Warroad had jumped ahead early and went on to win the game 6-2, avenging a game two weeks earlier when Roseau won 3-2 in overtime in Roseau. As I sat there, looking at this enormous video screen 20 feet away, a fellow stepped in front of me, looked out from under a knit cap and over a graying goatee and said: “John Gilbert. Do you remember me?”

I had to admit that I didn’t recognize him.

“Neal,” he said. “Neal Broten.”

You’ve got to be kidding! Here was one of my favorite hockey players ever, and I didn’t recognize him. We had a nice conversation. He came up from the Twin Cities area to visit his dad and mom, Newell and Carol, who still live in Roseau.

That was one of many conversations I had, including one with David Christian, who also drove up from the Twin Cities for Hockey Day Minnesota. The crowds for the event were very good, as the temperature hovered in the mid-20s. My wife, Joan, and I drove up Friday, hoping to arrive in time to see the Roseau-Warroad alumni game, which would hinge on which side could round up the most alums. Roseau alums whipped Warroad alums, 6-2.

On the 4 and a 1/2-hour drive up from Duluth to Warroad, we tuned in KDAL radio to hear Bruce Ciskie’s broadcast of the UMD-Wisconsin women’s WCHA game at AMSOIL Arena. Wisconsin won a close game, but I was astounded to notice that Ciskie has adopted a style in which he gives the time on the clock — “11:30 of the second period” — as the official time of the game. He didn’t say time remaining, which would have legitimized it, but he just gives a time and the period, which is totally disconcerting to a listener like me, who wants to know the score and the remaining time. (When I got back, I asked Ciskie when he started doing that, and he said, “I hate doing math.” Huh?)

We got to Warroad and checked in, making friends with the beautiful little owner’s dog, Bentley. After trying, but failing, to get over to the end of the alumni game, Joan and I went over to Izzy’s, which used to be owned by Izzy Marvin, but which still sells the best hamburger in town. Like every other establishment in town, Izzy’s was jammed.

A group of young players periodically cleared ice buildup from the outdoor rink. (MHM Photo / John Gilbert)

Picture-perfect Hockey Day
It was a nearly perfect three days in Warroad last weekend, which was the ideal time for moderate temperatures and the lack of the usual January snowing, blowing and freezing in this little Canadian border town on the Southwest tip of Lake of the Woods. The organizers did a fantastic job of laying out the outdoor rink on the high school football field, which had one end zone right up against the Marvin Event Center. That center became our gathering spot for everything from watching hockey games to eating a steady flow of different foods supplied throughout all three days for anyone fortunate enough to have a VIP or media pass.

As a long-term resident of the pampered life of a sportswriter, I’ve grown to appreciate all the various press boxes I normally visit while watching games. No such luxury this time, so I spent much of it standing outside to shoot photos from in front of the windows of the event center. That was where I watched the very impressive Warroad girls high school team, ranked No. 2 in Class 1A, lose 4-3 to big and powerful Class 2A-foe Lakeville North, a team that has a good shot at making the state tournament.

The Warroad teams paid tribute to their heritage, and to the achievement of gaining the continued use of the term “Warriors” after numerous politicians had tried to get them to drop the name. Saturday started with the indigenous drum band playing an opening tribute that was quite an emotional attraction. And the Warroad players wore jerseys that had “Kaabekanong Ogichidaag” emblazoned on their chests. That, in Oglala Sioux, means “Warroad Warriors,” somebody said.

Another person said it was a modernized term for “War in the Road,” which dates back to the 1800s, when the warring factions of different tribes fought their battles on the road leading into Warroad. Probably for the rights to the many huge walleyes waiting for fishermen out on Lake of the Woods. The area tribe made a deal with the city of Warroad to give them the land on which to build their new school back in the early 1900s, and the agreement included a deal that assured the school would keep the name “Warriors” as a tribute to the Native Americans.

There were games for all age groups, from youth to college, and included some high school attractions. One of those attractions came in men’s hockey when Concordia College (Moorhead) came from behind to beat a strong St. Olaf team 4-2 with three third-period goals in a Division III classic.

