Making its first state tournament appearance, Chanhassen handled its business like a seasoned veteran Thursday afternoon.

After a competitive period and a half, the Storm closed strong to down unseeded Rochester Century/John Marshall 7-0 in St. Paul.

The first period was scoreless for the first 16 minutes, 39 seconds before Jack Christ put home a goal for the Storm 21 seconds prior to the first intermission to make it 1-0 Chanhassen.

“Any goal before the end of the period is going to have an effect on the game usually,” Chanhassen coach Sean Bloomfield said.

That’s where the score stayed until midway through the second, when Tyler Smith made it 2-0. Caden Lee added another goal 35 seconds later, and the avalanche was on.

Chanhassen’s Kam Hendrickson — one of the top goaltenders in state — was flawless in net.

Rochester Centry/John Marshall (22-5-2) praised Chanhassen’s team speed, which proved too difficult to keep up with.

The Storm (24-5) bounced top-ranked Minnetonka in the section finals to get to St. Paul. The tournament debutant outshot Rochester 42-12, ensuring that the Class 2A semifinals would feature a No. 2 seed for the first time since 2020.

“I was just really pleased with how we stuck to the plan. The first period of any game, especially a state tournament game, the other team is going to compete hard,” Bloomfield said. “We knew that it’d be tight to start, so really proud of the guys for sticking to the plan, sticking to the process and allowing the result to happen and not worrying about the result.”

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