One thing I recognized early was the tradition of outstanding Eveleth goaltenders.  At the Hippodrome, I saw the big photo of Oscar Almquist, who had been an All-American at St. Mary’s in Winona and later became one of the great high school coaches at Roseau.  At the other end of the rink was a big picture of Mike Karakas, when he was playing for the Chicago Blackhawks.  Then there were the photos of Frankie Brimsek, who was a star for the Boston Bruins and one of the best players in the NHL and Sam LoPresti, who played for the Blackhawks.  We were all aware that both Karakas and Brimsek has been NHL Rookies of the Year.  Can you imagine that Eveleth High School had a ten-year period when their starting goalies were Karakas, Brimsek, and LoPresti from 1926-1935?

Goaltending in my era was so different. It was just about playing the angles.  We never did the V-drop, we had never even heard of it.  If you were a good skater, you could move up and back and keep the best angle.  Despite what a lot of people used to think, you wanted to have one of your better skaters in net because you had to be so good on your edges.  It was weird but a lot of kids around my age played goalie in their boots so I had a big advantage over them.  Once I started playing a lot, the other kids told me I was good and my confidence was strong.

As much as we all liked hockey, we played just about every sport imaginable in our neighborhood.  We had a close-knit group of boys who did everything together and it seemed like just about everybody participated, no matter what their skill level was.  Without all the technology of today and in the midst of a Depression, we were fortunate to just have each other to hang around with and do active things all the time.

Basically, we lived outside with our buddies. Nobody every seemed to be inside – there was radio but no television and let’s face it, there just wasn’t a lot of room in our homes, either.  Our parents gave us a lot of freedom.  We never missed any meals and we had to be home by a certain hour but we were in the safety of other kids and our parents didn’t worry about us.  We not only played at the rinks and playgrounds but on the streets and in the alleys.

Hockey was the favorite sport of most of us but we played a ton of outside basketball on rims attached to garages, playing 21 and four-horses.  We played baseball and football at various places around town.  We just went from activity to the other, improvising as we went.  Bocce ball and horseshoes; you name it, we played it.  It was competitive but not mean-spirited and this was how we climbed the social ladder. You name it and we played it – croquet, softball, golf, tetherball and many others.

Willard Ikola (center front) as an eighth grader on Eveleth’s 1945-46 team.

Eveleth had a good recreation department and one summer, they employed Cliff Thompson, the high school and junior college hockey coach, up at the ballpark. We grew to learn that he was a fantastic baseball coach but as hockey players, when we found out he was going to be up there, we just flocked to the place.  Myself and the others idolized the guy.  On Saturday morning at the Hippodrome, when we would see him up in the stands watching, let me tell you the play would pick up because we wanted to impress him and play for him some day.  Each week someone would whisper, “Hey, Coach Thompson is here” and things really got rolling.  There was no question that we played harder when he was there and he showed up every week. We wondered if he was picking his team for five or six years down the road.

While we had our disagreements when we played our sports and games, we settled our own problems and things would always get back to normal.  I guess that’s how we learned how to manage things.  It was great for teaching us creativity and how to be leaders.  As a kid, everybody seemed to have a nickname and mine wasn’t real original.   It was simply… “IKE”.

With my brother Roy playing at Colorado College, I was already thinking about going to college and playing at that level and becoming a physical education instructor and coach.  It wasn’t a tough decision when I was offered the chance to play with Coach Thompson’s club.  I figured I would have a heckuva better chance getting a hockey scholarship than a band scholarship.

Half of the title team from 1945 was back to defend the state title in 1945-46; guys like Ronnie Martinson, Andy Gambucci, Bice Ventrucci and Milan Begich.  There were only 11 players on the first state title team and we had just 10 players and myself on that year’s squad.  At 5’4″ and 100 pounds, I was not an imposing figure in the net as a 13-year-old and players could shoot over my shoulder and hit the corner.  However, I wasn’t intimidated by the older players because I had played shinny with them for years and knew them well. Plus, they were good about not firing the puck at my head.

Willard Ikola as an Eveleth Golden Bear. (Photo courtesy of Ikola Archives – VintageMinnesotaHockey

As for practices, in those days, it consisted almost entirely of scrimmaging. There was very little drill work or concentration on fundamentals.  Coach Thompson, like most coaches of that era, was never on skates but on the bench with his boots on.  Actually, I never saw Cliff ever skate, not once!  Coach never talked to me about goaltending, not once in the five years I played for him.  I noticed that he would call the forwards or defensemen over for some short words of advice but it was almost always just scrimmaging.

Ronnie Drobnick, of course, was the senior goalie and was expected to play all the games.  He never did give me any special treatment or tutoring, either, but I just watched what he did and tried to emulate him and all the other great goalies I had seen play in Eveleth.  Ronnie got yellow jaundice and was out for about three weeks in the middle of the season and I was thrust in the goal as an 8th-grader.  In those four games, we won three games with ease and tied Roseau 3-3.  Ronnie came back to finish the season and I didn’t even get to go with the team to the state tournament, but it really didn’t bother me.  Most teams didn’t have a backup goalie in those days.  I didn’t even earn a letter for that year.

