Apple Valley Boys Hockey Falls to Eagan In Section Final

Apple Valley boys hockey player A.J. Michaelson spent much of Thursday throwing up and battling sickness.

By the end of the Section 3AA championship game between his team and Eagan that night, his teammates weren’t feeling too well, either.

Eagan's Kyle Bonstrom scored the game’s only goal in the third period, and the Wildcats blanked Apple Valley 1-0.

“Both teams are very good defensively, so we knew it was going to be a close, low-scoring game,” said Apple Valley head coach Jerry Hayes. Apple Valley had scored at least two goals in every other game this season.

On the game’s lone goal, an Apple Valley defender couldn’t control a bouncing puck that went right to Bonstrom. His quick backhand eluded goalie Aaron Gretz on the stick side at the 5:39 mark.

“It’s too bad that kind of a fluke turnover in front of the net was the winner, but great for them to capitalize on it,” Hayes said. “It would have been nicer to have a much better goal be the game-winner, but I’m sure they’ll take it.”

The Eagan game plan was to play defense first and let the offense take care of itself. Apple Valley had just 18 shots on goal.

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

The 12th-ranked Eagles (20-7-1) have two strong lines anchored by Michaelson and Hudson Fasching, respectively.

“The fact that A.J. gutted it out is a credit to him,” Hayes said. “Him not having that jump certainly affected the offense we wanted to have.”

The pair were reunited for about the final eight minutes of the game in hopes Apple Valley could get the equalizer, but Eagan goaltender Tommy Bodeker stood tall, and the defense cleared a lot of pucks and didn't allow rebound opportunities.

“When we’ve got two lines going we’re pretty effective," Hayes said. "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. ... I don’t want that to take anything away from Eagan. They’re a great hockey team. They were the better team tonight. We played them three times and haven’t beat them yet.”

The last meeting between the two teams was a tie.

Apple Valley called a timeout with 74 seconds to play, but Eagan (20-6-2) kept getting the puck in the neutral zone and either carrying or shooting the puck deep into the Eagles’ end. Gretz couldn't get off the ice for an extra attacker until less than 25 seconds remained.

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

But Hayes is left looking at the positives.

“They have a lot to be proud of," he said of his team. "There was lot of individual notoriety and a lot of team accomplishments. … We’re happy to be playing as late as this and hopefully that’s motivation to play well later next year.”

For the 2011-12 season, the Eagles are scheduled to return everyone except Gretz, center Kris Goodman and forward Michael Berens.