Sports
Sampson's Late Goal Lifts Edina To State
The Hornets secured their fifth trip to the state tournament by defeating Burnsville 3-2 Wednesday night at Mariucci Arena.
Jake Sampson called the moment “a blur.”
Seconds after the senior laced a shot past Burnsville goalie Bodhi Engum and completed the Edina boys hockey team’s comeback, Sampson laid on the Mariucci Arena ice underneath a pile of his Hornets teammates celebrating the moment.
“It was amazing,” Sampson said. “Laying there looking up at the ceiling, your teammates on top of you, it’s amazing.”
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Sampson’s shot with 1:11 left in the third period helped give the Hornets a 3-2 victory over the Blaze in the Section 2AA championship Wednesday, sending Edina to its fifth consecutive state tournament.
The Hornets will play next Thursday, March 10, at the Xcel Energy Center in their quest to repeat as Class AA champions.
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Burnsville did all it could to derail Edina’s trip back to St. Paul, and much of that had to do with Engum’s strong play in net for the Blaze. He made 28 saves on the night, steering away the Hornets’ scoring chances throughout the game.
Meanwhile, gridlocked in a 1-1 contest and on the power play to start the third, Burnsville’s Jace Childs gave the Blaze a 2-1 lead with a turnaround shot that beat Edina’s Connor Girard.
The Blaze (19-5-4) kept that lead for seven minutes, until Edina struck back with a power-play goal of its own. Senior forward Steven Fogarty scored from the point to knot the score at 2-2, giving the experienced Hornets new life.
“The kids pushed hard at the end, they really did,” Edina coach Curt Giles said. “They pushed hard in the third period, and they didn’t get down after getting scored on.”
Sampson’s go-ahead goal, like Fogarty’s earlier in the period and sophomore Lou Nanne’s in the first, happened with traffic in front of Engum. Giles said that was important.
“You’ve got to take his sight lines away,” Giles said.
Sampson said Wednesday’s goal was the biggest of his career, and it came just in time to lift Edina (18-8-1) to the state tournament. That’s where Sampson said he hoped this team would be all year while playing amid Braemar Arena's banners and tradition.
“You don’t want to let the city down,” Sampson said. “We’ve been to the state tournament the last five years, we’ve got 10 state championship titles, and we want to make it another one.”
GAME SUMMARY
Scoring — First period: 5:59 EDINA Lou Nanne (Michael Sit), 7:17 BURNSVILLE Jake Senta (Jace Childs). Second period: No scoring. Third period: 0:15 BURNSVILLE Jace Childs (Mike Dockry, Eddie Wittchow) PPG, 9:41 EDINA Steven Fogarty (unassisted), 15:49 EDINA Jake Sampson (Fogarty). Shots on goal — BURNSVILLE 17, EDINA 31. Power plays — BURNSVILLE 1-1, EDINA 1-2. Saves — BURNSVILLE Bodhi Engum 28, EDINA Connor Girard 15.
