“It started snowing which I thought was really fun to be out playing in the snow,” Cretin-Derham Hall sophomore forward Abby Broz said after the game. “The atmosphere was amazing. Everybody was just so excited, win or loss, that would have been a great game either way to play in. Once in a lifetime.”

For Broz, the event set on top of the park’s primary soccer fields held special meaning for her in that it was a homecoming, of sorts.

“I grew up playing soccer there on those exact fields, all the way up until last year,” Broz said last week. “Being able to go back out there and play on White Bear’s turf, kind of, both soccer and hockey, I think it’s really cool. It’s good for our team, it’s good to be back out in White Bear and I hope everyone is just thankful for this opportunity, because it’s huge to be a part of this.”

Broz was raised in Hugo, where her family still lives, on a pond she grew up skating on with her siblings near the city’s southern border with White Bear Lake. She played her youth hockey in the White Bear Lake Area Hockey Association and recalls her fondest memory as a young Bear came in a tournament in Duluth in her first 12 and under season. “We ended up winning the tournament, which was pretty huge for us because no one expected our little U12 White Bear team to win anything.”

Abby Broz with a Forest Lake backchecker in pursuit at Polar Lakes Park in White Bear Township on Thursday, Jan. 26, 2023 (MHM Photo / Jeff Wegge)

As an eighth grader, Broz made the varsity squad at White Bear Lake High School and finished the 2020-21 season with a pair of goals to go with three assists in 19 games for the Bears. But Broz and her parents, Roger and Michelle, felt she needed more from an academics standpoint and was not getting the help she needed at White Bear Lake. That, and another motivation, had the family looking elsewhere for Abby to finish high school. 

“They thought it’d be cool for me to go experience a different place than somewhere I’ve always grown up,” Broz said. “Then we went and we toured (Cretin-Derham Hall) and I loved the school, I loved the team here, I loved, basically, everything about the different dynamics, like all the diversity of people. It was really fast the way it happened. There was like one day, I’m still at White Bear and then the next day I’m like, well, I’m going to Cretin next year.”

She was familiar with Raiders coach Tony Scheid, having played for him as an eighth grader on the 2021 Minnesota Hockey District 2 Girls High Performance 14 team at that level’s Spring Festival in Duluth, so that eased the transition. The move to an SEC rival came as a shock to Broz’s former teammates, who now must face her twice per season, but she still has friends among her relatively new foes.

“Obviously, there’s some tension because I transferred out but I still text a lot of them,” Broz said. “They all support me and I still support them.”

Broz admitted to a small case of FOMO (fear of missing out) when the announcement was made a year ago revealing White Bear Lake as the host of Hockey Day Minnesota in 2023. But the blow was softened when the Raiders were added to the list of participants. 

“I was like, of course, the year I leave, you know, they get to go host,” Broz said. “It’s huge that we got to be a part of it and I’m just glad I kind of get to share it with my old roots because, you know, it’s like old versus new kind of all just mixed into one giant place.”

The Raiders found themselves in an early hole when Forest Lake’s Ava Saxe beat Cretin-Derham Hall goalie Grace Kemp just 40 seconds after the pregame fireworks and the Rangers left the ice after one period clinging to a 1-0 lead. But senior Lily Anderson’s goal 4:36 into the second evened the score and sophomore Hope Hadac’s shorthanded goal with 3:02 remaining in the period gave the Raiders a 2-1 lead after two. 

That’s how it stayed into the late stages of the third before Hadac’s twin sister, Stella, provided Cretin-Derham Hall the cushion it needed at the 13:13 mark before Anfang capped off the scoring with 46 seconds left. 

“We wanted to make a memory and we talked about, win or lose, it’s gonna be a great memory but let’s get the [W] and let’s go for it,” Scheid said. “And they were all in and they were excited. They played with enthusiasm and no fear and they’re just a great group of kids.”

When all was said and done, Broz had nothing but praise for her community’s efforts, responding enthusiastically “It’s sick” when asked about her first impression of the event. 