There were also video tributes to Henry Boucha, who died in September, and continuing tributes to the Marvin family, which runs various industries, including the huge window-building plant that is the area’s largest employer.

Wayzata skated past Moorhead 5-2 in a boys high school feature. (MHM Photo / John Gilbert)

The Warroad girls high school team is coached by David (Izzy) Marvin, who has brought them to prominence and state championships. Izzy’s dad is the late Cal Marvin, who owned a resort and was general manager and coach of the Warroad Lakers, who won Canada’s Allen Cup for Senior Men’s teams.

“Other small towns that start girls programs need to do what Warroad has done,” Izzy said. “And that is to get behind the girls program. When we started, Cal got behind the girls program, and when Cal was behind something, not many people chose the other side.”

Perfect explanation for Cal’s influence and for the Warroad girls’ success.

Wrapping up the weekend
After watching and shooting photos at games such as the Wayzata boys powerhouse whipping Moorhead 5-2 in one of several other high school games, it was time for the Warroad-Roseau boys high school weekend highlight. I was prepared to head back outside to get a spot for shooting photos. However, the two rows of standing sites ahead of the event center were elbow to elbow, with the grandstands on both sides of the football stadium also jammed, as a crowd possibly approaching 5,000 filled every spot.

That’s what sent Joan and me back inside and over to the huge video screen for the Bally Sports North telecast.

As the second period ended, the sun was going down and it felt a little chillier, and I suggested to Joan that since we were watching on the big screen, we could hustle back to the hotel and catch the third period and maybe the Wild-Anaheim finale on BSN in our room. So we took off.

We got to the hotel in time to see the third period of the Warroad-Roseau game. But for some unknown reason, the connection between BSN and the motel had quit and despite scrolling through every station in the guide, we never found the end of the game. Nor did we find the Wild game, although we tried hard enough that we were too tired to go out seeking a late dinner, and we settled for crackers and cheese that we had brought with us.

When we were through with our snack/dinner, I tried scrolling through one last time — and there we found the Wild-Anaheim game! Just in time to see the Wild collapse into their bye-week swoon.

We slept well, got up Sunday morning and started our return trip in the test-drive Prius I was driving for my automotive column. We wanted to get back in time for the NFL championship games in the AFC and NFC, so we thought a quick breakfast at McDonald’s would be best, grabbing a couple bacon-egg-and-cheese sandwiches. We pulled into the drive through and were informed they quit selling those at 10:30 a.m., and it was already 10:40 a.m.

So we took off, heading east on Hwy. 11 for Baudette, another Lake of the Woods town. Passing through, we saw Alice’s Restaurant, where an impressive waitress named Ashley took care of our orders for Denver omelettes, whole wheat toast and… some of the worst coffee this side of instant.

But it got us home, after a fantastic Hockey Day Minnesota weekend in Warroad. Next year, the extravaganza will be in Shakopee. The following year, it will move to Hastings. Both of those cities will have a major challenge trying to live up to the high-bar setting of Warroad, which remains “Hockeytown, USA.”

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“I said, ‘you know what? When we go home, we should check out starting girls’ hockey,’” Tveit said. “I said, ‘girls’ hockey is going to explode with this Olympic win.’”

Things moved quickly, as Warroad’s arena manager set up Tveit with ice time the following week so he could gauge interest. Forty to 50 girls showed up initially. A $13,500 Mighty Kids Grant to the Minnesota Amateur Sports Commission helped get the girls’ program up and running with a 15U team, two 12U teams and a house-league 10U team by the fall of 1998.

The first year, the 15U team nearly went undefeated, minus a late-season tournament game in Cloquet against Thunder Bay.

“So, we realized we could compete,” Tveit said. “And so, we jumped and made the move to varsity at that time.”

Twenty-five years later, Warroad girls’ hockey is one of the powerhouse programs in Minnesota. It’s won four Class 1A state championships, each in back-to-back fashion under current head coach David Marvin in 2010-11 and 2022-23. The Lady Warriors have appeared in 14 state tournaments and nine state title games. They’ve missed the state tournament only twice since 2009, losing to the Class 1A runner-up East Grand Forks in the section semifinal in 2014 and falling to 2015 Class 1A champion Thief River Falls in the section final that season.

