Vintage Minnesota Hockey - History

Vintage Minnesota Hockey Take:

HDM in it's now 13th year moved to the land of Paul & Babe in chilly northern, MN Bemidj with the rink set-up on the shores of Lake Bemidj that was filled with ice anglers in their warm ice fishing shacks across the entire lake.  Bemidji event organizers were on-hand the following year taking notes from the amazing HDM that St. Cloud put on, and rightfully so did an utterly amazing job of replicating the spectacle themselves in Beaver town within their own Hockey Village that Duluth started, but St. Cloud perfected.  Last years HDM in St. Cloud, and this in Bemidji started to have a feeling where each town, and HDM spectacle was trying to 'one up' the previous host city.  I personally had not been to Bemidji since a youth where I attended Bemidji Summer Hockey School while in Pee-Wees and Bantams, but the City was much of what I recall as a child - with the exception of the bone-chilling COLD.  The HDM rink was another artificial ice sheet with an on-site reefer, that we were told by the amazingly hard working ice crew 'they were essentially piping in warmed coolant to prevent the ice from flaking and cracking as the mercury dipped to record Hockey Day freezing temperatures of -26.

The ice event crew from Arena Wharehouse deserves the weekend award for hardest working ice crew ever at a HDM, other than the locals in Moorhead trying to prevent the ice from melting away with CO2 extinguishers from 2011 HDM - Arena Warehouse with their hands in wet slush buckets repairing minor blemishes of the playing surface and cracks in the ice between periods, had the ice in tip-top shape all day under the frigid conditions.  Greenway native, and now Head Coach who is known for his legendary press-conferences was in town for the days HDM festivities leading his Beavers men over the visiting Michigan Tech Huskies 4-3 of OT, for the 1st ever Collegiate Mens game held outdoor on HDM outdoors.  Serratore was quoted as saying 'those ice crew guys deserve a medal' the following night at his press conference following the Saturday tilt, within the warm comfy confines of Sanford center when addressing the local media about his teams experience playing outdoors Friday night.  Just as the previous year in St. Cloud and the now yearly Dream State show by State of Hockey was featuring the Spuds team, the traveling camera crew of Dream State made the trip to Bemidji alongside the Skippers of Minnetonka that too had tournament aspirations under the tutelage of Sean Goldsworthy - son of former Minnesota North Stars fan favorite Bill Goldsworthy.  The Skippers would not be denied and came away with the victory on national TV 5-2, over a tough Andover team led by Former Air Force One Presidential Pilot - Mark Manney