“We walked in and they had music playing, there’s fires going, everybody’s just like wandering around like lost puppies, just enjoying the moment. No one was kind of paying attention to the game. They were just amazed how everything was set up.

“It’s just so cool out here. It’s so cool to be part of.”

The post Home Turf Revisited appeared first on Minnesota Hockey Magazine.

No matter how many children they raise in the sport, each of them experiences that one first-ever hockey practice and everything that comes with it: The excitement, the anticipation and, for many, the trepidation. Child and parent alike are susceptible to one or all of these feelings — and more —on Day 1 of a youth hockey “career.”

It’s one thing to walk into a rink to watch a sibling play, but what goes through a player’s mind as he or she steps into an arena lobby or locker room filled with peers on the verge of making their organized hockey debut?

In her new book, I’m Going to Be a Hockey Star, A.L. Wegwerth tells that story through the eyes and imagination of one little boy whose aspirations already extend well beyond his immediate surroundings. Available through Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Target and Walmart, among others, the 32-page hard-cover picture book was released on Nov. 8, just in time for the Christmas season.

“The premise of the book is just a little kid getting ready for hockey practice and it’s kind of showing you in the first half what to expect; you know, you’re going to fall and all that stuff,” Wegwerth said. “But then as it goes on, he’s dreaming of what he will do when he’s a hockey star.”

A.L. Wegwerth is a pseudonym for Amber Ross, a 15-year publishing veteran, the last 13 of which has been spent focused on children’s publishing.

“I told my husband that when I got famous, I was going to use my maiden name,” a chuckling Ross said over coffee in a White Bear Lake café near where she and her husband, Dan, raise and coach their three children, ages 6, 9 and 11.

Not surprisingly, Ross says the book is “very much informed by me watching and helping coach my kids.”

Amber Ross, aka A.L. Wegworth (riverhorsebooks.com photo)

“This is my fifth book, but it’s definitely the one that’s closest to my heart just because it relates so much with my kids and everything,” Ross said. “They were so sick of reading of it by the end.

“It was like, ‘Okay, can I read it to you now?’

‘Mom, you just read it?’

‘Well, I know but I changed some things.’

‘It sounds the same.’

‘Well, it really doesn’t but, okay.’

“They had a consulting role, for sure,” Ross added.

Enhanced by Canadian illustrator Alana McCarthy’s colorful, eye-popping illustrations, the book takes the reader through his vision of the upcoming practice and how his hard work and skill development puts him on a path to hockey stardom.

Despite her Canadian heritage, McCarthy did not come from a hockey background, so Ross worked closely with her, sharing photos of her own children, to inform McCarthy’s drawings regarding apparel, jersey fit and hand position on sticks.

“So, it was kind of fun to be able to direct her in that too,” Ross said. “I got to be more involved than a typical author would be.”

Published by St. Paul-based independent children’s book publisher, River Horse Children’s Books, the concept for I want to Be a Hockey Star was brought to Ross by her friend and long-time former colleague John Rahm, who launched River Horse after they were each let go by their previous employer due to the pandemic.

“Since I coached and I played, he asked me to write something for his list,” Ross said. “He wanted something for beginning hockey players, like what to expect when they get on the ice. I was like, ‘OK, well, that’s a little bit boring.’ So, I actually gave him what I call three and a half ideas of different ways we could approach it and this was my half idea.

“I knew him well enough that I knew he would get where I was going with it and he said, ‘I like that one, do that.’”

Ironically, the former Amber Wegwerth got a late start in her hockey career. Unlike her book’s subject, Ross did not skate competitively until the age of 15 but was a quick study and played her prep hockey for late-90s Minnesota girls’ high school powerhouse, Roseville, skating to a state tournament with legendary names like Curtin (Ronda and Renee) and Brodt (Chelsey) in 1998.

“I always call myself a pioneer because it was right when girls hockey was getting big in Minnesota,” said Ross, by day a managing editor for Lerner Publishing Group. “And then I had the opportunity to do it in college, too, at St. Ben’s.”

