Photo Gallery: Shakopee vs. Chanhassen
Leading the Storm, ranked No. 2 in the final coaches’ poll, were attackmen Brady Grandstaff and John Dahl. Grandstaff, the Storm’s leading goal scorer, finished with a hat trick. Dahl scored the game-opener and also tallied three goals.
Dahl has been a force for the Storm (15-1) throughout the section playoffs. In their 20-5 section quarterfinal win over Mound Westonka, Dahl had six goals. In a 12-11 semifinal win over No. 9 Eden Prairie, he punched in two more.
“(Dahl’s) really picked it up. We really try to have a balanced team and spread out the scoring. Obviously, we have definitely our main go-to guys,” Junker said. “The defense is focusing on those two or three and we need the next person up. John Dahl has been that so far.”
Carter Van Holland was the third Storm player to record a hat trick. He scored back-to-back power-play goals at the end of the first that gave Chanhassen a 6-2 lead after the quarter.
The No. 6 Sabers, however, flipped the script in the second. They scored five unanswered and cut the deficit as low as one goal. Luke Whitbeck and Linus Toward both scored for the Sabers (14-2) during that stretch, finishing with two and three goals, respectively. Tyrus Laden also found nylon twice for Shakopee.
But Dahl and Grandstaff had the answer for the Storm, scoring the final two goals of the quarter to take a 10-7 advantage into the break.
The Sabers weren’t done, however. They battled back late and Toward scored his third with just over a minute remaining to cut the deficit to one. They made one final push, but Storm goalie Grant Penttinen made a clutch save to keep the tying goal off the board.
“It was a fantastic atmosphere. I mean, Shakopee is a fantastic squad,” Junker said. “They got a lot closer than we wanted this to get. I think it’s a character builder for the guys, get it close but still buckle down and win the game.”