Dialed to WEVE, our local radio station, I listened to us compete in the state tournament.  We lost to Rochester 2-1 in the semifinals and then beat St. Paul Johnson to take third.  Ron Martinson later told me when we were at Michigan that some of the guys weren’t following training rules and he didn’t think they were serious enough.

Ikola is lifted up by his teammates high above a kneeling John Mayasich as Eveleth coach.

My freshman year, we beat Hibbing 5-3 in the region finals to make it to the 1947 tourney.  It was just the second time I had ever been to the Twin Cities.  To see the big buildings and all the hotels and restaurants, it was an eye-full. The largest building in Eveleth was the Park Hotel and that was three stories. We spent a lot of time just going up and down the elevators at the St. Paul Hotel, which was real close to the St. Paul Auditorium rink.  At that time, they had elevator operators and we drove them crazy with our requests.  One hotel even had an escalator and we would be running up the down escalator and down the up escalator like a bunch of fools. We worried more about how to order off a menu than we did playing the games.  Hockey was in our comfort zone.  One funny thing that happened was a photographer took a picture of me, all 100 pounds, in a dresser drawer in our hotel room with a caption that read…”WEE WILLARD” and it was in the papers the next day.

The St. Paul Auditorium had artificial ice and it was the first time I had played on that surface.  The ice surface was very dark and it was difficult to see the puck.  There were two locker rooms but otherwise, they just had a makeshift set-up with curtains for the teams that were dressing for the next game.  It was pretty “Mickey Mouse”, really.  With smoking permitted in the lobbies and corridors, there was a constant cloud of smoke that permeated the rink, too.

We had just 11 players on that entire 1947 team and our juniors were the key to our club.   We easily downed Willmar 6-0 in my first game at state and my brother Earl scored a goal and had an assist in that game. Next up was Roseau, the pre-tournament favorite, in the semis.  Roseau was led by Rube Bjorkman and they had a good team and had beaten us at Eveleth during the season.  Bjorkman wore those big goggles but he was an outstanding player and, of course, would go on to star with the Gophers and later the U.S. Nationals and Olympic teams.  He also coached at Greenway and then at R.P.I. and North Dakota.

Sure enough, Bjorkman beat me three times to lead the Rams to a 4-1 win. We played pretty well but they were just too much. In the finals, Roseau got upset by St. Paul Johnson.  Prior to the title game, we played Minneapolis West in the third-place game.  John Matchefts, one of my best buddies, scored twice but a guy named Kevin Farley notched a hat trick and we lost 5-3.  It would be the last time Eveleth High School would lose a game until the 1952 season.  Eventually, the winning streak would reach 78 games. That record will likely never be broken, though International Falls in the 1960’s and Bloomington Jefferson in the 1990’s both took a crack at it.

Jim Hoey biography

Jim Hoey was born and raised in Taconite, Minnesota on the west end of the Mesabi Iron Range.  He played forward for three years for Greenway High School in Coleraine and played in three state tournaments with the Raiders – including a state title in 1968.  Hoey played collegiately at St. Mary’s University in Winona and was captain his senior season and later served as head boys coach at both Shakopee and Farmington High Schools.

Hoey resides in Eagan, Minn. with his wife Ann and son Eddie.

Book Availability

Published by Nodin Press out of St. Louis Park, “IKE” and “PUCK  HEAVEN” or any of Hoey’s other books can be purchased at any major bookstore or on Amazon.  Signed and personalized copies of his books can be acquired from the co-author himself.  Please contact Jim Hoey at (651) 994-7870  or at ajehoey@comcast.net to make arrangements to get a copy.

Note to readers: This article was reprinted from a full-featured Minnesota Hockey Magazine digital issue.  Like what you see?  Get a back issue or subscribe today on the PressPad mobile app platform for Minnesota Hockey Magazine via Apple Store, Google Play, and Kindle/Amazon.  Don’t miss out!  Get all 8 issues for this upcoming season sent directly to your email box, buy a single issue or pick up the printed version at many local stores near you.  Thanks.  MHM Staff

The post Legendary player, coach Willard Ikola Passes at 92 appeared first on Minnesota Hockey Magazine.

Greenway’s Program Rises from Near Extinction a Few Short Years Ago

Jim Hoey follows Greenway’s rise from what he calls “near oblivion” to vying for a State High School Hockey Tournament bid.

Article is from our February Hockey Day Minnesota special print/digital issue.

The post Raiders’ Return appeared first on Minnesota Hockey Magazine.

Legendary player, coach Willard Ikola on tending goal for Eveleth

Editor’s note: The following is an excerpt from the book IKE:  Minnesota Hockey Icon by Jim Hoey, author of  the highly-acclaimed state boys high school hockey tournament book, Puck Heaven. The 268-page book is a first-person account of Willard Ikola’s long and distinguished career as both a player and coach. Ikola’s alma mater, now the Eveleth-Gilbert Golden Bears, faces Duluth Denfeld outdoors on Feb. 6 at Duluth’s Bayfront Park as part of the annual Hockey Day Minnesota event.