Along with her twin sister — and Roseville teammate — Kelly, Ross was a member of the first class at the College of Saint Benedict to play all four years with the school’s newly-formed women’s varsity hockey program. Ross collected 11 goals among 34 points as one of only three players to play in all 103 games from 1998 to 2002, serving as a co-captain as a senior.

It’s a personal story which pairs well with the dream-big message Ross sends to her readers in I’m Going to Be a Hockey Star.

The post Puck Dreams appeared first on Minnesota Hockey Magazine.

Minnesota had the tables turned on them Sunday night when former Wild players Mikael Granlund, Luke Kunin and their Nashville Predators teammates returned to Minnesota to pin a second-straight loss on the Wild, putting a damper on an emotional night in which long-time captain Mikko Koivu’s No. 9 was retired. 

Nashville captain Roman Josi scored twice, including a critical power-play goal 1:05 into the third period, and goaltender David Rittich turned away 26 of 28 Minnesota shots to lift the Predators to a 6-2 win before a purely coincidental 19,009 at Xcel Energy Center. Matt Boldy and Jordan Greenway each tallied for the Wild while Minnesota goaltender Kaapo Kahkonen allowed four goals on 23 shots. 

“This is as special a night as possible and it kind of sucks,” Minnesota defenseman Matt Dumba said. “But we’ll put it behind us, have a good night with with our old teammates and celebrate Mikky.”

Mikko Koivu poses in front of his number retirement banner with his mother, Tuire, his father, Jukka, and his children Kasper, Sofie and Oskar on Sunday night at Xcel Energy Center. (MN Wild/photo by Bruce Kluckhohn)

In a moving pre-game ceremony hosted by Bally Sports North’s Wild play-by-play voice Anthony LaPanta, Koivu’s parents and children were on hand along with his brother, Saku, and niece, Ilona. Niklas Backstrom and Kyle Brodziak were among several former teammates in the building but they represented the group on the ice while Wild owner Craig Leipold and GM Bill Guerin rounded out the dignitaries. 

Wild fans watched via the scoreboard video screen as the guest of honor emerged through the wooden doors of the team dressing room, walk the short hallway to the bench and onto the ice as he had done so many times before in uniform. The roar of the crowd crescendoed with each stride until it peaked as he appeared in the arena, acknowledging the fans’ love with waves as he made his way to his seat.

Leipold spoke first and relayed the story of Koivu receiving the captaincy for the first time while Guerin presented Koivu with a custom Rolex engraved watch. Backstrom and Brodziak presented framed montage of images representing Koivu’s career in Minnesota before current Wild captains Jared Spurgeon, Matt Dumba and Marcus Foligno bestowed a new set of custom-fitted golf clubs upon Koivu.

In a touching speech, interrupted several times by cheers and random shouts of “we love you” from from fans, Koivu could hardly have left anyone out as he thanked his family, teammates, coaches, GMs, support personnel, Leipold and, most of all, the fans of ‘The State of Hockey.’

“Having my jersey number retired by the Minnesota Wild is a greater honor than I know how to say … in English or in Finnish,” Koivu said in his speech.

Nashville’s Mikael Granlund and Minnesota’s Jared Spurgeon await the ceremonial puck drop by former teammate Mikko Koivu prior to Sunday night’s game at Xcel Energy Center. (MN Wild/photo by Bruce Kluckhohn)

All fans in attendance received commemorative “Koivu 9” replica banners and Wild players donned special Koivu #9 jerseys for on-ice warmups. 

Koivu dropped the puck for the ceremonial opening faceoff flanked by former teammates Mikael Granlund, now a Nashville Predators assistant captain, and Spurgeon, the chosen heir to Koivu’s Wild captaincy.

Selected in the first round (No. 6 overall) in the 2001 NHL Draft, Koivu scored his first NHL goal Nov. 6, 2005 against Jean-Sebastian Giguere and the Anaheim Ducks. Koivu was named the team’s first full-time team captain on Oct. 20, 2009 and followed that up a day later with a goal, an assist and the shootout winner to beat the Colorado Avalanche. 

