The first day of the Class AA state tournament started off with something old, and something new. The Roseau Rams(27-2), were making their record 31st appearance in the state tournament, while their opponents, the Woodbury Royals(21-6-1) were making their first ever appearance in the state tournament.
But it was the Royals who looked more comfortable in the early going, jumping out to a 1-0 lead when Nick Jarrett scored an unassisted even strength goal at 4:31 of the first period.
“You have to give credit to Woodbury. They didn’t look tight. They played like they usually play to make it a real good game to start,” said Roseau head coach Scott Oliver.
Roseau was able to tie the game before the period ended, however, with Roseau’s Dustin Moser scoring his 12th goal of the season. Roseau added two more goals in the second period from Nick Oliver and Nathan Voll to take a 3-1 lead.
Roseau looked to be in control of the game at that point, until Woodbury answered back 13 seconds later on a goal by Dane Erickson.
“I thought we were going to put some distance between ourselves and Woodbury until they got that second one,” said Oliver.
Roseau’s Ben Nelson got the Ram’s two goal cushion back by scoring at 14:54 of the third period. The Rams extended their lead early in the third period with a goal by Kurt Weston. Moser and Oliver each added their second goal of the game to close out the scoring.
While it was far from a perfect effort from Roseau, there was some relief to get through the first round of the tournament, after losing both games they played in last year’s state tournament.
“It’s a lot more fun winning. It’s one step closer to hopefully winning the whole thing,” said sophomore defenseman Aaron Ness, who assisted on Roseau’s first three goals and was named player of the game.
The Rams will take on Rochester Century tomorrow in the state semifinals after Century upset third-seeded Hill-Murray.