One thing I recognized early was the tradition of outstanding Eveleth goaltenders.  At the Hippodrome, I saw the big photo of Oscar Almquist, who had been an All-American at St. Mary’s in Winona and  later became one of the great high school coaches at Roseau.  At the other end of the rink was a big picture of Mike Karakas, when he was playing for the Chicago Blackhawks.  Then there were the photos of Frankie Brimsek, who was a star for the Boston Bruins and one of the best players in the NHL and Sam LoPresti, who played for the Blackhawks.  We were all aware that both Karakas and Brimsek has been NHL Rookies of the Year.  Can you imagine that Eveleth High School had a ten-year period when their starting goalies were Karakas, Brimsek, and LoPresti from 1926-1935?

Willard Ikola (Photo courtesy of Ikola Archives – VintageMinnesotaHockey.com)

Goaltending in my era was so different. It was just about playing the angles.  We never did the V-drop, we had never even heard of it.  If you were a good skater, you could move up and back and keep the best angle.  Despite what a lot of people used to think, you wanted to have one of your better skaters in net because you had to be so good on your edges.  It was weird but a lot of kids around my age played goalie in their boots so I had a big advantage over them.  Once I started playing a lot, the other kids told me I was good and my confidence was strong.

As much as we all liked hockey, we played just about every sport imaginable in our neighborhood.  We had a close-knit group of boys who did everything together and it seemed like just about everybody participated, no matter what their skill level was.  Without all the technology of today and in the midst of a Depression, we were fortunate to just have each other to hang around with and do active things all the time.

Basically, we lived outside with our buddies. Nobody every seemed to be inside – there was radio but no television and let’s face it, there just wasn’t a lot of room in our homes, either.  Our parents gave us a lot of freedom.  We never missed any meals and we had to be home by a certain hour but we were in the safety of other kids and our parents didn’t worry about us.  We not only played at the rinks and playgrounds but on the streets and in the alleys.

Hockey was the favorite sport of most of us but we played a ton of outside basketball on rims attached to garages, playing 21 and four-horses.  We played baseball and football at various places around town.  We just went from activity to the other, improvising as we went.  Bocce ball and horseshoes; you name it, we played it.  It was competitive but not mean-spirited and this was how we climbed the social ladder. You name it and we played it –  croquet, softball, golf, tetherball and many others.

Ikola (R) with coach Cliff Thompson, Johnny Matchefts and John Peterson. The Pioneer Press caption misidentifies Ikola as Walt Ikola. (Photo courtesy of Ikola Archives – VintageMinnesotaHockey.com)

Eveleth had a good recreation department and one summer, they employed Cliff Thompson, the high school and junior college hockey coach, up at the ballpark. We grew to learn that he was a fantastic baseball coach but as hockey players, when we found out he was going to be up there, we just flocked to the place.  Myself and the others idolized the guy.  On Saturday morning at the Hippodrome, when we would see him up in the stands watching, let me tell you the play would pick up because we wanted to impress him and play for him some day.  Each week someone would whisper, “Hey, Coach Thompson is here” and things really got rolling.  There was no question that we played harder when he was there and he showed up every week. We wondered if he was picking his team for five or six years down the road.

While we had our disagreements when we played our sports and games, we settled our own problems and things would always get back to normal.  I guess that’s how we learned how to manage things.  It was great for teaching us creativity and how to be leaders.  As a kid, everybody seemed to have a nickname and mine wasn’t real original.   It was simply… “IKE”.

With my brother Roy playing at Colorado College, I was already thinking about going to college and playing at that level and becoming a physical education instructor and coach.  It wasn’t a tough decision when I was offered the chance to play with Coach Thompson’s club.  I figured I would have a heckuva better chance getting a hockey scholarship than a band scholarship.

Half of the title team from 1945 was back to defend the state title in 1945-46; guys like Ronnie Martinson, Andy Gambucci, Bice Ventrucci and Milan Begich.  There were only 11 players on the first state title team and we had just 10 players and myself on that year’s squad.  At 5’4″ and 100 pounds, I was not an imposing figure in the net as a 13-year-old and players could shoot over my shoulder and hit the corner.  However, I wasn’t intimidated by the older players because I had played shinny with them for years and knew them well. Plus, they were good about not firing the puck at my head.

As for practices, in those days, it consisted almost entirely of scrimmaging. There was very little drill work or concentration on fundamentals.  Coach Thompson, like most coaches of that era, was never on skates but on the bench with his boots on.  Actually, I never saw Cliff ever skate, not once!  Coach never talked to me about goaltending, not once in the five years I played for him.  I noticed that he would call the forwards or defensemen over for some short words of advice but it was almost always just scrimmaging.

Willard Ikola (center front) as an eighth grader on Eveleth’s 1945-46 team. Ikola did not accompany his teammates when they traveled to St.Paul for the state tournament as backup goalies were a luxury at the time. (Photo courtesy of Ikola Archives – VintageMinnesotaHockey.com)

Ronnie Drobnick, of course, was the senior goalie and was expected to play all the games.  He never did give me any special treatment or tutoring, either, but I just watched what he did and tried to emulate him and all the other great goalies I had seen play in Eveleth.  Ronnie got yellow jaundice and was out for about three weeks in the middle of the season and I was thrust in the goal as an 8th-grader.  In those four games, we won three games with ease and tied Roseau 3-3.  Ronnie came back to finish the season and I didn’t even get to go with the team to the state tournament, but it really didn’t bother me.  Most teams didn’t have a backup goalie in those days.  I didn’t even earn a letter for that year.

