Green Wave ready for Section 8A Tournament
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Steve Gust
steve@page1publications.com
East Grand Forks is playing its best hockey at just the right time of the year.
The Green Wave ended the regular season with three big Section 8A victories, helping them earn the third seed in this week’s Section 8A Tournament.
Senior High will face sixth seeded Kittson Central in Friday’s first round in Thief River Falls. A win would likely mean a rematch with second seeded Park Rapids, a team that earned an overtime win over the Green Wave in an early season match-up.
Warroad captured the top seed in the tourney. The defending section champion will play Thursday in the first round. A win for the Warriors would mean a Saturday evening semifinal game.
A win for the Green Wave Friday evening would give them a berth in Monday’s semifinal round.
The Section 8A title game is slated for Thursday, Feb. 28. All section games will be played at Ralph Engelstad Arena in Thief River Falls.
The Green Wave enter the tournament coming off a big 3-1 win over Thief River Falls in the regular season finale. Alex Christiansen stopped 25 shots in the win.
“That was a playoff-type of game,” Green Wave head coach Cory Chupka said. “The win weighed heavily in the seeding votes.”
The win assured the Green Wave of a top three seed.
“Our goal was to get one of the top three seeds,” Chupka said. “That means we won’t have to face Warroad until the championship game.”
The Green Wave enter the section tourney with one of the top lines in the section. John Grabanski, Jake Useldinger and Joey Wikoff have teamed up to score more than 100 points this season.
Useldinger, just a sophomore, leads the Wave with 40 points. Grabanski has 37 points, and Wikoff 36. Grabanski and Wikoff share the team lead with 20 goals.
Zak Aubol (17 pts), Michael Lukkason (21 pts.) and Casey Ristau (13 pts) will team up to form the second line.
Henry Gutierrez (8 pts), Macauley Useldinger (8 pts), Alex Lind (1 pt) and Matt Romuld (8 pts) give the Green Wave some added offensive depth.
Kody Vizenor (13 pts) anchors the team at the blue line. He will be paired with Nick Ohman (11 pts) to form the top defensive unit.
Casey Wood, Cody Grassel, Brendan Mochoruk and Brandon Peabody give the Wave some depth on defense.
“We have six strong defensemen,” Chupka said. “Our top four are probably as good as any in the section.”
Christiansen gives the Green Wave one of the top goaltenders in the section. He finished the regular season with a 10-10 record, a 3.2 goals against average and a .90 save percentage.
“He’s a sound goaltender,” Chupka said. “He’ll respond when we need him to.”
The Green Wave’s goal for the section tournament is clear: They want to win the title.
“This is the team that really wants it,” Chupka said. “They are ready for the opportunity.”
The Green Wave take an 11-13-1 record into the tourney.