“There always seems to be one extra guy for Morehead that gets an opportunity,” Edina head coach Curt Giles said when asked about what made the No. 1-seeded Spuds dangerous. “When they get an opportunity, they rarely miss.”

With 58 seconds left in the Class 2A state semifinals, on the power play, the Spuds had that extra guy.

Just outside the crease, sophomore forward Zac Zimmerman was open. He eyed the rebound off senior Brooks Cullen’s shot, hoping for his 31st goal of the season.

“I saw a wide open net,” said Zimmerman. “And I whiffed it.”

He didn’t just miss the shot but the puck entirely — oh-so-rare for the Spuds. But with the Hornets marking up the rest of Moorhead’s dynamic power play, Zimmerman had time for another try, to line up for a hard shot.

“I saw the five-hole open, and I just slid it through,” Zimmerman said.

And this time, he didn’t miss, zipping in his second goal of Moorhead’s 4-3 victory.

“And then I blacked out,” he said.

Moorhead knows what it’s like to miss and shake it off. The Spuds have been to state now 22 times, finished runner-up on eight of those trips, and never won a title.

Zimmerman is the Spuds’ second-leading scorer, with 75 points this season, behind senior Mason Kraft’s 90. 

“The strength of our team is how dynamic some of our players are with the puck, and Zach is one of those players,” Moorhead head coach Jon Ammerman said. “[Zimmerman] and Mason have had unbelievable chemistry all year. … It causes fits for other teams.”

Moorhead does it! After a blistering back-and-forth first period, it was a gritty last-minute game-winner from Zac Zimmerman, snuck by in a defense-heavy third period, that helped the No. 1-seeded Spuds knock off the defending champs, No. 5 Edina. Moorhead will play No. 2 Stillwater in Saturday's Class 2A final at 7 p.m. Neither team has won a title, so we'll have a first-time state champion, no matter the result.

Edina finished with 23 shots, 19 for Moorhead. Moorhead sophomore goaltender Charlie Stenehjem withstood a barrage of Hornets stings in the final minutes to keep the Spuds ahead.

Moorhead's ahead, with less than a minute to play! Hornets junior defender Sam Peckham tripped up Moorhead junior Tyden Bergeson on the Spuds' counterattack, giving Moorhead a power play with 2:45 left in the third period. With 13 seconds left of a man advantage, sophomore Zac Zimmerman put the Spuds up with a hard shot off his own rebound.

Earlier in the period, Moorhead sophomore goaltender Charlie Stenehjem made the save of the night with eight minutes left to play, splaying on his stomach in the crease, getting a pad to a 1-on-1 attempt from Edina sophomore Freddie Schneider after the Hornets slipped a pass through the blue line.

Senior Brooks Cullen's goal stands as the only score in the second period after an eventful first. Moorhead has a slight advantage in shots, 15-14.

It looked like we might get through this period without a goal. Nope. After knocking on Edina's door all second period, Moorhead won a faceoff in the right circle, and junior Max Cullen came away with the puck. Edina junior goaltender Chase Bjorgaard made the first point-blank save, but Spuds senior Brooks Cullen, a Michigan State commit, cleaned it up for his 22nd goal of the season. All tied up with three minutes left to play in the period.

Attendance for the Class 2A games was announced as 19, 284.

It’s a long time coming for Moorhead. The No. 1-seeded Spuds have finished as tournament runners-up eight times since 1992 but have never won a title. No. 5 Edina, 12-time champs, won just last year and is looking to be the first Class 2A team to go back-to-back since, well, the Hornets did, in 2013 and 2014. But Moorhead got the best of the squads’ two meetings this season: 4-1 in November, then 6-3 a month later.

Blink and you'll miss it! One period down, and we've already had five goals and two lead changes. Edina junior forward Mason West already has a hat trick, putting him at 26 goals this season. His goal with 41 seconds left put Edina up 3-2. The Hornets were first on the board, too — West, 10 minutes in. Moorhead scored back-to-back goals from sophomore Zac Zimmerman and senior Mason Kraft to take the lead. West wouldn't let that last long, though.

It might be that St. Thomas Academy outshot Stillwater 36-22, but it was the Ponies who wouldn’t stop scoring. As the Cadets searched for a burst of hope and pulled senior goalie Cody Niesen with three minutes left in the third, Stillwater senior defender Conor McGlynn bounced a long pass off the boards up the ice. Senior Blake Vanek, defended one-on-one, finished from a tight goal-line angle on an empty net.

The 4-0 score stood as the final, and Stillwater rolled on, victorious.

St. Thomas Academy nearly got its much-needed opening goal with 6:45 left to play, with senior Cole Braunshausen crashing the net to poke in the puck after his long-range shot started a goalmouth scramble. But the goal was waved off for goaltender interference, as other Cadets players jostled Ponies netminder Cal Conway. Conway recorded his second consecutive shutout of the tournament, and his fourth in his past seven games.

The Cadets watched what could have been a two-goal swing turn into a deeper hole.

Early in the third period, St. Thomas Academy seniors Jackson Rudh and Michael Mikan combined for a little give-and-go action, beating Ponies goaltender Cal Conway. But Rudh, with a wide-open back post, hit the puck off the right pipe.

Stillwater answered by flipping what could have been a 2-1 nailbiter into a 3-0 lead, 5:54 into the third period. Sophomore Luca Jarvis deked through the Cadets defense for a close-range shot, and senior Trey Fredenberg cleaned up on the rebound.