Jace Van Eps has a new moniker.

“Grand Forks hero for life,” coach Tyler Palmiscno said when introducing the senior forward at Saturday’s postgame news conference.

Van Eps scored from a sharp angle 1:46 into overtime, and East Grand Forks beat St. Cloud Cathedral 2-1 in the Class A boys’ hockey final at Xcel Energy Center.

Noah Schindele made 37 saves and Cooper Hills also scored for the Green Wave, state champions for the first time since back-to-back titles in 2014 and 2015.

In the extra frame, a long shot from Jace Panzer was easily kicked aside toward the left corner by St. Cloud Cathedral goalie Keaton LeGrande. But Van Eps outhustled his defender to the loose puck and, from below the end line, shot the puck on net where it deflected off LeGrande’s leg and across the line.

Van Eps was quickly mobbed by his teammates along the boards in front of the East Grand Forks student section. “That’s something I’ll never forget for the rest of my life,” he said.

In his crease, LeGrande lay face down on the ice before being comforted by a couple of teammates.

“Just a crazy goal,” said Crusaders coach Robbie Stocker. “… Sometimes it happens. It’s not fair when a fluky goal like that goes in. There’s nothing you can really do to prevent it. It’s just how hockey goes sometimes.”

East Grand Forks was less than minute from winning the game in regulation.

Looking for the equalizer, second-seeded St. Cloud Cathedral (20-9-2) pulled its goalie with 1:20 left and, coupled with a late East Grand Forks penalty, had a 6-on-4 opportunity for the last 66 seconds. With almost everyone in the crowd standing, Bo Schmidt scored with 47.2 seconds left.

Taking a pass from Mr. Hockey finalist John Hirschfeld, Schmidt was alone low in the left circle. Schindele got part of his glove on the shot, but enough momentum remained for the puck to cross the line.

“I thought we outplayed them in the second and third, and we knew we were going to get a bounce eventually,” Hirschfeld said.

Palmiscno also coached the 2014-15 Green Wave squad that led Hermantown by two goals with 30 seconds to go yet also needed an overtime winner to earn top honors.

“The message today was almost identical to that message,” he said. “I told them that if we would have said at the first meeting of the season that you are heading to overtime with an opportunity to win a championship would you take it? Damn right you would have. And that’s what we had.

“… One of the keys to the game all week and through the sections was next-shift mentality. And the next shift was the first shift of overtime. We can control how we start overtime. We outshot them 4-1 in a minute and a half of overtime. I like the way we responded.”

He could have used the same final few words to reference the season.

Seeded fourth in the tournament, East Grand Forks (16-13-2) limped into the postseason, going 2-7-1 in its final 10 regular-season games, albeit against a tough schedule that included Warroad twice, Moorhead, Wayzata and an 11-5 loss to St. Cloud Cathedral Jan. 31.

But things quickly changed once the Green Wave started playing games where a loss meant the season was over including some redemption by beating Warroad in overtime of the section final. East Grand Forks was 4-2-2 this season in games that went past three periods.

“We’ve never lost sight of what our end goal was, and that was to win a section championship and then win a state title,” Palmiscno said.

“I would say Jan. 15 there was very few people in the state of Minnesota that thought we’d have that trophy in our locker room right now,” he added. “I’m not even saying that we really believed it, but I know that we believed if we kept showing up and kept going to work good things happen when you commit to those principles.”

Hills opened the scoring midway through the second period, stuffing home the rebound of a Panzer shot looking to stuff the puck after coming out from below the end line.

Orono takes third

Luca DeCubellis, Trey Landa and Rory Kvern each had a goal and an assist and Orono topped Hibbing/Chisholm 5-1 for third place. Ethan Pagel had two assists, and Evan Schmidt made 23 saves for the 17-11-3 Spartans.

Blake Riccio scored for the Bluejackets (20-11-0).

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