Tveit led a group of girls with varying hockey abilities for four seasons, starting in 1998-99; they had six players who played squirts or peewees with the boys’ teams for a good nucleus. The rest of the team included players just sticking their skates on the hockey ice for the first time, though most players had brothers who played hockey at some level at the time. The team joined the Minnesota State High School League ranks in its second season.

One of Warroad’s standout moments was in the 2000-01 season when it played Moorhead, an opponent that was “a good measuring stick for us,” Tveit said. The Spuds were on a 19-game winning streak when Warroad went into their barn and shut them out 3-0, Tveit recalled.

“That was a huge deal for our kids,” Tveit said. “That was a big boost.”

Bruce Elson took over for two seasons before Scott Knutson was behind the bench for Warroad’s first state tournament trip in 2006.

Warroad did it right
When girls’ hockey got started in other communities, Tveit said it’s “fair to say that girls had an uphill battle, uphill struggle.” A common refrain in those early days was likely that girls’ teams took ice time away from the boys. Not so in Warroad, where the girls had “open-arm treatment,” which is an important part of the story, Tveit said.

From ice time to equipment to travel, everything was pretty much equal between the boys’ and girls’ Warroad teams.

“I have no memories of being like, ‘wow, we didn’t get this or we didn’t get that,’” Gigi Marvin said. “It was very much equal, I would say. We had as much ice as you could want.”

Added Maureen Hardwick Greiner, a member of the first Warroad team: “The boys got first-class stuff, and we got first-class stuff. From day one it was like that.”

That included Sunday nights with ice time first for the Warroad girls’ hockey team, then the boy’s team. No coaches, just shinny hockey, Gigi said.

“Until 10, 11 at night,” Gigi said. “Shutting the rink down. That’s probably the best way to explain it is you have girls and guys high school age skating together and sharing the ice and not having any issues whatsoever.”

Goaltender Amber Hasbargen Nelson, Hardwick Greiner and Gigi Marvin were some of the players who came into those first Warroad girls’ high school teams with hockey experience. They all played on boys’ teams growing up. Whether girls played hockey, everyone skates in Warroad, either in gym class, figure skating etc., Hasbargen said.

Starting a girls’ hockey team, “it wasn’t like we were starting from scratch like a lot of teams maybe were,” Hasbargen said. “Because we had girls that had played, and we had girls that had skated before and been around the game. That made for a good start for our program.”

Hasbargen was the team’s main goaltender. She was named Goaltender of the Year in Minnesota her senior season in 2002. She went on to play four seasons with North Dakota, back when it had a women’s hockey program.
In those early Warroad girls’ games, Hasbargen stood on her head and kept the team in a lot of those contests, Hardwick Greiner said.

“You could win high school girls’ hockey games back then with one or two studs and a good goalie,” Hardwick Greiner said. “You can’t do that anymore. Teams now are just too deep, and the hockey has just come so far and teams play systems.”

Then there was 2005 Ms. Hockey Gigi Marvin, who turned into a well-known name nationally and internationally, winning Olympic medals, for one thing. She played peewee hockey with the boys through seventh grade before moving to Warroad girls’ varsity.

Gigi also “had a deke move that would get me most of the time,” Hasbargen said, noting Gigi’s talent on breakaways.

Equal ice time leads to strong hockey program
From early on to the present, it’s that access to ice time and community support that separats the Lady Warriors from other programs. The open-door policy to skate with a variety of teams helped, too. Gigi remembers skating with not only her high school team but also had dad’s peewee team and her grandpa’s senior men’s program.

“We just have that ability to practice our skills, develop insanely good hockey IQ and on-ice vision because you’re at the rink all the time in so many different scenarios,” Gigi said. “In one practice you might be the best player out there and can really work on your stickhandling and some creative moves. And maybe the next ice session you go to… with a bunch of older kids that you’re skating with, you’re forced to think the game at a high level.”

That’s how you develop and get ahead of the curve, she added.

