Burnsville High School(18-10) is no stranger to upsets. To earn their way to the Xcel Center, they had to defeat the state’s top team, Academy of Holy Angels in the Section 5AA final. The Blaze got their second consecutive upset win when they defeated fourth seeded Blaine High School(21-7).
Burnsville took an early 1-0 lead when junior Tyler Barnes, the hero in the Holy Angels win, took the puck on an end-to-end rush around a Blaine defender and beat the goalie. Blaine responded 2:36 later when Ben Lynch scored a shorthanded goal on a breakaway to tie the game, with less than thirty seconds left in the period.
Blaine’s Luke Bayer gave Blaine the lead at 6:11 of the second period when he finished off a rush with a pretty move to his backhand. Burnsville responded at 10:18 of the second period when defenseman Chad McDuff fired a slap shot from just outside the blueline that was tipped, and handcuffed Blaine goalie Brent Hollerud.
Jake Hendrickson scored the go-ahead goal for Burnsville early in the third period when he took a drop pass from Barnes and fired a one-timer past Hollerud. Burnsville iced the game later in the third period when Hollerud came out of his net and played the puck out to the blueline, where it was picked up by Burnsville defenseman Zach King, who fired a slap shot to the far side of the net before Hollerud was able to get back in position.
Burnsville will advance to the state semifinals to play Grand Rapids, who knocked off top seed Edina in the earlier quarterfinal.
