Tourney Team Preview: Alexandria

Hermantown vs Alexandria_0169.jpg — Alexandria forward Tyler Kludt (7) celebrates his goal against Hermantown during the first period Friday, March 11, 2022, in the State Boys Hockey Tournament at Xcel Energy Center in St. Paul.

By Eli Swanson

March 06, 2023 at 9:27 PM

Section 6A

Alexandria Cardinals

14-12-1

Coach: Josh Meyers

Most Recent Let’s Play Hockey Ranking: No. 17

Players to Watch: #7 F Tyler Kludt, #29 F Nicholas Peterson, #2 D Jack Lamski, #1 G Elijah Rasmusen

7th Appearance

Last Appearance: 2022

0 State Championships

Alexandria returns to the state tournament after beating Fergus Falls in overtime to win the Section 6A championship last week. The Cardinals didn’t lead in the game, until Leo Kompelien’s overtime winner.

It was a rough start to the season for Alex, with seven straight losses to begin the year and a 2-10-1 record before things turned around in January.

Since Jan. 19, the Cardinals are 12-2-0.

Senior forwards Tyler Kludt (19 goals, 22 assists) and Nick Peterson (19 goals, 10 assists) lead the way in terms of scoring, and the team has some depth with six players over 20 points on the year.

Elijah Rasmusen – a senior goalie – doesn’t have great numbers in net with an .875 save percentage, but he’s given up more than two goals in only three of his last 14 appearances.

Last year, Alexandria – the fifth-seed – beat No. 4-seed Minneapolis in the late game on Wednesday night. This time around, the unseeded Cardinals drew third-seeded Orono, a team that beat them 8-5 in the second game of the season.

The penalty kill has struggled this season – it’s currently under 80% for the year – and that’s contributed to Alex giving up more than three goals per game. On the other side, the power play is fairly average at just over 20%.

Alexandria lost both of its games against state tournament qualifiers this season, but it showed last season that it can pull an upset at state. This year against Mahtomedi, that will be a bigger task.

It’ll be confidence-inspiring for Alexandria that Mahtomedi was kept to a close game by Chisago Lakes in the Zephyrs’ section final.

The Cardinals open the state tournament against No. 3 Mahtomedi in the second Class A quarterfinal on Wednesday at 1 p.m.

Ranked Wins (Based on Feb. 23 Let’s Play Hockey Rankings): No. 12A Fergus Falls (4-0, Jan. 20; 4-1, Feb. 9; 5-4 OT, March 2), No. 13A Little Falls (3-2 OT, Jan. 31)

Ranked Losses: No. 3A Orono (8-5, Dec. 3), No. 13A Little Falls (7-2, Dec. 6), No. 5A East Grand Forks (3-2, Dec. 17), No. 14A St. Cloud Cathedral (5-1, Jan. 17), No. 16A Duluth Denfeld (5-4, Feb. 4),

Ranked Ties: N/A

By Eli Swanson

Eli is an audience engagement specialist for Forum Communications Co., with experience in producing and designing content on a variety of digital platforms. He works closely with team members to enhance content to improve audience experience.