Dialed to WEVE, our local radio station, I listened to us compete in the state tournament.  We lost to Rochester 2-1 in the semifinals and then beat St. Paul Johnson to take third.  Ron Martinson later told me when we were at Michigan that some of the guys weren’t following training rules and he didn’t think they were serious enough.

My freshman year, we beat Hibbing 5-3 in the region finals to make it to the 1947 tourney.  It was just the second time I had ever been to the Twin Cities.  To see the big buildings and all the hotels and restaurants, it was an eye-full. The largest building in Eveleth was the Park Hotel and that was three stories. We spent a lot of time just going up and down the elevators at the St. Paul Hotel, which was real close to the St. Paul Auditorium rink.  At that time, they had elevator operators and we drove them crazy with our requests.  One hotel even had an escalator and we would be running up the down escalator and down the up escalator like a bunch of fools. We worried more about how to order off a menu than we did playing the games.  Hockey was in our comfort zone.  One funny thing that happened was a photographer took a picture of me, all 100 pounds, in a dresser drawer in our hotel room with a caption that read…”WEE WILLARD” and it was in the papers the next day.

Willard Ikola as an Eveleth Golden Bear. (Photo courtesy of Ikola Archives – VintageMinnesotaHockey.com)

The St. Paul Auditorium had artificial ice and it was the first time I had played on that surface.  The ice surface was very dark and it was difficult to see the puck.  There were two locker rooms but otherwise, they just had a makeshift set-up with curtains for the teams that were dressing for the next game.  It was pretty “Mickey Mouse”, really.  With smoking permitted in the lobbies and corridors, there was a constant cloud of smoke that permeated the rink, too.

We had just 11 players on that entire 1947 team and our juniors were the key to our club.   We easily downed Willmar 6-0 in my first game at state and my brother Earl scored a goal and had an assist in that game. Next up was Roseau, the pre-tournament favorite, in the semis.  Roseau was led by Rube Bjorkman and they had a good team and had beaten us at Eveleth during the season.  Bjorkman wore those big goggles but he was an outstanding player and, of course, would go on to star with the Gophers and later the U.S. Nationals and Olympic teams.  He also coached at Greenway and then at R.P.I. and North Dakota.

Sure enough, Bjorkman beat me three times to lead the Rams to a 4-1 win. We played pretty well but they were just too much. In the finals, Roseau got upset by St. Paul Johnson.  Prior to the title game, we played Minneapolis West in the third-place game.  John Matchefts, one of my best buddies, scored twice but a guy named Kevin Farley notched a hat trick and we lost 5-3.  It would be the last time Eveleth High School would lose a game until the 1952 season.  Eventually, the winning streak would reach 78 games. That record will likely never be broken, though International Falls in the 1960’s and Bloomington Jefferson in the 1990’s both took a crack at it.

There is much more about Ikola’s life and career where that came from. To learn more about the book and order your copy, click on the cover image below!

The post IKE, in his own words appeared first on Minnesota Hockey Magazine.

Coach Bill Moore

It was “Hockey Day in Minnesota” last Saturday, Jan. 19 and the big day lived up to its billing. In Grand Rapids, FSN highlighted high school hockey with two boys and one girls game in sub-zero conditions on Lake Pokegema. The top-rated Gopher men’s team hosted heated rival North Dakota at Mariucci in their Iast game as WCHA conference foes at 5 p.m. To top off the day, the Wild was to debut the strike-shortened 2012-13 season at the Xcel at 8 p.m. with their game against the Colorado Avalanche. That was just the television sample.

Viewers watched a tough and physical Grand Rapids club beat defending state champion Benilde-St. Margaret’s with an overtime goal in near blizzard conditions (isn’t this what we want to see!). The Gophers and North Dakota played to an exciting overtime tie and native Minnesotan Zach Parise netted two assists in the Wild’s 2-0 opening win.

A hockey buff could have enjoyed 13 hours of hockey in the comfort of one’s home just watching those contests and two or three more if you stayed up to witness the high school girls’ hockey game between Grand Rapids/Greenway and Hibbing on tape delay. Of course, many puck enthusiasts were out on Lake Nokomis to take in the U.S. Pond Hockey Championships, if not playing in it themselves. Thousands more poured into rinks all around the state to witness high school and youth games.

However, after viewing most of the action on TV throughout the morning and afternoon, this hockey enthusiast ventured to the St. Thomas Ice Arena in Mendota Heights to attend the MIAC battle between visiting Saint Mary’s and host St. Thomas. While the Tommies have dominated the regular season and post-season in the league for much of the past 30 years, the Cardinals from Winona have struggled in their attempts to become contenders.

