“Well, I was still playing last year,” Backes said. “So if it was last year, I would have missed out on it. Now with the delay, I’m retired and able to come to a cool event like this.”

Backes played for Minnesota State men’s hockey for three seasons from 2003-06, scoring 46 goals and 119 points in 115 games. From there, he played with St. Louis, Boston and Anaheim in the NHL and played in two Olympics before announcing his retirement this past September after 965 career NHL games.

He returned to the Minnesota State campus for the Hockey Day Minnesota weekend; he said he hadn’t seen a game in Mankato since he left and looked forward to watching the current Minnesota State Mavericks take on St. Thomas outdoors.

Backes also laced up his skates for the Minnesota State alumni game on a Friday night with falling snow and frigid temperatures creating quite the hockey atmosphere. The Spring Lake Park native was the captain for Team Blue, named for longtime former assistant coach Darren Blue. Brooklyn Park native Tim Jackman joined Backes on the team as well.

On the other bench, former Wild player Ryan Carter was the captain for Team Brose, named for former and legendary Minnesota State coach Don Brose, who was also on hand for the game. Brose started with the program as a coach in 1969 before his final season in 1999-2000, a team that finished 21-14-4.

“Oh, I had a lot of fun,” Brose said after the alumni game. “I hadn’t been on the bench for 21 years. To see the camaraderie and the talking, the trash-talking back and forth, it was fun. And I didn’t get a bench penalty.”

The score of the game (played in a pair of 25-minute, running-time halves) was secondary – 5-4 in favor of Team Blue – to the atmosphere and camaraderie on the ice. Although Team Brose came oh-so-close to tying it up in the closing seconds on a shot from Shane Joseph. That pipe at the end was a favorite moment for Brose, he said.

Pat Carroll, class of 1985, played on Team Blue with former NHLers Backes and Jackman. Carroll is an Edina native and currently assistant coach for the Gustavus Adolphus College women’s hockey team. His brother, Mike Carroll, is the head coach and brother Steve Carroll is another assistant.

The alumni game was a fun opportunity for Pat Carroll.

“Everybody seemed to check their ego at the door,” Carroll said. “It was a lot of fun, no matter if you played in the ‘70s, ‘80s or two years ago. It was a lot of fun.”

Carter got close to a goal a couple of times but didn’t quite convert on a goal in the game. He stood out on the ice, in the first half wearing a camera on his helmet to take in the action as he skated. He also wore his Wild-green gloves and breezers with his MSU yellow jersey.

“I tell you what, I was scrambling for some gear,” Carter said. “I didn’t want to wear my Wild gear, but I don’t skate a lot, I don’t play a lot. It’s the only gear I really have.”

Backes actually had a productive night on the ice, scoring a goal and two assists.

“That’s a blind squirrel finding a nut,” Backes said. “You know what? It was fun to be out there, and guys were having a blast, and that’s kind of what it’s all about. We’ve got a couple generations of Mavericks here.”

Not only did both Carter and Backes have success in the NHL, they also played together at Minnesota State. Carter played at MSU for two seasons (2004-06). The Mavericks were 13-19-6 in 2004-05 and 17-18-4 in 2005-06 under Troy Jutting. The Mavericks had four straight losing seasons before Hastings took over behind the bench in 2012-13. Since then, the winning percentages have all been above the .500 mark.

The Mavericks are a notable team in the conference and on a national level. They’ve played in six NCAA tournaments and have won multiple MacNaughton Cups, the trophy for the team that wins the WCHA each season. The Mavericks were a program that had reached 20 wins in a season only twice in its first 16 seasons in Division I hockey, but Hastings’s squads have won no fewer than 21 games during his tenure.

It’s seen plenty of growth since Jutting arrived on campus, first as a player.

“When I got here in 1983, it was all cornfields out past here and we played in a small rink,” Jutting said. “To see where this hockey program’s grown to is just phenomenal.”

Hastings has done a great job as a coach who motivates people, Carter said.

“Hasty does a great job,” Carter said. “He cares about the guys, and in return they put it all out there on the ice for him. The end result is usually a positive one.”

Backes, too, said he takes pride in the growth of the Mavericks program, while acknowledging that he was part of that growth. Carter is proud, too, and doesn’t mind the bragging rights in conversations either, as a Maverick alum.

“You think about the old WCHA, and it was Minnesota, North Dakota, Duluth, St. Cloud and is was kind of like, ‘Oh, you go to Mankato? Oh. Good for you,’” Carter said. “And it’s taken time, but now it’s like, ‘Oh man, you’re lucky. You go to Mankato.’”

Carter gives credit to all the players who’ve come up under Hastings to help produce on the ice and for bragging rights.

