The Benilde-St. Margaret's Red Knights opened the Section 6AA playoffs with a gritty 4-2 win over the Hopkins Royals Thursday night at the St. Louis Park Rec Center.  Mark Kaske snapped a 2-2 late in the third period to help the Red Knights to the quarterfinal round victory and set up a semi-final game with the Wayzata Trojans Saturday afternoon at the Bloomington Ice Garden at 3:30pm.

It was a classic playoff  style game with a solid crowd that led to a tense and physical game between two teams that were not interested in ending their season.  "From a fan perspective it doesn't get any better than last night," Red Knight coach Ken Pauly aid.  "It wasn't a dirty game but it was intense and very physical at times. The section playoff atmosphere was at the Rec last night. Only  Minnesota high school hockey offers that type of experience for kids. No other league can touch it."

He was correct as the playoff season is alive and well and so were the Red Knights Thursday night.  They responded to the need to simplify and get dirty.  The special teams came to life when needed.  The Royals knew they could not take penalties on the talented Red Knights and were only issued two minor penalties  The Red Knights made them pay for both with a pair of power play goals that ended up being a major factor in the outcome of the game.  

"The key for us is that we really kept it simple," Pauly stated after the game. "We also didn't go into that game thinking we'd dominate. We have a ton of respect for Hopkins and how hard they work. We knew it would be a dogfight so we never had a mentality of 'panic' when the game was tight. We expected it."

Setting the tone for the Red Knights was a spirited effort by the line of Zack Hale, Kaske, and Jacob Holmers.  Pauly pointed to their effort as key to the victory and said, "That line has been very effective for us in recent games. They have brought grit and great corner work in the other team's end. They have given us an nice one-two punch along with Naas's line."

After Ryan Kimbrel opened the scoring for the Royals off a two on one in the first period, the Red Knights Spencer Naas delivered a deflection off a Johnny Austin shot to send the game to the first intermission tied at a goal apiece on the power play.  

Chase Jungels buried a goal from the back door on the second Red Knight power play off a feed from Naas for the quick one-timer to beat Royals goalie Josh Kuemichel for the 2-1 lead in the second period.  Shortly after that, the Royals had a five on three and the Red Knight penalty kill stood firm killing off 1:52 worth of the two-man advantage.  Jalen Long made some key saves and controlled his rebounds to keep the Royals at bay and finished the game with 26 saves in earning the win.

The Royals fought back and struck on the power play in the third period as Jack Sweeney re-directed a blast from the point by Danny Waggoner creating an increased tension to the already hopping Rec Center.  

Mark Kaske responded with his game winning marker just :42 later to sap the energy from the Royals and breath new life in the Red Knights who finished the game with a Carter Roo empty goal for the 4-2 margin.  

No doubt for Pauly and any team is the combination of quality goaltending, special teams and timely scoring.  The Red Knight coach was pleased with all aspects of the game, especially the special teams and said, "Special teams are critical. I was very pleased with our penalty kill and that we converted both power-play chances. It's tough to get a lot of even strength goals against these good teams. You have to convert on the power-play to win."

Kuehmichel made 37 saves for the game and it was the special teams that were the contributing factor to the Red Knight victory.  The Red Knights will see another quality Lake Conference team in the Trojans and as well as a high level goaltender in Jens Vaughn Ahrens.  

"We will have to battle for every inch of territory on Saturday," Pauly said.  "Wayzata plays very hard in front a top flight goalie so we better be ready to get to work and stay patient."