Mikko Koivu surveys the landscape during a break in an Oct. 6, 2018 game against the Vegas Golden Knights at Xcel Energy Center. (MHM Photo / Rick Olson)

Koivu became first player to skate 1000 games in a Minnesota Wild sweater on Dec. 1, 2019 when he tallied the decisive goal in a shootout win over the Dallas Stars at Xcel Energy Center. In 1,035 games over 16 NHL seasons (2005-2021), Koivu recorded 711 points (206-505–711) with 594 OIM and a plus-68 rating.  His 1028 games played, 504 assists, 709 points, 2,270 shots and 252 power-play points all rank first in franchise history. 

Koivu finished his career with a brief seven-game stint as a Columbus Bluejacket to begin the 2020-21 season where he registered his final goal and assist. 

The Wild got off to an adrenaline-fueled start, notching the game’s first five shots, but Filip Forsberg netted Nashvilles’s first shot of the game at the 8:24 mark of the first period for a 1-0 Predators lead. Less than five minutes later, however, Wild rookie Matt Boldy pounced on a loose puck along the goal line to Rittich’s left and buried his 12th of the season from a sharp angle with assists from Freddy Gaudreau and Kevin Fiala. 

Wild defenseman Jared Spurgeon battles Nashville’s Mattias Ekholm as Predators forward Eeli Tolvanen lurks behind. (MN Wild/photo by Bruce Kluckhohn)

The 1-1 score held up until near the midpoint of the second period when Josi skated straight up the slot, completely unimpeded, and slipped a backhand shot between Kahkonen’s glove and the top of his left pad at 8:44. But Minnesota answered back at 11:10 with Jordan Greenway’s fifth goal of the year on a power move to the net from the left circle, beating Rittich inside the far post. 

Unfortunately for the the evening’s festivities, it took just 50 seconds for Nashville’s fourth line to answer when Philip Tomasino jumped on a juicy Kahkonen rebound to score into a wide-open net for his ninth of the season.

Evason twice pulled Kahkonen for an extra attacker but that only resulted in an empty-net goals by Forsberg at 17:42 and Nick Cousins at 19:31.

Greenway said, win or lose, the ceremony was a great recognition of what Koivu meant to the franchise.

“Obviously, we would have liked to get the win for him, it would have made the night that much better,” Greenway said. “But when it comes down to it, that’s a once in a lifetime thing you’re able to be a part of and it’s inspirational … Even with a loss, it’s incredible and something that will definitely be celebrated.”

The post A Legacy Lauded appeared first on Minnesota Hockey Magazine.

Although it wasn’t included in Bally Sports North’s slate of televised games, Minnesota State took to the outdoor ice with a team loaded with experience on Hockey Day Minnesota’s biggest stage. In fact, of the seven Mavericks who have participated in the event previously, six of them skated their second games on Hockey Day ice in Mankato.

“Both experiences were great on their own … but I think this one was extra special because it’s been a week long event and just to be able to close it out, it’s been pretty great,” said senior Taylor Wemple, who skated for St. Cloud State in the Huskies’ shootout win over over Minnesota Duluth in 2018 on the shores of St. Cloud’s Lake George. 

The list includes senior defenseman, and team captain, Anna Wilgren, who sat out the outdoor game, as she will her team’s remaining games this season, to preserve eligibility after missing much of her senior year on the U.S. women’s hockey residency roster. Wilgren, who played in MSU’s bitterly-cold 2-1 win over Bemidji State in 2019′ event, was one of Team USA’s final three cuts prior to the 2022 Olympic roster reveal at the NHL’s Winter Classic. 

Senior assistant captains Jessia Kondas, Brittyn Fleming and Claire Butorac are also Bemidji veterans along with fellow senior Brooke Bryant. Meanwhile, another transfer, junior Sydney Shearen, skated for the Gophers in their 2-1 win over Ohio State in 2020 at Parade Stadium in Minneapolis.

