked up the loose puck to Malkmus’ right side and poked in a shot from the front of the crease.
Bismarck’s defense dominated the final period. Central went more than 13 minutes to start the third without a shot on goal.
“We had trouble getting out of our zone in the first,” said Central’s Grant Paranica, who was named coach of the year. “It was better in the second. But we struggled again in the third. They did a good job of forechecking and we didn’t do a good job of completing passes.
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“But we had a couple of good chances at the end.”
Malkmus finished with 24 saves. Taner Bender had 19 saves for the Knights, who were trying to capture the program’s 20th state title.
“It’s been a long time coming,” Peluso said of Bismarck’s first title.
