KASSON — Bryce Wilcox could see something in Nels Carstensen early in the season.
Wilcox, the first-year co-head coach of the Dodge County boys hockey team could see those intangibles that a senior captain is supposed to have, the intangibles that a senior captain on a successful team has to have.
Wilcox has seen those intangibles stick out more and more as the season has gone along.
They delivered.
Carstensen and fellow senior captain Riley Freiderich connected on a go-ahead goal midway through the third period at Dodge County Ice Arena. And though La Crescent-Hokah battled back to tie the score and force overtime, Dodge County found a way to pull out a 4-3 victory in a Section 1A quarterfinal playoff game.
It was the final home game for seniors Carstensen, Freiderich, and Spencer Nierman.
“Just his pure work ethic,” Wilcox said when asked about the qualities that make Carstensen a great leader. “It’s fun to watch him be competitive. He hates to lose. He’s not mean about it or anything, but if he loses a battle or loses a race, you don’t have to say anything to him, he already knows. And then he goes out and does better the next time.
“Just from watching our games, you can see his work ethic, putting the team on his back and saying ‘I’ll try to get the crowd going or try to get the boys going tonight.’ You need that on a team; without that, you can’t find the heart of a team. He means a lot to us.”
Freiderich and Carstensen came up clutch when the momentum seemed to have completely slipped away from the Wildcats (16-9-0 overall), who led 2-0 after the first period thanks to goals by Dylan Klomps and Gryffon Funke (whose goal was assisted by Nierman).
The Lancers had tied the score 2-2 in the second period, with Mitchell Reining and Cody Hagen scoring.
Just more than two minutes after the Wildcats came up empty on a third-period power play chance, Freiderich gathered the puck near center ice, along the boards in front of the Dodge County bench and headed with speed toward the Lancers zone.
“I saw Riley just keep chipping it down the boards,” Carstensen said, “and I knew he’d get it all the way (into the offensive zone). I was hoping (linemate) Dylan Klomps would let the pass get through to me and he did. It bounced off my skate right to my stick and I just tapped it in.”
La Crescent-Hokah didn’t go away, though. Head coach Eriah Hayes called a timeout with 2:08 to play and a faceoff coming in Dodge County’s zone. Just nine seconds later, after the Lancers won the faceoff, Ethan Myhre fired a heavy, perfectly placed shot to the top corner over Jackson Roethler’s glove to tie the score 3-3 and force OT, setting up Funke’s game winner.
“We came into the game with a plan and we stuck to it,” Hayes said. “We wanted to be physical, to try to keep 13 and 17 (Funke and Ludvigsen) off the puck as much as possible.
“I couldn’t be more proud of a group of guys. We got down early and didn’t quit. They just never quit. I’m just so proud of the effort and of the guys.”
La Crescent-Hokah’s season ends at 18-8-0 overall. The Lancers will say goodbye to a big group of nine seniors, but the 18 wins this season represents another step taken in the process of building a strong program at a school in the extreme southeastern corner of the state. The Lancers have gone from a 4-win team three years ago to 18 this season.
“The seniors we’re losing, I had them for all four years of their varsity careers,” said Hayes, a former Minnesota State, Mankato and San Jose Sharks player, in his fourth season as the Lancers’ head coach. “We have some good young guys coming up, but these (seniors) have raised the bar for La Crescent hockey.
“We don’t have the luxury of a lot of numbers; we have 17-20 guys, no JV. What these seniors have done in the last four years to get to this point is absolutely incredible. I just could not be prouder of them.”
As for Dodge County, its seniors hope to keep their playoff run going at 11:30 a.m. Saturday, when they’ll face top-seeded Northfield in a Section 1A semifinal at the Rochester Recreation Center. It’s a quick turnaround, but one that both teams will have to make. Northfield beat Rochester Lourdes 8-1 in a quarterfinal game at Northfield Friday night.
Second-seeded New Prague and third-seeded Albert Lea will meet in the other Section 1A semifinal on Saturday, at 2 p.m.
“It comes down to, do you want it more than the other team?” Wilcox said. “We might not have the legs for (Saturday’s) game, but we have to find them.
“At the end of the day, our guys are going to have to dig deep. How bad do you want it? How bad do you want to get to the championship game? How bad do you want to go to state?”
DODGE COUNTY 4, La CRESCENT-HOKAH 3, OT
La Crescent 0-2-1-0 — 3
Dodge County 2-0-1-1 — 4
First period — 1. DC, Dylan Klomps 12 (Griffin Gibbs 4, Mitchell Holmen 2) 8:36. 2. DC, Gryffon Funke 30 (Spencer Nierman 7) 14:00. Second period — 3. LH, Mitchell Reining 16 (unassisted) 8:51. 4. LH, Cody Hagen 2 (Cooper Carlson 26, Nikolas Kubecka 16) 15:36 (pp). Third period — 5. DC, Nels Carstensen 5 (Riley Freiderich 9) 7:02. 6. LH, Ethan Myhre 10 (Reining 12, Wyatt Farrell 20) 15:01. Overtime — 7. Funke 31 (Brett Ludvigsen 30, Gideon Ellinghysen 7) :53.
Shots on goal — LH 7-10-8-1—26; DC 5-7-7-1—20. Goalies — LH, Collin Morken 16 saves-20 shots; DC, Jackson Roethler 23 saves-26 shots. Power-play opportunities — LH 1-for-2; DC 0-for-1. Penalties — LH, 1-2 minutes; DC, 2-4 minutes.
