Vintage Minnesota Hockey - History

On January 17, 2009, Hockey Day Minnesota would find it’s way down to the Twin Cities for the first time.  Held in historic Phalen Park where a young Herb Brooks would play as a youth in eastside of St. Paul, and billed as Showdown in Hockey Town it would feature 5 games once again, including 2 outdoor games at the High School ranks.  Rochester John Marshall would fall to St. Paul Johnson by a 4-0 margin to kick off the day.  In the marquee High School game, Duluth East would come down to play White Bear Lake at the Xcel Energy Center.  Duluth East would put up 6 goals to WBL’s 3, winning comfortably indoors.  While this game was being played, HDM brought in something new to the mix, although we wouldn’t see the game on TV until later.  For the first time, HDM feature girls High School teams as Stillwater locked horns with Minnetonka, with Stillwater taking the victory with a 2-1 scorecard.

This year, the Gophers would take their talents on the road, and take on the St. Cloud State Huskies at the Herb Brooks National Hockey Center in St. Cloud.  It was some real fire wagon hockey at the college ranks, with the Gophers emerging victorious 8-6.  The Wild would call the Anaheim Ducks to come to town, but would not fare well as the Wild were blanked 3-0 on home ice.

Vintage Minnesota Hockey Take:

After northern Minnesota Baudette Bay was host to first x2 HDM, this was the perfect location for the Twin Cities first ever Hockey Day Minnesota, hosted at the beautiful outdoor refrigerated ice sheet within historic Phalen Park - where a young Herb Brooks learned to play hockey in eastside St. Paul.  The beautiful warming house alongside the chain linked fence rink on the net ends added to the vintage nature of outdoor hockey, prior to the fully enclosed glass rinks now seen yearly at HDM.  With light snow that fell during the games, and fans packing into the 'arena' for the marquee game featuring home-town St. Paul Johnson Governors vs. southern Minnesota Rochester John Marshall Rockets - it made for some amazing photos in stunning red (Rockets) and white/maroon (Governors) uniforms.