Seeing the Mavericks turn into a perennial contender and ranked nationally over the past decade under coach Hastings is a source of pride for guys like Carter and Backes, who said he has his “pom-poms out supporting them” whenever the Mavericks reach the national tournament.

The post Family Reunion appeared first on Minnesota Hockey Magazine.

The term throwback is an easily overused adjective applied to professional athletes. But in the case of David Backes it fits like a well-worn pair of hockey gloves.

In an era marked by the pursuit of personal glory at other high schools and/or the junior level by Minnesota’s best prep players, Backes is part of a dying breed.

The power forward with the scorer’s touch and the banger’s crush turned his back on offers to leave his Spring Lake Park friends and teammates and completed his illustrious Panther career with a Mr. Hockey nomination in 2002

MHM: A recent pair of Duluth News Tribune point/counterpoint columns stirred up the age-old debate over the perceived benefit to Minnesota high school kids departing early for junior hockey. As someone who is seen by many as the poster child for the if-you-are-good-they-will-find-you argument, where do you stand on the subject and describe the process you went through in determining your own path at that age?

Backes: There’s certainly benefits to playing a little more hockey in junior but I think your junior and senior year in high school are critical years for development as an athlete but certainly as a person. If you’re away with a different family or forced to grow up too fast, you miss those years. I think that I think that can be detrimental down the road.

The likelihood of a player even if they’re good enough to leave a little early to play junior, of making a pro career and never having to have a real job is very, very slim. For me, that was my mindset is that I’m gonna have these great memories of playing with the friends that I grew up with in high school, I’m gonna train my but off and if it’s meant to be it’s gonna be.

To read more of this interview, and many other great stories like it, click HERE to view the January, 2017 issue of our digital magazine and subscribe to have future issues delivered directly to your email inbox. 

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Dominant Game 3 performance lifts Minnesota over St. Louis

St. Paul – The Wild played textbook defense to disassemble the St. Louis Blues’ attack, ignored the Blues’ repeated attempts to square off and rolled to a 3-0 victory Monday night to take a 2-1 lead in the best-of-7 NHL playoff series.

With a highly amped crowd of 19,165 prepared to lift the ceiling of the Xcel Energy Center, fourth-seeded Minnesota played like the favorite for 60 minutes against the top-seeded Blues.

And, as people like to say, the crowd went wild.

“We fed off the energy the crowd gave us,” said forward Jason Pominville, whose second-period goal was the winner. “We knew it was going to be good and it was even better than what I expected.”

Devan Dubnyk needed just 17 saves to record the shutout while Pominville, Zach Parise and Nino Niederreiter each scored for the Wild, who will try to secure a 3-1 series lead in Game 4 Wednesday night at the X.

“Obviously, we feel good about our game,” Pominville said, “but we’ve got to put it behind us and look at the next one because they’re going to regroup and bounce back just like they did at home.”

The Wild’s speed game left St. Louis behind much of the evening and reduced players like Steve Ott and David Backes to trying to goad Minnesota players into extracurricular post-whistle stuff.

Didn’t happen.

“Our guys are able to handle it,” Wild coach Mike Yeo said.

The line of Mikael Granlund, Pominville and Parise each accounted for two second-period points as the Wild took control before getting a late empty-netter from Niederreiter.

“We were a lot better with the puck tonight in the offensive zone,” Parise said. “We were holding onto it longer, making some more plays and we were better on the rush, I thought, attacking the middle of the ice. We were able to get into the zone with some pressure. Teams look fast when you do that.”

Neither team got a lot going during a scoreless first period, but the Wild limited the Blues to just four shots on goal as a sign that it was not about to yield a whole lot.

Minnesota grabbed a 1-0 lead when Parise found Pominville alone in front of a wide-open net at 14:08 of the second period, and two minutes later Parise dug the puck free and beat Blues goaltender Jake Allen to make it 2-0.

The vocal response of the 19,000-plus surprised Dubnyk, who was playing his first home playoff game and said he couldn’t even hear officials’ whistles or the simple sounds of the game.

“You’re moving around deaf and, you know, I think we fed off it,” he said. “We got going in the second period and really used the crowd to our advantage.”

Granlund’s line was one of four that repeatedly outskated the Blues.

“Every single line, every pairing tonight was on top of the puck,” Dubnyk said.

Jason Zucker, Justin Fontaine and several others put on speed skating demonstrations all evening for the appreciative standing-room-only audience.

“We’re build on speed,” Yeo pointed out. “We have to be playing fast.”

Additionally, they utilized their speed to backcheck the heck out of the Blues forwards who had led St. Louis to a 4-1 win in Game 2 in St. Louis.

“I thought from goalie on out, we didn’t have a passenger,” Parise said. “Everyone contributed in their own way. We were tough to play against.”

