Vintage Minnesota Hockey - History

THE RED RIVER - WAVE OF GREEN

Ten years from now, sometime during the winter of 2034-35, a group of former high school hockey players from East Grand Forks, Minnesota, will gather to celebrate and catch up.  The event will be filled with smiles and laughs and stories.

“Remember when Schmiedeberg broke his skate and a repair shop in St. Paul got it fixed in time for the second period?”

“Remember the feeling on the bench going into overtime against St. Cloud Cathedral?”

“Remember getting those gold medals and posing for photos with the championship trophy?”

The Green Wave created all sorts of memories this weekend at the Class A boys state tournament at Xcel Energy Center.  It was the most story book of storybook endings, after a 10-13-2 regular season, they started rolling in the Section 8 tournament, won three games and headed to state as the No. 4 seed.  All they did in downtown St. Paul was beat fifth seed Northern Lakes 3-0 in the quarterfinals, shocked top-seeded Hibbing/Chisholm 7-5 in the semifinals, and then stunned second-seeded and defending state champ St. Cloud Cathedral 2-1 in overtime on Saturday.  Senior Jace Van Eps, who scored the winning goal, summed everything up nicely when he said, “It was something I’ll never forget for the rest of my life.”

East Grand Forks has a strong hockey tradition. The Green Wave played at state for the 14th time this week and won previous championships in 2014 and 2015.  Earlier this season the players from those two title teams were invited to a reunion and celebration of their accomplishments.  “Our guys got to see those 27, 28-year-olds come back and they interacted with each other,” said East Grand Forks coach Tyler Palmiscno. “These guys saw how fun it was for them to come back, tell stories and be honored on the ice. And now in 10 years these guys will get to do it.”  Not long ago, few people – if any – looked at the Green Wave and thought “state champs in the making.” Who could blame them?

“We had an extremely difficult season, but we 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. “And I would say around January 15 there were very few people in Minnesota who thought we'd have that trophy right now.  And I'm not even saying that we really believed it, but I know that what we believed was if we kept showing up and kept going to work, good things happen when you commit to those principles.  “And I think that once the puck dropped for the section playoffs, all of a sudden we had a group of 20 led by a senior class that was very driven.”

Events, on and off the ice, just seemed to work in the Green Wave’s favor this weekend When Cole Schmiedeberg was sidelined by a broken skate before the semifinals.  When Cathedral freshman Bo Schmidt scored late in regulation to make it a 1-1 game, the Green Wave coaches and players gathered in a tight knot on the bench as overtime loomed.

There was some history in play.  In the 2015 championship game, East Grand Forks trailed Hermantown before rallying to win 5-4 in overtime.

“We were up by two goals with 30 seconds left in that game, standing on the same bench,” the coach said. “The message today was almost identical to that message. I mean, when you're on that bench, if you're going to overtime, like I told them, ‘If we would have said at the first meeting of the season that you are headed to overtime with an opportunity for a championship, would you take it?  Darn right you would.’  “And that's what we had. We had an opportunity to win a title. You can't look in the past.  You've got to face what’s directly in front of you.  One of our keys of the game all week and through the section tournament was a next-shift mentality, and the next shift was the first shift of overtime.  We can't control the refs calls or the bounce of the puck, but we can control our effort in overtime.  I like the way we responded.  I'm just so happy for this group of kids.

“All we had to was win three games (in section play), then win three more games.”

SPUDS OF MOORHEAD RUNNER UP CURSE BROKEN

Moorhead wasn’t leaving anything to chance this time around. 

The Spuds had been in a boys hockey championship game eight times before and they didn’t return home on Interstate 94 with a first-place trophy or blue-ribboned gold medals in tow.  The albatross of not climbing that final rung has dogged the Spuds for 33 seasons since their first championship game loss to Bloomington Jefferson under the Tier I format in 1994.  This time was going to be different they vowed.  It was going to take something very special to make program history. 

This classic will be remembered for decades. 

“There are a lot of people up north that are smiling right now and they will be for a long time,” Moorhead activities director Dean Haugo said. The Spuds left them with plenty to relish. Top-seeded Moorhead got out to a fast start and weathered a late storm to pull out a 7-6 victory over No. 2 Stillwater in the Minnesota State High School League’s Class AA Boys Hockey Championship Game on Saturday, March 8 in front of a record crowd of 20,491 at the Xcel Energy Center in downtown St. Paul. 

Senior forward Mason Kraft scored a record-tying four goals in Moorhead’s five-goal outburst and that large margin was needed as the Spuds (28-2-1) held on for dear life in the face of adversity to capture the first state championship in program history.  “We know the history, so to be remembered as the group to get the first one is really awesome,” said senior forward Brooks Cullen, who scored a goal and assisted on another in an end-to-end frenzy of play all the way to the finish. 

It appeared that Moorhead would cruise to the championship behind Kraft’s heroics.  His four goals in a period tied a longstanding record set by Eveleth’s John Mayasich in 1951.  The Spuds held a 5-1 lead after the first period, but could just produce just two more goals. The Ponies (24-7-0), also looking for their first hockey state title, didn’t wither in Moorhead’s blazing start.  Stillwater kept chipping away, eventually pulling to within 7-6 with 3:20 left in regulation time after senior forward Matthew Volkman scored two goals in less than three minutes. 

“There was no doubt Stillwater was going to rally,” Haugo said. “But I truly believe our team was prepared for this situation. This is quite remarkable to do what was necessary to get this first one.”

SLAP SHOTS

• Shakopee Head Coach -  Calvin Simon, who in his seventh year as head coach, became the first African-American head coach in tournament history.  Simon played in 2005 Tourney with Shakopee.
• Northern Lakes Head Coach - Mike Randolph, qualified for a record-tying nineteenth state tournament (the previous eighteen were with Duluth East). Randolph shares the record with the legendary Willard Ikola of Edina.
• East Grand Forks finished the regular season with a record of 10-13-2, and made it to State as the 4th seed and knocked off the top-seeded defending champions in OT to capture Class A championship.
• In process of capturing first State Championship in school history, Moorhead Spud Forward Mason Kraft managed to tie the legendary Iron Ranger - John Mayasich for most goals scored in a single period from 1951 Tourney, piling up 4 goals in the opening period of title game.
• The Red River Valley in Minnesota reined supreme in Section 8 A/AA with Moorhead & East Grand Forks (Minnesota) capturing State crowns.  Additionally, Grand Forks Central & Grand Forks Red River (North Dakota) were Champions and runner-up respectively in North Dakota hockey tourney.
• Tournament attendance: XXX