Arnold sends New Trier to state final

New Trier Green forward Jesse Arnold was admittedly tired.

Skating into the Sandburg zone, Arnold let go of a high slap shot that went in and out of Taylor Dignan’s glove for the game winning goal.

That goal came with 1:53 left to play and propelled the Trevians to a 3-2 victory over Sandburg in a Blackhawk Cup semifinal on Sunday at The Edge Ice Arena in Bensenville.

New Trier will take on its Scholastic Hockey League rival Glenbrook North at the United Center on Mar. 24 for the Blackhawk Cup and state championship. It will be Green’s 15th trip to the final and the first since 2011.

‘‘I was running out of gas just trying to get in a late couple of shifts,’’ Arnold said. ‘‘I was 1-on-2 going into their zone so I just ripped a slap shot.’’

That goal ended an intense contest that saw both Dignan and New Trier goalie John Junge make several difficult saves to keep their respective teams in the game. The Trevians came out and dominated the first period and led 2-0 on goals by Arnold and Daniel Spitz.

But just like the first two times that the Trevians (53-14-1) played the Eagles (47-14-3), Sandburg came back. The difference was that New Trier got the win this time.

Michael Mischeck scored on a rebound of Mark McNicholas’s shot with 14:55 remaining in the second period. Just 42 seconds later, Michael Florczyk tied the game by deeking out a defenseman and breaking out alone on Junge and putting a back-hander in the upper right corner.

‘‘That second goal took the air out of us,’’ New Trier coach Bob Melton said. ‘‘I feel bad for (Dignan). He’s a good kid and a good goalie but we’ll take it.’’

The Eagles controlled most of the action in the third period and forced Junge to make several tough saves. He was also helped out by the post as Sandburg put three pucks off it in the period.

‘‘It’s hard to end a game on a goal like that,’’ Junge said. ‘‘I think that we both played so well.’’

On the other end, Dignan faced three big situations. Early in the period he stopped back-to-back point blank shots. He then stuffed a breakaway shot by Andrew Koch and later stopped a penalty shot by Brian Enriquez.

‘‘I felt like we had total control of this game in the second and third periods,’’ Sandburg coach Matt McCurrie said. ‘‘That was a terrible thing for Taylor. He played great and it was a fluke goal.’’