East Grand Forks Senior High had outscored its opponents 41-18 coming into Saturday's matchup against Grand Forks Central at Purpur Arena. Despite that, Senior High prides itself on defense.
The Green Wave allowed only 11 shots on goal in defeating Central 3-1 to win the Gambucci Cup, which goes to the season's top Greater Grand Forks high school hockey team.
"Anytime you come into this arena and win, it's a good win," said Senior High coach Tyler Palmiscno. "Central does a good job of keeping to the outside, boxing it in and blocking shots. We made
a couple plays, but we had a hard time generating looks inside."
The Green Wave got out to an early lead when Dixon Bowen put the game's first shot on goal past Central goalie Taner Bender just overa minute into the game.
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In the second, Reed Corbid capitalized on a pass from Grant Loven to give Senior High a 2-0 lead.
The third period started nearly identical to the first, with Corbid scoring shortly after the one minute mark. Loven picked up his second assist on the play.
With 6:28 left in the game, the Knights got on the board as Casey Johnson scored, batting the puck in with the help of assists from Ryan Griggs and Cole Kirchoffner.
"That wasn't our best game," said Central coach Grant Paranica. "We were playing against a very good team. We played more like we didn't want to lose too badly rather than playing like we were going to win. We were hesitant."
The Gambucci Cup was motivation enough for Senior High.
"Winning the Gambucci Cup is an honor for us," Palmiscno said. "That's one of our team goals going into every year. We have a lot of respect for the rivalry we've had with the two Grand Forks schools and Mr. Gambucci and what he has done for hockey in Greater Grand Forks."
East Grand Forks goalie Josh Weber finished with 10 saves, while Bender had 27.
"That's a very skilled and mature team that hasa lot of depth," said Paranica of the Green Wave. "Not winning the Gambucci Cup is probably one of the more disheartening things. Knowing Serge (Gambucci) personally and knowing what he means to hockey throughout the region, it's something we are very proud to be a part of.
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"But we'd rather have the trophy in our locker room because we sort of feel like he's one of our own. Unfortunately that isn't the case this year."
The Knights dropped to 8-5 while the Green Wave improved to 11-2-1.
