ST. PAUL — Eight years ago, Moorhead boys’ hockey coach Jon Ammerman entered the postgame press conference alone. He took a seat at the table in the front of the room and proceeded to give an emotional opening statement following the Spuds’ 6-3 loss to Grand Rapids in the 2017 Class 2A championship game.
It was the eighth runner-up finish – with zero state titles – in Moorhead program history.
“The toughest thing of anything,” Ammerman said that night, as he spoke between long pauses and offered his words through tears, “is now that team’s done. I’m not much of an emotional guy. But tonight was going to be sad either way.
“I’m glad our kids got the opportunity. They deserve it.”
Jump ahead to the 2025, and Ammerman was back at that same table in a similar moment on Saturday. But this time, the mood was celebratory as he sat with players Mason Kraft, Brooks Cullen and Brandon Mickelson after they defeated Stillwater 7-6 to win the Class 2A state championship.
What were Ammerman’s emotions this time around once the final horn sounded?
“Relief,” Ammerman quipped. “We’ll enjoy it as it comes here. This isn’t something that I did. I thought our coaching staff did a phenomenal job this week of preparing these kids.”
Ammerman was calm and humble as he answered questions after one of the biggest moments in program history. He offered praise to the team, coaches and others in the community.
“I’ll have time to reflect as a coach, but we’re excited for them to go celebrate with our families,” Ammerman said. “This isn’t about something that I did, or isn’t about something that one individual did. It was a collective effort.”
The Class 2A championship game ended in victorious fashion for the Spuds (28-2-1), though there was danger in it becoming an epic collapse had Stillwater (24-7-0) completed its comeback effort after being down by multiple goals for most of the night.
From the jump, the Spuds were pumped
The announced record crowd of 20,491 at Xcel Energy Center was treated to three periods of momentum-turning, goal-scoring excitement to finish off the high school season.
The game included record-tying efforts, both head coaches using their timeouts prior to the third period to calm their teams down, highlight-reel goals and ultimate resiliency from players on each bench.
Mason Kraft scored four goals in the first period. The celebration of his fourth goal was more subdued than the first three.(MHM Photo / Rick Olson)
Where to begin? Two words: Mason Kraft.
The senior and Minnesota State commit scored on the first shots of the game for Moorhead, tallying goals 12 seconds apart less than two minutes into the game. Senior Brooks Cullen made it 3-0 only 2 minutes, 24 seconds into the game, so Stillwater coach Greg Zanon called a timeout and told his team to “calm down.”
“It’s a big game,” Zanon said. “When has a high school kid played in front of 20,000 people?”
Kraft had a hat trick 12 minutes in – at least one hat made it onto the ice from the stands – before adding his fourth goal with 40.6 seconds left in the first period to make it a 5-1 lead. He skated to the bench, where Moorhead players mob each other for their goal celebrations, with body language that seemed to say: “What else is new?”
Four goals in a period ties a tournament record with John Mayasich, who scored four in the 1951 quarterfinal first period against Williams. Kraft’s performance was also reminiscent of three years ago when Prior Lake’s Alex Bump pumped in five goals in the state quarterfinals, though he only scored three in a period. Kraft nearly had a fifth goal in the game later, but his shot hit the pipe.
‘It’s not over’
Stillwater’s Trey Fredenberg made it a 5-2 game with 9:51 left in the second period just after a TV timeout. About 30 seconds later, the Stillwater student section led a “It’s not over!” cheer. That generated a “Yes, it is!” response from another section of fans, though not the main Moorhead student section at the other end of the arena.
The Stillwater students were onto something, because less than a minute after their encouraging words, the Ponies scored again on a top-shelf snipe from Luca Jarvis for a 5-3 game. That caused Moorhead to burn its timeout, after allowing two goals in 1:30 of game time.
It must have been a motivating discussion at the bench, because Mickelson scored 20 seconds later to regain the three-goal lead, and the Spuds led 6-3 through two periods.
Matthew Volkman scored a pair of third-period goals to cut Stillwater’s deficit to 7-6. (MHM Photo / Rick Olson)
The Ponies kept galloping and wouldn’t let these three-goal deficits stand. Fredenberg tallied his second of the game early in the third period. But sophomore Zac Zimmerman had an absolute snipe of a shot on the power play to make it 7-4. Stillwater’s Matthew Volkman scored a pair of goals later in the period, eventually getting the contest to a one-goal game with 3:20 to play.
