As Minnesotans we suffer through hard winters, for several reasons 4 million people seem to stick around. One of those reasons for me is this thing called the State Hockey Tournament. As a youth, my Mom would let me come home from school early to watch the games starting in Kindergarten all the way through high school. From my earliest memories as a child, this tournament has always been very special to a lot of people in this state. Neal Broten, former Gopher Hockey star, Hobey Baker winner, NHL Great, 1980 Olympian, and Stanley Cup winner once said winning the State Tournament would have been more exciting than winning the Olympics (his best finish was 3rd).
To put things in perspective on Saturday night 40 High School kids from Minnesota outdrew every pro and college team in the world (SRO 19,000 fans). And this has been going on for decades here. The tournament always draws over 100,000 people and the games are always very exciting.
The section tournaments to get to state are sometimes even more exciting with a ton of geographic rivals facing off in the section finals for a shot at the tournament. Of the 16 section finals, 5 were decided in overtime (Lakeville North, Duluth East, Eden Prairie, White Bear Lake, and Breck all advanced in miraculous fashion) and 7 were decided by 1 goal.
My personal highlights this year:
* Edina losing (actually didn't see it).
* My nephew David scoring the game winning goal in overtime in both the Section Semifinal game and Section Final to send his team Breck to the Big Dance. Couldn't have happened to a nicer kid.
* Watching a great kid like AJ Reid win a state championship and then win the Herb Brooks Award for being a credit to his school, peers, and community. I'll bet his dad is proud.
* My nephew David during his player introductions on TV, greets my son Jake with a "Happy Birthday Jake, " to which my cell phone goes bonkers!!!
*5 championship round games decided in OT, including all 3 for Duluth East and both Title games.
*My nephew David places #2 on the All Hockey Hair team.....check this video out, it is hilarious. Yeah, he's kind of a big deal.
One more highlight....this one borders on odd:
At the conclusion of each medal ceremony, the High School League hands out the Herb Brooks Award (see above). For the Girls winner, Herb Brooks' daughter presents the award and for the boys his son presents the award. To set the scene, I'm watching the girl's final and Herbie's daughter comes out to present and she's wearing a very revealing red sweater. To which my wife Debi says, "what is SHE wearing?" Two weeks later, Herbie's son shows up to the AA award ceremony in a black leather jacket he must have stolen from one of the Pet Shop Boys...to which I replied, "what is HE wearing?"
I can only conclude that Herbie had those two doing pushups, stairs and "Herbies" their whole life. This is their way of getting back at him, while he sits up in Hockey Heaven.
Congratulations to St. Thomas and Eden Prairie. By all accounts this EP team won a PeeWee State Championship, 2 Bantam State Championships and 2 state Championships. An amazing run.
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3 comments:
Too bad you didn't see the Duluth East vs. Edina game, Tony. It was epic!
First, a little background: I'm originally from Hibbing, so my hockey roots run deep from up on "da Range." My brother and I are texting back and forth during the game and I say to him "can't wait for Duluth East to score and beat the cake eaters!" He texts me back to tell me "that's funny you should say that because in Duluth, the Duluth East kids are the "cake eaters!" Apparently, even in the Duluth there are the same divisions of rich kids vs. working class.
Anyway, back to the game -- it was one of the best hockey games I've ever seen at any level. Low scoring, clean checking (no cheap shots) and it had to be decided in overtime.
An aside, RE: the TV coverage: LOVE hearing Lou Nanne's analysis, but wish KSTC45 would do something about the quality of the broadcast not being in HD. Fuzzy pictures are not good!
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