Picked for last in the conference by the MIAC coaches for the 2012-13 season, the Cardinals have been the surprise of the league. Saint Mary’s, though 7-8-1 overall, was 5-1 in league play while St. Thomas once again held first-place with a 6-1 mark entering Friday night’s game in Winona. This was rare territory for Saint Mary’s, a mid-season attempt to capture first place for themselves. A partisan crowd of 400 watched the Cardinals and Tommies battle to a 0-0 tie. SMU’s Andy Scheib had 37 saves while UST netminder Drew Fielding stopped all 29 shots in the duel shutout.

In the rematch the next night, Saint Mary’s found out it is not quite ready for prime time as an experienced and confident Tommie squad easily handled the visitors 7-2. Sheib constantly faced point-blank opportunities as St. Thomas outshot Saint Mary’s 44-18. St. Thomas head coach Jeff Boeser, one of the greatest players in Tommie history, had his players ready for the rematch as they played with precision all night. In the initial period, the Tommies outshot the outmanned Cardinals 13-0 and led 2-0 less than six minutes into the game

Saint Mary’s head coach Bill Moore said, “St. Thomas trapped us and slowed us down and dictated the pace; they are just a very good hockey team. We expended a lot of energy on Friday and couldn’t match it back at their rink when they had six new guys in their lineup. They are physically stronger than us and we are built to play on a bigger ice surface but we have to learn how to compete on the NHL-sized rinks.”

While Saint Mary’s generally was able to skate with St. Thomas, the Tommies had a clear edge when it came to puck control and offensive firepower. The Cardinals forwards are small and they were unable to penetrate the Tommie defense for most of the game. St. Thomas had one penalty the entire contest, a five-minute major late in the first period, and the Cardinals were unable to muster a shot on goal, let alone set up in the St. Thomas zone. It was evident after 20 minutes that the Cardinals are no doubt improved but they have some growing to do to match the skill and calm of the powerhouse Tommies.

St. Thomas possesses depth and balance throughout their lineup with good size and speed. They quickly established a quick pace to the game and were in firm control from the opening whistle with their aggressive forecheck and pinpoint passing. Senior defenseman Robbie Vannelli, son of St. Thomas Academy co-head coach Tom Vannelli, wristed in a 45-footer from the center point over Sheib’s shoulder to give the Tommies a 1-0 lead after taking a feed from senior captain Travis Baker at 12:22. Less then two minutes later, Riley Horgen scored after a goal-mouth scramble for the first of three power-play markers.

By midway through the second stanza, St. Thomas was outshooting Saint Mary’s 22-5 and led 3-0 after Connor McBride tapped in a rebound just 20 seconds into another power-play chance. However, the Cardinals started to press as senior forward Nick Gorup scored on a backhand from out front to beat Fielding to make it 3-1 after taking a nice pass from Ryan Griffiths from behind the net. But 40 seconds later, Sheib mishandled a clearing pass after racing out of the cage. Alex Altenbernd blocked it and then wristed in a 15-footer before Sheib could get back to defend the goal.

Yet, 25 seconds later, the Cardinals responded when Austin Balco scored his eighth goal of the campaign with assists to Nick Nagel and Dylan Dock and it was suddenly 4-2 as Saint Mary’s started to create some chances. Putting on a late sure, the Tommies crashed Sheib late in the period and finally jammed in a goal by Alex Niestrom with just 0.4 seconds left on the clock. The last second tally was a killer for the Cardinals as the Tommies took a 5-2 lead into the final 20 minutes.

In the third period, St. Thomas continued their crisp team play. Tyler Gubb scored both of the Tommie goals in the session, both on gorgeous tick-tack-toe passing displays at 1:42 and 13:09. Clever with the puck in creating opportunities to score and with deft defensive play, the Tommies were the better team on this night and looked the part in every way. Too much savvy with the puck, more confidence, more experience in playing big games. St. Thomas looks like a heavy favorite to take conference laurels yet again.

Perhaps it was too much to expect the Cardinals to take the Tommies down at home and take sole possession of first place in the league standings. As it stands, St. Thomas (7-2-1) now leads the MIAC with Saint Mary’s third at 5-2-1. Second-place St. Olaf (6-2) and St. Thomas meet in another showdown for the top spot on Jan. 25 (Mendota Heights) and Jan. 26 (Northfield) and the physical Oles are always tough at home.

Meanwhile, the Cardinals have four series remaining in conference play, starting with games against Augsburg this weekend. They will also play two games at St. John’s, two games at home versus Concordia, and a home and away with Gustavus Adolphus.

Moore, a former all-conference performer with Saint Mary’s in the 1980’s, says, “We play six of those games on an Olympic-sized rink, so that is to our advantage but all those games will be tough. We’ll have to play with heart and go to the net better than we did against St. Thomas if we want to stay in the race.”

We’ll see how Saint Mary’s responds for the remainder of the year but the future looks promising for the club. They played seven defensemen against the Tommies and three are freshmen (Adam Robson of Burnsville, Mike Wolter of Antigo, Wisconsin, and Greg Chapman of Meridan, Idaho). There are just four seniors on the roster, though starting goalie Andy Scheib is stellar. They will also have to replace back-up netminder Jason Horstman, who is also a senior and who was supplanted by Sheib after playing regularly the past few seasons. Sheib, incidentally, had a shutout streak of 119 minutes broken when Vannelli’s shot beat him midway through the first period.

