Bonstrom Scores Lone Goal, Wildcats Going To State

Kyle Bonstrom doesn’t want his senior season to end yet.

Bonstrom scored the game’s only goal in the third period, the Eagan defense played its best game of the year and the Wildcats blanked Apple Valley 1-0 Thursday in the Section 3AA championship game.

Tenth-ranked Eagan (20-6-2) will play in the state tournament March 10 at the Xcel Energy Center. Its opponent and game time are expected to be announced Saturday.

“Me and (Tommy) Bodeker, (Ryan) Nelson, (John) Carroll, and all the seniors, we’ve played together forever, and now we’re going to state. It’s coming together. It’s awesome,” Bonstrom said.

On the game’s lone goal, an Apple Valley defender couldn’t control a bouncing puck after a backhand from Ryan Nelson. The puck bounced right to Bonstrom, whose quick backhanded eluded Aaron Gretz on the stick side at the 5:39 mark.

“Any opportunity you get you want to put that in,” Bonstrom said. “It’s a huge game and those opportunities don’t come too often, so when you get one you got to capitalize.”

“He’s been a good worker for us all year, he’s a kid with a great attitude, and I think there was a sense of urgency there,” said Eagan coach Mike Taylor. “You often see seniors step up their game up and he’s definitely done that.”

That was plenty because the Eagan game plan was to play defense first and let the offense take care of itself.

“We could not just play run-and-gun with them. They have the horses to do that,” Taylor said. “We wanted to play good solid D, not give any advantage rushes, and play for our chances.”

Bodeker stopped 18 shots for the win.

“The defense made my job really easy,” he said. “They did their job, and I knew if I did my job we’d win the game. That was probably our best game all season.”

The Eagles (20-7-1) have two strong lines anchored by A.J. Michaelson and Hudson Fasching, respectively. The pair were reunited for about the final eight minutes of the game in hopes Apple Valley could get the equalizer, but Bodeker stood tall and the defense cleared a lot pf pucks and did not allow rebound opportunities.

Michaelson was far from full strength after throwing up much of the previous 24 hours.

“When we’ve got two lines going we’re pretty effective. When you’ve only got one line going it makes it very difficult to go against a team like Eagan, who’s pretty high octane, strong and powerful,” said Apple Valley coach Jerry Hayes. “I don’t want that to take anything away from Eagan. They’re a great hockey team. They were the better team tonight.”

Apple Valley beat Eagan in overtime in last year’s section semifinals.

“Our kids were kind of on a mission,” Taylor said. “I wasn’t worried our kids wouldn’t work hard because it’s Apple Valley. We respect them and they know it’s quite a rivalry.”

It was appropriate that a section title game between the two evenly matched teams would go down to the final minute.

Apple Valley called a timeout with 74 seconds to play, but it never got a chance to utilize what Hayes drew up because Eagan was aggressive on its forecheck — in particular Michael Zajac, Will Merchant and Nick Kuchera — and the Wildcats controlled the neutral zone to either carry or shoot the puck deep into the Eagles’ end. Gretz could not get off the ice for an extra attacker until less than 25 seconds remained.

“That was the key right there,” Bonstrom said.

Taylor wants the team to enjoy what it’s done for a few days, but come Saturday, or Monday at the latest, it’ll be time to get back to work.

“Four of the teams are just going to be happy to be there. We’re not going to be one of them,” he said.

Hayes wouldn’t be at all surprised if the ‘Cats do well on high school hockey’s biggest stage.

“You look at what they’ve done: they’ve played Edina, they beat (Eden Prairie),” he said. “They’re big, strong and they got everything. They got D who are mobile and can move the puck, they’ve got forwards who can finish, and I wouldn’t be shocked to see them playing Saturday night.”