Butorac, a former Andover High School star, had the added benefit of hosting her alma mater which shut out Edina 4-0 to open Hockey Day’s televised action on Saturday morning. She spent time with the team showing them around the rink at Mayo Clinic Health System Event Center.

“It was fun just to see all the little girls I used to coach that are in high school now and see my high school coaches and just wish them luck before they got to come out here and experience Mankato,” Butorac.

Teammates who had yet to play in the Hockey Day environment asked those who had for advice going into the weekend but it mostly came down to preparations for the cold. The majority of the conversations, the players said, concentrated on sharing memories they’ll hold onto forever.

“The key of these games is to just have fun,” said Shearen, a Hugo, Minn. native who played her high school hockey for White Bear Lake. “You only get this opportunity once in a lifetime; I was lucky enough to get twice.”

Butorac says this experience easily ranks in her top five as a Maverick.

“It’s awesome, this is a great stadium to play in,” Butorac said. “This town supports our school so much, so I’m very grateful to be a Maverick, especially today.”

The post Twice in a Lifetime Experience appeared first on Minnesota Hockey Magazine.

The purple duo reunited to put a trio of pucks behind current MSU women’s assistant coach, and the program’s most decorated player, Shari (Vogt) Dickerman, in yellow. Dickerman was gracious in defeat, however. 

“Fisher and Bunker seemed to migrate to the same line just like the old days so it was fun to see them kind of shine a little bit,” Dickerman said. “Hopefully the crowd got fired up for those guys back in town.”

Despite a four-year gap in her tenure as a player and/or coach at Minnesota State, Dickerman has either played with or coached nearly all of the alumni game participants and even those she didn’t, like Fisher and Bunker, she knows well.

“This was awesome that this many people were able to make it,” said Dickerman, a four-time All-American and team MVP (2000-04) and Patty Kazmaier Award finalist as a senior.

Fisher said a few of the former players came down Friday and attended the MSU men’s alumni game together followed by a gathering with the whole group on Saturday. Fisher added, “the turnout was massive this year, so it was nice to have 20 girls on each team.”

The former South St. Paul High School star who racked up 173 goals and 345 points in 155 games as a Packer says she doesn’t play much hockey anymore so it was kind of nice to play with different people, Bunker notwithstanding.

“Our objective for the purple team was if you had four in the zone, then you couldn’t go in there,” Fisher quipped. “So we’d always want to keep someone out high cherry picking.”

Like Fisher, Dickerman says she rarely straps on the pads anymore but had a lot of fun in this environment.

“It kind of comes back like riding a bike, only I’m tired after about three minutes,” joked Dickerman who was hoping to only play half the game but went the full 40 minutes when her team’s other goalie unexpectedly could not make it. 

Fisher confirmed there was plenty of trash talk out there but Dickerman was oblivious to all of it. 

“I’m sure the bench was chirping me quite a bit but I couldn’t hear them over in my own area, so I didn’t get to hear any,” Dickerman said with a smile. 

Told of what Fisher said of the purple team’s game plan, Dickerman complimented Fisher’s skating, saying she “still can fly,” before getting in a playful shot of her own.

“Far blue, I think that’s kind of her spot, so that’s why she scored a lot of points.”

The post Welcome Back appeared first on Minnesota Hockey Magazine.

Ryan Carter and Jon Anderson reveal 2023’s Hockey Day Minnesota host city.

Minnesota Wild Director of Community Relations and Hockey Partnerships, Wayne Petersen, made the announcement alongside White Bear Lake Local Organizing Committee members Corey Roberts, Ryan Carter and former White Bear Lake and Gopher forward Jon Anderson. The northeast suburb has a long hockey history, producing such hockey greats as Moose Goheen, Elwyn “Doc” Romnes and Hobey Baker Award winner Brian Bonin.

“It’s a once in a lifetime chance for any community and for us in White bear to to have this opportunity, it’s a real blessing for us,” Anderson said. “There’s some real strong history there, going way back when … so I’m looking forward to telling that story.”