Freshman forward Mike Hill of Fort Worth, Texas is the team’s leading scorer with 21 points (11 goals) and led the MIAC in goals, assists, and points entering last weekend. Bobby Thompson of Centerville was third in the league in points with 16 (eight goals and eight assists) and heads a strong junior class of eight players.

The Cardinal lineup against St. Thomas has just three Minnesotans on it and players from 11 different states. St. Thomas has half of its roster from Minnesota; all the players on both teams have played at least one year of junior hockey and most two. Saint Mary’s is just one of three schools that supports a junior varsity program and it appears that Moore is turning the corner to MIAC respectability. He has assembled a squad of good skaters – many whom were captains and leaders on their respective junior teams.

“We have definitely taken a step forward this year in competitiveness,” continued Moore. “We’ve got to recruit some more goal-scorers and establish multiple lines that can score. We’ll lose two senior goalies but sophomore Christian Gaffy is a very capable goaltender and we also have a freshman on the junior varsity, Mitch Fernsler, who has a lot of potential.”

As with most programs, it takes time to get quality players and then more time to instill a winning attitude and a commitment to winning. Saint Mary’s will not be finishing last in the MIAC this year and for some time to come. Carving a place in the upper echelon of the league on a consistent basis is another matter. For the next month, they are hoping to stay in the race for their first conference title since 1988. No matter what occurs, the Cardinals are definitely flying on an upward rise.

The post Saint Mary’s On The Rise appeared first on Minnesota Hockey Magazine.

Steve Romanchuk (second from left) is pictured with Chris Rudh (left), Wally Wakefield (middle), Jim McElmury(second from right), and Jay Moser (right).

In a day and age when a head high school hockey coach has a tenure about as long as the life of the average white-tail deer, Steve Romanchuk’s 43-year coaching career is truly something to marvel about. The co-head coach (along with Jim McElmury) at Tartan High in Oakdale, the former St. Paul Hill multi-sport star is still enthralled with the game of hockey and anxiously awaits the prospects for his 2012-13 Titan contingent. So far, so good, as the Tartans have started the season with a 2-0 log, registering identical 4-0 shutouts over Park-Cottage Grove and Rochester Century.

Romanchuk blushes when asked about his longevity coaching the sport for so many years. People who know him find him as a genial and easy-going sort who relishes the camaraderie of the coaching community. Despite his efforts to downplay his role in the game, an innate competitiveness still burns within.

“I still enjoy coaching the game,” said Romanchuk recently. “As much as the game has changed, kids are still kids and they just want to do as well as they can and to be a part of a successful team. The best thing about coaching is watching youngsters have individual success and trying to create the team aspect and then just being around young people is invigorating.”

Romanchuk has been the co-head coach at Tartan since 2006, when he and McElmury teamed up to lead the Titans after John Humphrey retired. The two met in college at Bemidji State and have coached high school hockey or summer camps for over 20 years together. McElmury was a star at Kellogg and an NAIA All-American at Bemidji State before helping the ‘72 U.S. Olympic team to a silver medal in Sapporo, Japan.

“Mac (McElmury) is a good friend and extremely knowledgeable,” remarked his co-coach. “Jim is very level-headed and he is so good dealing with our players. Nothing shakes him and he does a great job developing our defensemen.”

McElmury says, “Steve just has a great knowledge of the game and he is a real teacher of the game; he has a knack for instructing the players with the structure and guidelines they need to play the game properly.”

“I guess we’re real dinosaurs coaching at our age,” continued McElmury. “There aren’t many guys in their 60’s like us still in the game. We get a lot of satisfaction out of seeing our kids excel and in helping them have a good experience playing high school hockey.”

“To be involved in the game for this long, you have to love both the game itself and being with young people,” continued Romanchuk, who retired from teaching high school social studies in 2008. “Plus, I have a very understanding wife. You can’t be in the game for this long and not have a spouse who doesn’t support you because there is so much time involved.”

Sue Romanchuk has been married to her “hockey” man for 35 years and says, “I am extremely proud of Steve’s hard work and dedication to hockey and to the kids who play for him. I can attest to the many hours of research, strategy, and planning he puts into hockey. Our family room and kitchen is decorated with, plays, diagrams, and stat sheets. I know how important hockey and the kids are to Steve. It is evident by the many who we run into and by the number that still keep in touch with us.”

Nearly all of his 43 years coaching hockey have been with high school programs, except for four years when Steve was coaching his son Ryan’s teams and watching his daughter Stephanie play the game for North St. Paul. In addition, his first two years of hockey were spend at Blessed Sacrament, a Catholic elementary school in St. Paul, starting in 1971.

“We played outside at the Hazel Creek playground and it was great,” said a smiling Romanchuk, clearly pleased to be remembering the early stages of his career. “I taught grades 5-8 and was the only coach for both hockey and baseball. One of the years, we lost the city hockey championship at the Civic Center. Playing in the new Civic Center at 9:00 am on a Sunday was quite a thrill for the kids.”