The entire lower bowl of fans stood for the final minute as the Ponies tried to tie the game with the extra attacker. But they couldn’t complete the comeback, and once the horn sounded, the Spuds celebrated one more time. Although this celebration might go on for a while.
Kraft, who had a five-point game and finished the season with 46 goals and 95 points, was poised and articulate in the postgame press conference. He said the reaction to winning the championship was “like a sensation that I’ve honestly never felt,” adding that he felt on top of the world.
“It’s the greatest feeling ever,” said Kraft, who was crowned Mr. Hockey on Sunday. “And I just want to say, if you ever have the option to stay or leave, I think you should always come back and play high school hockey and play one more year with your buddies.
“You never get this time back ever. There’s no better place in the country to play than Minnesota.”
Finally, Moorhead
Moorhead’s storyline was well known heading into the tournament; it came in as the top seed this year. Before Saturday’s game, Ammerman referred to the history as “the elephant in the room” and said it’s been addressed with the team. They all knew the history, even if it wasn’t this year’s roster who’s responsible for that 0-8 state championship-game streak.
Moorhead goaltender Charlie Stenehjem tosses his helmet and celebrates after the game was over. (MHM Photo / Rick Olson)
Moorhead finished as state runner-up eight times starting more than 30 years ago: 1992 (Tier I), 1994, 1995, 2001, 2004, 2005, 2009 and 2017. Ammerman, a 2005 Moorhead graduate, played on the 2004 and 2005 teams.
“As a coach, part of your job is to set your kids up for hopefully some success, to put things in place for them to reach their goals and dreams,” Ammerman said. “I think that these guys had everything in place. And that doesn’t mean that it was going to work out.
“I’m happy that they got to experience something that I didn’t. I’m just happy for them.”
This year was the first time since 2017 that the Spuds reached the state title game, despite making the state tournament five times from 2019-23. But the Spuds went 0-5 in those state quarterfinals, losing in double overtime in 2022 and 2023 to dash any championship hopes. Last season, the Spuds failed to reach its Section 8 title game for the first time in 23 years.
But the 2024-25 team responded well. The Spuds were undefeated in regulation this season, with its two overtime losses bookending the regular season to Wayzata 3-2 and No. 1-ranked Hill-Murray 8-7 in a battle between the top-two ranked teams in the state, according to Let’s Play Hockey.
The state championship obviously means a lot to the Moorhead community, too. Brooks Cullen, who’s dad Matt Cullen, Stanley Cup Champion and a Spud alum who’s now an assistant coach, talked about the tight-knit hockey community.
“It’s unbelievable to get the first championship for this town,” Brooks said.
Added Kraft: “You could see their emotion on all the parents tonight after the game. It’s something that you can’t really put into words.”
Assistant coach Matt Cullen celebrates the state championship for Moorhead that eluded him as a player for the Spuds. (MHM Photo / Rick Olson)
Kraft’s dad, Ryan, and Matt Cullen played for the Spuds in the early 1990s.
This year’s Spuds wrote their own chapter in tournament history, though the road wasn’t easy.
First, they had to weather the storm against No. 8-seed Lakeville South in the quarterfinals. The Cougars scored only 1 minute, 37 seconds into the game and took 3-1 and 4-2 leads in the game before the Spuds rattled off five unanswered goals for a 7-4 win.
The semifinals set up a meeting with defending champion, 5-seed Edina. The Hornets can never be counted out at the state tournament, regardless of seeding. Edina’s Mason West tallied a hat trick in the first period for a 3-2 lead at intermission. With the game 3-3 late in regulation, Zimmerman scored a power-play goal with under a minute remaining to send Moorhead to the state title game.
The championship game included a record-tying 13 combined goals in the 7-6 game. The only other boys’ hockey state championship game with that many goals was in 1996 when Warroad defeated Red Wing 10-3 in the Class 1A final.
The Stillwater team embraces following the state championship loss to Moorhead. (MHM Photo / Rick Olson)
Unfortunately for Stillwater, six goals also marked the most ever scored by a losing team in a championship game. But the attitude on the Stillwater bench never faltered, Zanon said.
“The never-quit, never-die type mentality,” Zanon said. “Being down 5-1 wasn’t ideal, but going in after that first period, there was just no doubt in my mind that we were going to claw back some way.
“We could easily have quit and fold up the tent and it could’ve been 12-1, especially with the way they can score goals. We put our foot down and tried to claw back.”