The site for the event is actually in neighboring White Bear Township at Polar Lakes Park along I-35E just north of Highway 96.

Considering the tremendous job done by the Mankato community in hosting a well-organized and memorable event of great scale, the committee would appear to have its work cut out for them. 

“Clearly we have a lot of work in front of us,” said Cory Roberts who, along with Anderson and Nick Guzzo, co-chairs the local organizing committee. “We certainly want to make our event unique to White Bear, as well. It doesn’t necessarily have to be bigger than every Hockey Day Minnesota, it just needs to be unique.”

The event will mark two straight years with a heavy Ryan Carter presence. The former Minnesota State and Wild forward grew up in and played his high school hockey in White Bear Lake. Carter was a Minnesota Mr. Hockey finalist as a senior for the Bears in 2002 helped Anderson with the reveal on Bally’s Sports North.

“Well, I think I can sum it up this way, I’ve never said no to a party so, back-to-back parties, it’s gonna be fun, right?” Carter said. “White Bear Lake, we’re a proud community, a proud hockey community and I don’t doubt that we’re gonna represent Hockey Day Minnesota very well.”

(Photo courtesy of Vintage Minnesota Hockey)

The post Go Bears! appeared first on Minnesota Hockey Magazine.

A shutout is no small feat under normal circumstances but this one was far from ordinary. With starting goaltender Caelin Brueske’s jersey hanging from the glass behind the East bench, junior Luca Barnett stepped into the crease for his teammate, who missed the game due to illness, stopping all 10 West shots in his first-ever varsity appearance. 

“Just stop the puck, that’s all I was thinking about,” Barnett said of his varsity debut, holding a mini hockey stick tight to his chest. “I don’t think it really hit me until the game was over and I was surrounded by everybody screaming my name.”

“Our guys went out there and played for him to make sure that he could get that one,” East coach Adam Fries said of his long-haired emergency goaltender.

Mankato East junior goaltender Luca Barnett is laser-focused on the puck in the third period of his 5-0 shutout win over Mankato West in his first varsity appearance for the Cougars at Minnesota State’s Blakeslee Stadium in Mankato. (David Faulkner / SPX Sports)

In a game marked by blowing and drifting snow delaying puck drop by 14 minutes and leading to multiple first-period shoveling stoppages, Cougars junior defenseman Shae Gavin plowed through the snow for two goals and an assist in the first 17 minutes. Gavin took a break between scoring his eighth and ninth of the season to help set up Parker Anthony for his sixth of the year for a 3-0 East lead after one period.

Olsen said the Cougars adjusted to the conditions quicker than his Scarlets in that stickhandling through the snow drifts would prove to be difficult.

“We really struggled to get the puck out of our own end,” West coach Nate Olsen said. “What we needed to be doing was just shooting it high off the glass, getting it out and letting it run.”

East did not go undefeated vs. the snow as Cougar forward Quintin Steindl’s first-period breakaway opportunity was thwarted by a snow pile in the slot. Later in the period, Gavin found himself in a similar situation but maintained control and scored. “I let him know,” laughed Gavin, referring to Steindl.

“It was very frustrating,” said Steindl through a smile lifting his eye-black covered cheeks. “I got a lot of jabs from my teammates and stuff. … It’s one to remember, though.” 

What Steindl will remember more is Anthony finding him streaking up the slot with a pass and slamming home his sixth of the season late in the second period to close out the game’s scoring. 

But, as Olsen says, the game made for plenty of memories to go around for both teams and the final outcome will land pretty low on the list no matter what jersey was worn.

“They’re going to remember the locker room and their buddies,” Olsen said. “It was as pure as the game gets out here with the snow and a little wind. In Minnesota, what more can you ask for?”

The post Cougars Win East-West Snow Down appeared first on Minnesota Hockey Magazine.