It’s the ice time, plus the support of the community when it comes to fundraisers and state tournament trips that’s helped the program, Hasbargen said.

“I think the dedication that the players put into it also is a big part of why the teams are so successful,” Hasbargen said. “The success has grown, and so the older girls make sure the younger girls know what it takes to continue to be successful, and I think that tradition just kind of continues.”

The former players love watching the program thrive, too. Early on, the team was lucky if they had three full lines, Gigi said. Those first seasons, the girls also convinced Hardwick Greiner’s sister, Meaghan, to step away from her role as a boys’ hockey cheerleader and come play girls’ hockey for her senior year.

“’Meaghan, we need bodies, you’ve gotta come and play,’” Maureen said. “We had 13 people, only 12 skaters on our high school team. So, we had a few like Meaghan who couldn’t catch a pass or handle a puck. It was a little dicey. But we just needed bodies, we needed people to field a team.”

A couple of decades into the program’s history, and the roster is not only full but full of college-level talent. Last year’s line chart for the state championship game against Orono included seven players committed to play college hockey, including a top line of DI-committed athletes in Talya Hendrickson and Kate Johnson at the wings headed to Bemidji State and center Rylee Bartz with a St. Thomas commitment.

“It speaks to the level of commitment and type of player that Warroad has right now and have been able to develop,” Gigi said.

There’s also a sense of pride for hockey players coming out of Warroad’s program, hailing from Hockeytown, USA. As Gigi said: “There’s no place like it on the planet.”

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The Glory Years of Laker Hockey

Winning the Allan Cup is a big deal.  To understand senior A hockey in Canada, it is nearly impossible for someone south of the border to get the impact and difficulty, as hockey is the national game and is treated like a religion in Canada.  

The Allan Cup goes to the winner of a series of tournaments that are played throughout Canada, with teams from every province competing for a trophy that is awarded annually to the national senior amateur men’s ice hockey champion of Canada.  

The Cup was donated by Sir Montague Allan of Ravenscrag, Montreal and has been competed for since 1909.   The tournament is televised by TSN and is treated like the NHL’s Stanley Cup, passed by champion to champion by league championship or challenge.

In 1915, the challenge system was replaced with a series of national playoffs.  From 1920 to 1960, the winner of the Allan Cup would represent Canada in the Olympics and in World Championships.  

The Cup has been won by teams from every province and from the Yukon, as well as by two teams from the United States.

The original Cup has been retired to the Hockey Hall of Fame in Toronto, and a replica is now presented to the champions.

It has been said that there is more to life than hockey, not in Canada or Warroad.

Like Father, Like Son –Player-Coach  David “Izzy” Marvin

David Marvin was No. 11 of 12 Children by Beth and Cal and grew up with hockey.  

Like his father, David would go on to play for the University of North Dakota and then coach the Lakers.

“We had very few conversations that didn’t revolve around hockey or maybe the particular business that dad had at that time,” David Marvin said.  

David and Cal Marvin with Allan Cup

Growing up as a stick boy for the Lakers, he was in the locker room with the legends of Lakers hockey including Olympians Roger and Billy Christian.  His own game was developed by Laker players like Bob Storey, Peter Waselovich, Scott Marvin, Blaine Comstock, his brother Mike Marvin and Billy Christian.  

In Bantams, under Christian, the team would be disciplined and conditioned as Billy worked them hard.  The team would qualify for the state tournament.  

With coaching like that the players developed and, by their high school years under Tom King, and with players like Larry Olimb and Danny Lambert, the team would go undefeated in Marvin’s junior season.  For the next 2 years, the team would make the trip to the state tourney, with 16 players from that group going on to play either college or pro hockey.

With high school behind him, it was now time for the University of North Dakota where he played for Gino Gasparini.

“Gino didn’t have to recruit me very hard,” Marvin said. “I wanted to play where my dad played.”

Billy Christian then helped David get a tryout with the Winnipeg Jets.  With the tryout and his wedding fast approaching, David was very excited, but soon would be hit with a tragedy that would change the direction of his life.  As his  future wife was heading back from Grand Forks with her little sister, a drunk driver hit them, killing David’s fiancé’s sister.