Charlie Coyle, who had three hits as Minnesota led 28-26 in hits, said his team produced exactly what was called for.

“That’s the type of game we want right there,” he said. “A tough game on them, make things tough, clog up the neutral zone and don’t give ’em much.”

Dubnyk had an often relaxed 60 minutes, thanks to Minnesota leading 24-17 in shots and quickly clearing out the defensive zone whenever the Blues got close.

“The defense played awesome,” Coyle said. “We were trying to help out, blocking shots, being in the shooting lane, boxing out guys, and that’s the way we want to play.”

After outplaying the Blues soundly in two of three games and battling them evenly in the other, the Wild appear to be sitting in a very comfortable spot. Nevertheless, they say they are taking nothing for granted.

“It’s all about the next game now,” Granlund said. “It was a good effort for us, but we need to keep on and move to the next game.”

Backes, the Blues’ captain who is from Blaine, pointed out that his team certainly expects to be ready for Game 4.

“We have to learn our lesson, put this behind us and remember it’s a battle out there,” he said. “It’s a war and it’s going to take a great effort every night against this team.”

The post Wild zip to series lead against Blues appeared first on Minnesota Hockey Magazine.

Minnesota State alums take pride in program’s rise to prominence

St. Paul — The 2014-15 season has proven to be a remarkable one for the Minnesota State Mavericks and it becomes more so with each passing milestone.

The school earned its first-ever No. 1 ranking, spending four out of five weeks at the top of the polls from Jan. 12 to Feb. 15, won its first MacNaughton Cup as WCHA regular-season champs, set a program record for single-season wins in Division I and entered the WCHA Final Five as the No. 2 team in the country.

With its 5-2 win over Michigan Tech in the Final Five championship game, Minnesota State captured its second consecutive Broadmoor Trophy and will certainly ascend back to the top of the polls as the No. 1 overall seed in the NCAA tournament.

The program’s historic success this season has not gone unnoticed by a pair of prominent Maverick alumni and former teammates, David Backes and Ryan Carter, both of whom were in St. Paul over the weekend.

Backes and the St. Louis Blues team he captains faced off with Carter’s Minnesota Wild in a Saturday matinee contest leading up to MSU and MTU squaring off at Xcel Energy Center.

“It’s pretty exciting to see where that program’s come,” said Backes, who played 115 games with MSU from 2003-06. “I never sniffed a Final Five and they’re a No. 1 seed, they’re staying in the St. Paul Hotel. I was kind of mad, I was talking to [Mavericks assistant coach Darren Blue] saying, ‘We never stayed in the St. Paul Hotel.’ And he said, ‘Well, we were never the No. 1 seed for the Final Five.’”

Carter, who signed with the Wild as a free agent on Oct. 6, remains sidelined with an upper body injury and did not play against the Blues. But he took the opportunity to reconnect with the team he skated two seasons with from 2004-06 after Minnesota State’s 4-0 semifinal win over Ferris State on Friday.

“I went in and saw some of the guys after the game last night and talked to them a little bit,” Carter said. “I thanked them for playing well and giving me the ribbing rights in the locker room and padding my wallet a little bit.”

Backes admitted his hectic NHL schedule has made it challenging for him to closely follow the team.

“But we’ve got a few characters in here that played college hockey that keep asking how everyone’s doing, trying to rub it in,” Backes said. “Having bragging rights all year has been pretty fantastic and I owe a lot to those guys.”

Backes took the opportunity to watch the Mavericks practice on Friday and said it brought back a lot of great memories for him.

“To think it was 10 years ago that I was there, time flies,” Backes said. “I’ve relished every minute in the pros and that I had in Mankato and it’s flying by. I wish them the best.”

Carter has kept a closer eye on the Mavericks, even having a chance to watch them play when Minnesota State last visited St. Paul in January for the North Star College Cup.

“They work hard and it seems like the play an honest game,” Carter said. “At the same time, it’s not like they’re under-skilled and they have to play that way. They make good plays too … over the course of the game, it seems like they wear teams down.”

Each player heaped praise upon Minnesota State coach Mike Hastings and the job he has done in leading the Mavericks to 24, 26 and now 28 wins and counting to go with a trio of NCAA tournament appearances in his three seasons at the helm.

“Great Hockey mind, great family man and you see how far he’s taken the program since he’s taken over,” Backes said. “They’ve got a great group of guys down there, they work their butts off, they’re well-coached and they’ve done a heck of a job.”