The Cougars (15-5-0, 7-3-0 in Big Nine conference play) outshot the Scarlets (4-14-1, 3-8-0) 33-6 for the game but West goaltender Alyana Smith kept her team in it, making 23 of her 28 saves through two periods while surrendering just two goals. But Keller sandwiched two of her three goals in the final period around Tibodeau’s tally to finish the game with 27 on the season, including five against the Scarlets.

Ashley Fischer opened the scoring at 7:10 of the first period for the Cougars and the lead remained 1-0 until Keller doubled it midway through the second. Tibodeau’s third-period goal at the 10:08 mark, which came on the game’s lone power play, was set up by Jess Eykyn whose 17th assist on the season gave her at least a point in 11 consecutive games.

The post Keller tricks Scarlets appeared first on Minnesota Hockey Magazine.

Members of the University of Minnesota men’s hockey team played shinny on one of the ten pond hockey rinks set up adjacent to the NHL rink. (MHM Photo / Rick Olson)

“It’s such a wonderful atmosphere,” Wild coach Dean Evason said after the team’s fifth-consecutive loss. “Obviously, you want to leave with a good feeling but there are so many great things that have happened here the last couple of days.”

The coldest game in NHL history went on without a hitch, complete with multiple pond hockey games, a lumberjack demonstration, simulated ice fishing and a four-song first-intermission concert by country music star, Thomas Rhett. Nearly 40,000 people braved the frigid temps 

“I was looking over my shoulder for a polar bear, that’s how cold it was out there,” Wild assistant captain Marcus Foligno said.  “To see the fans stacked to the top, bracing the cold, that’s why we have the best fans, I believe. You could hear them and the cheer when we scored, too, was kind of an echo and it was a great feeling to play in this game.”

The Blues, who bussed to Target Field and entered the stadium adorned in beach wear, may have had a psychological edge early on in a game which saw the temp at -5.7 degrees Fahrenheit at puck drop and plummet from there. 

“You do suck a little wind out there,” Foligno said. “It’s tough to breathe that deep cold air but, I mean, you’re so caught up in the thrill of the game that it was a really fun atmosphere.”

St. Louis forward Jordan Kyrou watches his shot elude Wild goaltender Cam Talbot’s glove for his second goal of the game in the second period of Minnesota’s 6-4 Winter Classic loss to the Blues at Target Field. (MHM Photo / Rick Olson)

The game itself was primarily a 60-minute slog of a contest dominated by the Blues, a faster, more rugged squad for much of the night. Jordan Kyrou’s four-point (2-2–4) second period helped turn a 1-1 game into a 6-2 St. Louis lead after two periods and should have brought an end to Wild starting goaltender Cam Talbot’s rough night even if he hadn’t left the game due to a lower-body injury.

Wild coach Dean Evason doesn’t see it that way, however.

“We wouldn’t have taken him out of that game,” Evason said. “He’s a battler, he’s a competitive guy, we don’t take him out of that game because he’s still going to give us a chance to come back.”

Goals by Ryan Hartman and Kevin Fiala and some too-little-too-late inspired play in the final period, after Kaapo Kahkonen was pulled for an extra attacker with more than eight minutes remaining in regulation, made it semi-interesting. The question is, where was that effort for two lackluster periods in a game with so much riding on it in terms of both playoff positioning and national perception?

“It’s embarrassing, I think, the first two periods,” Wild forward Mats Zuccarello said. “You have 40,000 people coming, freezing their asses off and we’re playing like that. … There’s no excuses. It’s cold, it’s cold for both teams, the ice is bouncy for both teams, they just outplayed us for 40 minutes.

“It’s unfortunate it happened on a great night like this when a lot of people leave their house in this cold to support us and we give them a performance like that.”

Deer “roamed” Lake Winter Classic as people fished and made s’mores over a fire pit throughout the game. (MHM Photo / Rick Olson)

Kirill Kaprizov came to play, potting Minnesota’s first goal just 25 seconds after Blues forward David Perron opened the scoring and chipped in two assists. But that goal, redirected off the stick of Blues defenseman Niko Mikkola, and Rem Pitlick’s shot that ramped up a stick before bouncing off the back of a completely unaware Blues goalie Jordan Binnington, was all Minnesota could muster for 40 minutes. 