Romanchuk had just graduated from St. Mary’s University in Winona, where he played two years as an all-round center for Don Joseph’s Redmen. St. Mary’s was strong in those days, with the likes of players like Bob Paradise, Bill Rossini, Jim Pohl, and Terry Skrypek. In high school at St. Paul Hill, before the school merged with Murray (the girls’ school), Romanchuk was a standout in football, hockey, and baseball after growing up on Ames Avenue. He was a three-year regular on the ice playing for coach John Boland. After graduating in 1967, he headed north to play both football and hockey at Bemidji State.

Bob Peters was in the midst of building a small-college dynasty in the north woods but Romanchuk competed first for the Beaver football team. A quarterback and halfback at Hill, he played as a freshman and even punted for the squad. With all the talent Peters was stockpiling on the ice, Steve played on the junior-varsity.

After originally considering St. Mary’s as a senior, he decided to transfer to the Christian Brothers school for the 1969-70 school year. He had to sit out a year and then had two solid years as a sturdy two-way player. The Redmen finished second to MIAC powerhouse Gustavus Adolphus in both his junior and senior year. A serious student, Romanchuk earned his degree in secondary social studies and got his coaching certificate, too.

His high school coaching career began in 1973 when he became Terry Skrypek’s assistant at Hill-Murray. The Pioneers were already an imposing force in high school hockey and Romanchuk enjoyed the talented players and good kids he found in the classroom at the Maplewood school. He stayed on for three years and got to witness his younger brother Rod star for the Pioneers. Hill-Murray became the first private school to earn a berth in the Minnesota state high school hockey tournament in 1975.

Itching to run his own operation, Romanchuk took the head coaching job at Woodbury in 1976. The Royals had just branched off from Park and Steve was eager to put his stamp on a new program. The team practiced mostly at the Park-Cottage Grove rink connected to the high school but they also practiced outside at times. In the fall, he coached boys’ soccer.

During this time, he and McElmury started the McElmury-Romanchuk Hockey School. After seven years building the Royals, he became the head man at Park for 15 years (1983-89) and had the Indians/Wolfpack skating among the top teams in the metro and state. Park-Cottage Grove won four St. Paul Suburban titles and developed a strong skating club with skill and savvy. Already frustrated for years in not earning a berth at state despite superb talent and depth, Park lost four sectional finals during Romanchuk’s tenure – each of them by one goal.

He took a four-year respite from high school coaching to devote more time to his children’s hockey exploits – coaching his son’s youth squads and watching his daughter play as girls’ hockey was just starting to evolve. Romanchuk came on the scene as an assistant at Tartan, with old side-kick McElmury, in 2002, with John Humphrey as the top boss. Tartan earned two berths in the Class AA tournament, in 2003-04 and 2004-05.

The Titans were handled by both Wayzata (6-0) and Holy Angels (6-2) in their first foray but the next year, they fared much better. They downed Elk River 4-3 in the first round and were competitive in a 4-2 loss to eventual-champion Holy Angels. They took fourth-place after losing 5-3 to Duluth East.

Talk to Steve Romanchuk for long, however, and it is clear he doesn’t equate success in coaching with win-loss percentages and state berths. Not that he minds winning, of course, but it doesn’t define his career and he is content with what he has accomplished. Just think, if he lasts 21 more years, he will have spent as much time in coaching hockey as John Gagliardi did coaching college football!

Known almost universally as “Roman”, the Tartan co-head coach just didn’t put his time in as a social studies educator. He wrote his own textbook years ago and was recognized as an outstanding teacher in various positions for District 833. Romanchuk taught American History, Advanced Placement American History and Sociology and remains today a voracious reader of all things history.

The post Romanchuk Back Behind The Bench – Part I appeared first on Minnesota Hockey Magazine.

“NOT JUST ANOTHER HOCKEY BAG”

Butch Williams is shown competing for the California Golden Seals in mid-1970’s

It was a cold winter night in late January of 1964. It was nearing midnight in our two-story home in Taconite, a tiny mining hamlet (pop. 315) on the western end of the Mesabi Iron Range and the snow was piled high outside. It was all quiet except for the sound of the furnace pumping the heat out through the registers, in an effort to combat the -15 below temperatures outside.

The burgeoning Hoey family, which by this time included two girls and six boys (two more boys to come) had went to bed a little later than normal this Friday night. We had a rare treat by having popcorn and pop to share with an overnight guest, a hockey player from Duluth, and even the younger boys stayed up late amid all the excitement.

Youth hockey was just beginning to surge in the early to mid-1960’s throughout Minnesota and Pee Wee and Bantam teams were starting to travel beyond their local area to secure games and play in tournaments. However, traveling for an overnight was still pretty unusual. Taconite, like all the other small communities that made up the Greenway school district, had their own Bantam team. Guys from Coleraine, Calumet, and Cloverdale were our opponents during the regular season despite being schoolmates at the local junior high school in Bovey during the day.

For the latter half of the season, the top players from each “town” team practiced as a so-called “All-Star” team occasionally and then played in sporadic competitions against teams from close-by rivals Grand Rapids and Hibbing and even Virginia and Eveleth. In those days, almost all Bantams were seventh and eighth-graders as the top freshmen players played on the B-team for the Greenway Raiders.