Minnesota Wild F and former Minnesota State player Ryan Carter knows full well the difficulty in playing against a Mike Hastings coached team. (MHM Photo / Jeff Wegge)

Carter faced Hastings-led teams in the USHL from 2002-04 when he played for the Green Bay Gamblers and Hastings coached the River City (now Omaha) Lancers. His memories of those encounters are not fond ones, however, saying the hard-nosed, in-your-face hockey Hastings instilled in his players was not what he would call fun.

He said sees many of the same qualities in his alma mater but he recognizes subtle differences in the stamp Hastings has placed on the Mavericks.

“I think it’s a little different than the junior kids,” Carter said. “I think he’s adjusted well. They’re older kids and a little bit better players. They’ve got their freedoms but they have their structure and they play hard. It’s a good recipe.”

Hastings is appreciative of the support he’s received since his hiring from players like Backes, Carter and Anaheim Ducks right wing Tim Jackman. He also said “it’s been pretty cool” to see legendary Maverick coach Don Brose around the team as much as he has been.

“They’re prideful about what’s going on,” Hastings said. “It means everything because history is what you need to make sure you look back on because they’re the ones that have put the building blocks into what we’re doing now.

“The alumni and the people that are supporting us, and have since day one, for me, has been fantastic.”

The post Mavericks’ past gives nod to present appeared first on Minnesota Hockey Magazine.

Minnesota shut out in the shootout as St. Louis rallies from third-period deficit

The Minnesota Wild and St. Louis Blues each worked overtime for the second consecutive night but 24 hours after the Wild rallied for an overtime win in Dallas, they saw the Blues come back to tie the game in the third and leave St. Paul with a 3-2 shootout win. As he had done the night before against Edmonton in overtime, St. Louis’ Vladamir Tarasenko notched the game winner when his was the only shot to beat either goaltender in the shootout.

The Wild’s Mikko Koivu potted his third goal of the season while Zach Parise scored his ninth of the year and No. 250 of his career to add to his team-leading point total (9-9–18) this season. Niklas Backstrom got the start in goal for Minnesota, making 24 saves through overtime and stopped shootout wiz T.J. Oshie of Warroad and Alex Steen before surrendering Tarasenko’s winner.

Tarasenko’s clincher wasn’t his only contribution to the contest, however.

The game remained scoreless as it reached its halfway point before Tarasenko snapped the tie at the 10:20 mark of the second period. But Koivu and Parise responded with goals 4:35 apart late in the period to give the Wild a 2-1 lead at the second intermission. Minnesota appeared poised to maintain that gap as the 15-minute mark of the final period approached but former Spring Lake Park and Minnesota State star, David Backes, scored his seventh of the year with just 5:33 to go to ultimately send the game to overtime.

But the Wild could not muster a shot in the extra five minutes on Blues goaltender Jake Allen who finished with 36 saves and and denied Parise, Koivu and Jason Pominville in the shootout.

Next up for Minnesota is the Montreal Canadiens, 4-1 winners over the Wild on Nov. 8 in Montreal. The Habs visit Xcel Energy Center on Wednesday, Dec. 3 for a rematch scheduled to start a 6 p.m. CT.

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Phil Kessel’s pure hat trick leads team USA to win.

Led by former University of Minnesota Golden Gopher star Phil Kessel and his natural hat trick, Team USA bolted to a 3-0 lead, cruising on to an efficient 5-1 win over Slovenia.  With the win, Team USA ended pool play with a perfect 3-0 record, giving them a bye as the second seed and an automatic bid in the quarter finals of the tournament. 

Minnesotan’s continued to play a major role in the team’s success.  One day after Warroad star T.J. Oshie’s four shootout goal performance, Minnesotan ties followed with connections to to all five goals. 

Robbinsdale native Blake Wheeler followed  up Kessel’s

St. Paul’s Ryan McDonagh
photo credit USA Hockey

hat trick with a great individual play that led to the fourth goal.  Wheeler started with the puck behind the Slovenia net, and using his speed, skated around the entire zone before stopping and needling a pass from the deep corner to the opposite face off dot to Ryan McDonagh.

Blake Wheeler
photo credit USA Hockey

  The former St. Paul Cretin Derham Hall’s star sent a laser like shot over the left shoulder scoring his first career goal.

David Backes, whose Spring Lake Park high school jersey has been retired, then followed that up with the team’s fifth goal.  His skate to stick tip off a Ryan Callahan pass at the goal mouth found the back of the net.  Slovenia broke Ryan Miller’s attempt at a shut out in the last minute making the score 5-1. 

As the seconded seeded team behind Sweden, Team USA now gets to wait to see who will be the winner of the Czech /Slovakia game in the single elimination phase of the tournament.  These two teams have had a strong rivalry that is personal and with the history of the two nations, this should bode well for Team USA.  The team will play next on Wednesday against the winner of Tuesday’s elimination game.

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