“They got to their game quicker than we got to ours and we didn’t get to ours, obviously, until the end,” Evason said. “We talked to the group about our sense of urgency has to be way quicker than the last 10 minutes of a hockey game when we’re pulling goalies. 

“They advanced and then they used their skill to score goals once they got in there.” 

That’s troubling, even with Joel Eriksson Ek, Jared Spurgeon and Jonas Brodin all sidelined. The same group somehow mustered 18 of its 33 total shots in the final period to finish with a flurry but it was still mostly a no-show performance. Opinions varied on the impact of the 11-day break between games leading up to the Winter Classic with Evason allowing for the fact his team was rusty.

“Hockey players need to play hockey, not practice hockey. We practiced well, got our touches and all that kind of stuff but, you know, you’ve got that rhythm of a season … and, unfortunately, now we’ve got another four days before we get going again.

“The situation is exactly what it is and we’ve got to find a way to correct our game here real quickly.”

Zuccarello, on the other hand, refused to let himself and his teammates off the hook.

“It doesn’t matter, it’s a big game for us. We lost four in a row, we’ve got to come out with some push and urgency and we didn’t do it. I don’t care when we last played, that is not acceptable for us as a team. I think we all know it.”

The post Winter Anticlimactic appeared first on Minnesota Hockey Magazine.

His flag bearing mission accomplished, a gleeful Riley makes his way back to his proud parents. (MHM Photo / Rick Olson)

SAINT PAUL — Less than an hour prior to the Minnesota Wild’s Nov. 2 home game against the Ottawa Senators, 8-year-old Riley Kane was asked to reveal his favorite Wild player.

“Kaprizov,” Kane said of Wild forward Kirill Kaprizov, through his endearing grin. “He scores a lot of goals.”

At that moment, however, the Wild’s $45-million-man had not done so through eight games of the 2021-22 season. When Kaprizov buried his first regular-season goal since May 7 in overtime to lift the Wild to a 5-4 win over the Sens, perhaps no one, including Kaprizov himself, was happier than Kane watching from his seat in Suite 24 at Xcel Energy Center.

It was a fitting way to cap off the Wild’s annual Hockey Fights Cancer Awareness Night, an evening which saw Wild players warm up in lavender jerseys, the color representing all forms of cancer, and fans holding up signs honoring loved ones lost to the devastating disease. The children of Tom Kurvers, the late Wild assistant general manager who passed away from lung cancer June 21, 2021, led the ‘Let’s Play Hockey’ chant prior to puck drop.

Although Kapriov’s goal may have been a fortunate coincidence that night, Kane’s presence, unfortunately, was not. Kane, who has been fighting his own battle against cancer, was selected by the Wild to be the game’s honorary flag bearer, a youth hockey player charged with planting the team’s flag at center ice as the game’s combatants step onto the rink before each Minnesota home game.

At Riley’s routine annual exam in December of 2020, his doctor noticed a lump on one of his testicles. The doctor thought it was a hernia and referred the Kanes to a specialist. Pandemic-related scheduling issues pushed that appointment back into February and, upon examination, the specialist immediately referred them to Minneapolis Children’s Hospital. Two days later, Riley underwent surgery to remove a tumor from the affected testicle and, on Feb. 17, the biopsy results came back confirming the Kane family’s worst fear: The tumor was cancerous.

“It was pretty heart wrenching,” said Riley’s father Jeff, who lost his father to lung cancer two years ago. “At that point we’d kind of expected it. Not to say it wasn’t still a shock, but it feels like your stomach just drops out and it’s tough.”

“You feel helpless because you can’t fix it,” added Riley’s mom, Tera. “You can bring him to his appointments and you can connect him with all the right people, but you can’t fix him. You have to hope that the doctors and the nurses and everybody else is able to.”

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