As I recall, we had about 15 guys on our team and five were from Taconite (eight-grader Bill “Cotton” Guyer and four of us seventh-graders, including my cousins Bobby Lawson and Mike Troumbly, and neighbor Eugene Gustason). We were coached by Cotton’s dad, “Cotta”, who worked part-time for the railroad and part-time as our postmaster.

Other guys on the team included Mike Antonovich, Rick Helmer and Bobby Lynch of Calumet, Tom Peluso and Mike Rantala of Cloverdale, Dave “Moose” Prestidge of Lawrence Lake, Steve Polovina of Bovey, and my cousin Billy “Bucko” Troumbly, Jim Kosak, and Rick Glorvigen (actually Midway)from Coleraine.

The Greenway Bantam All-Star team was hosting a four-team tournament on this Friday and Saturday and we were hosting the team from Duluth, a renowned program called Lower Chester from the Port City. We didn’t play the Duluth club that Friday night but we would the next day. Cotta Guyer matched us up with the players from Lower Chester, many of whom would be future adversaries playing for mighty Duluth Cathedral – Mike Randolph, Fred Paul, Steve “Pokey” Trachsel, et al. We watched them manhandle the team from Hibbing prior to our game and they were good, real good, and we would play them the next day.

Our guest Butch was much bigger than me, which wasn’t saying much, and looked like he had been shaving for a few years already. We had thrown our bags into the back seat of our red,three-seater Ford station wagon outside the West Range Arena in Coleraine and took the short three-mile ride home. We got home and Butch was immediately swallowed up with attention from several youngsters in their pajamas, whether he wanted it or not. He was a bit overwhelmed but seemingly amused with all the focus on him. I took his bag and mine into the basement.

I set out my equipment to dry and then grabbed his bag to spread out his gear when I stopped in my tracks. Butch’s bag, now seen in full light, was colorful and impressive. In a split-second, it was clear this wasn’t an ordinary bag. It was red, white and blue and it also displayed the letters…USA. Wow! Then it dawned on me. Butch’s last name was Williams. Wow! I was surrounded by fame and glory. His older brother, Tommy, was the youngest player on the 1960 U.S.A. Olympic team that won the gold medal at Squaw Valley. Just as this was all sinking in, Dad hollered down for me to bring up some pop and join everybody upstairs.

I hustled upstairs with some pop (a real luxury in those days) and settled into the living room as Butch was being bombarded with questions from all sides. He was a bit nervous but certainly was mature for his age and confident in his hockey heritage. Dad told Butch that his brother Tommy had played some with our senior team, the Taconite Hornets, when he was a teenager and that he knew his father, Rip, who was a hockey icon in Duluth. After an hour or so, Butch and I knew it was time to get some rest for tomorrow’s game. He and I shared one of our four bedrooms upstairs and after some conversation about all things hockey, the lights went out. I wondered what it was going to be like playing against the skilled and powerful kid sleeping next to me on the home ice at the West Range Arena.

My mind was racing with excitement and I knew it would be awhile until I would be sleeping this night. Soon, Butch was asleep. After a half-hour or so, all that could be heard was the strong wind outside on this bitterly cold night. With just enough light from the streetlights outside, I made my way out of the bedroom and down the steps and through the kitchen. I reached for the basement lights and switched them on. Quietly, I headed down the final 12 steps. Shivering in the dimly-lit basement, I sat intently right in front of the bag….the USA bag. For several minutes, I pictured where this bag had been and what it all entailed.

Almost exactly three years earlier, our family had watched CBS broadcast the Winter Olympics on television for the first time and we watched the USA win the gold medal in a big surprise at Squaw Valley. Of course, we cheered for the Minnesota guys the most – John Mayasich from Eveleth, the Christian brothers from Warroad, and the goalie, Jack McCartan, from St. Paul. However, we were most proud of the youngest kid on team, Tommy Williams, because he had the connection to our local senior team and he was from Duluth.

The big victory in the 1960 Olympics out in California brought hope to a lot of little kids that they could make it on that stage some day. Just a block away lived my mother’s brother, Jim “Slim” Troumbly, who had been the leading scorer for the U.S. in the 1950 international tournament in London. He was an inspiration to all of his nephews growing up and perhaps we would someday follow in his footsteps. As it was, “Slim” turned down a chance to be on the 1952 Olympic team because of his responsibilities with his new construction company he founded with his brothers. It was a different era, no doubt, when a guy with a guaranteed spot on the USA team spurned an offer to play against the best teams in the world.

All these years later, I don’t recall what happened to our Greenway Bantam team that next day but the memory of that experience with …”The Bag” has never gone away. It was just cloth and a zipper but what an inspiring presence it wrought. As for the Williams’ boys, they did okay. Tommy was the only American to play in the NHL for most of the 1960’s with the Boston Bruins and later played with the North Stars. Butch never played high school hockey but went to Canada, like his older brother, to play juniors. He made it to the big time, too, playing 108 games in the NHL from 1974-76 with the St. Louis Blues and the California Golden Seals. He scored 14 goals and added 35 assists as a sturdy right-winger. Butch, whose first name was Warren, also played in the 1976 Canada Cup for the U.S. and for Team USA in the 1977 world championships.

The post Not Just Another Bag appeared first on Minnesota Hockey Magazine.