No. 1 Maple Grove rout Blaine, win Northwest Suburban Conference

The No. 1 (AA) Maple Grove Crimson boys hockey team defeated the Blaine Bengals 8-0, Saturday afternoon on Premier Bank Rink at the Maple Grove Community Center.

***CLICK ON THE VIDEO BOX TO WATCH HIGHLIGHTS***

In the first period, Maple Grove started the scoring when senior Ethan Elias scored on a beautiful backhanded shot to make it 1-0 Crimson with 5:08 left in the period.

Later in the first, Maple Grove struck again, this time short-handed, when senior Ian Barbour, on a great assist from senior Kyle Kukkonen, scored to make it 2-0 Crimson with 2:30 left in the period.

Just 90 seconds later, on a power play, junior Sawyer Skanson scored on a rebound, with just 47 seconds left on the power play, off the shot from Barbour to put Maple Grove up 3-0 with one minute left in the first period.

In the second frame, Kukkonen scored another short-handed goal for the Crimson, making it 4-0 Maple Grove with 8:23 left in the period. A little bit later, Kukkonen found Barbour, on a beautiful pass, to make it 5-0 Crimson with 4:58 left in the second. Minutes later, junior Bennett Glad made it 6-0 with 2:14 left in the second period off a rebound.

In the third period, Kukkonen added two more assists, one to senior Henry Nelson and the other to Elias.

Maple Grove finishes the regular season with a 17-1 record and the Northwest Suburban Conference championship.