The funeral was on Wednesday and the wedding followed on Saturday, After the tryout with the Jets, David was sent to the farm team at Moncton, New Brunswick and was offered a minimum professional contract, which wasn’t much.  

The person who killed David’s would-be sister-in-law had now plead not guilty, and with a trial looming, David knew in his heart it was time to go back home to Warroad.  

“If you’ve ever lost someone, you know there’s nothing worse,” Marvin said. “I asked myself ‘What are you doing out here in New Brunswick?’”

He headed back home in November, played with the Lakers, started into business and did the best to take care of his wife.

David would play for the Lakers in the team’s final six seasons, the last five as player-coach.

Lakers Come of Age

The Warroad Lakers team in the 90’s was the best senior men’s hockey club to ever play the game.

Not to say the Canadians didn’t make it difficult, the tournament in itself is grueling, but throw in the US/Canada sentiment and their feat is even more amazing.

John Hanson said playing in the Allan Cup finals in Quesnel British Columbia wasn’t just playing against the other team, but it was also playing against other factors, including suspect officiating.

“Our team was so good that they just had it in for us,” Hanson said.  

With the officiating less than desirable, and the host team winning to advance to the finals, Hanson would find himself in some hot water with the officials.

“The officiating was just awful.  It was very apparent they wanted the host team in the championship game.  After the game, and with me being so upset, I told the ref what I thought and he kept skating away from me.  The referee bumped legs with me and fell, taking a huge dive.  He then wrote me up for abusing an official, where I was suspended from playing in Canada until the following year.  This type of refereeing was typical for the games we played in Canada.”

Starting with “final four” appearances in the Allan Cup in both the 1991-92 and the 1992-93 seasons, the team was poised for something special.  With Cal as manager and led by his son Player-Coach David “Izzy” Marvin, the team was ready to take home the Cup.

Over the years, 62 former University of North Dakota players would wear the Laker Jersey.  

Joined by Former Sioux players Shane Mcfarlane and John Hanson, along with adding Roseau guys like Greg Lund, Jamie Byfuglien, Mike and Steve Ross and Billy Lund, the makings of a strong core was set for what would soon be the glory years of Laker hockey.  

The Lund Brothers from Roseau

Cal had the team ready and with the help of guys like All-Americans Steve Johnson and Warroad native, and Minnesota Mr. Hockey winner, Larry Olimb, the pieces were there for a great run.  

McFarlane and the guys loved being around Cal and said, “Cal loved telling stories; he had all these hockey stories, starting with UND, the early Lakers, about Henry Boucha, just great hockey stories.”

Scott Knutson, a 1982 All-State player for Warroad before his Laker days, said Cal was one of a kind. “Cal really enjoyed it, he loved being around the guys, he had a great sense of humor, and would always have a smile on his face.”

Cal was always on the lookout for players who were in the area who could help the Lakers.  Sometimes Cal would miss on the talent of a player.

“Cal and Spencer Estling went down to Bemidji to look at Joel Otto,”  Knutson said. “And after seeing Joel skate, Cal thought Joel really couldn’t help the Lakers, as he wasn’t a good enough skater.”

Otto would go on to play 14 years in the NHL as a shut-down center, winning a Stanley Cup with Calgary in 1989. Otto also played on two U.S. Canada Cup teams and was a member of Team USA for the inaugural World Cup of Hockey and the 1998 Olympics games in Nagano, Japan.

Having been to these Allan Cup finals in Quesnel, Cal knew Warroad would be a good host and the club knew how to put in a bid to host for the 1994 Allan Cup.

In a show of respect, the 1994 Cup was awarded to Cal Marvin and the Warroad community.  With the games played in Warroad, the story was made much better for the Lakers and for Cal Marvin, winning the first Allan Cup in their beloved “Garden”.

The bid would only be the second time that the tournaments finals would be played on U.S. soil, having been played in Spokane Washington decades earlier.  Warroad was also the least populated city to ever host the championship round.

The story would get even better.  The Laker club from 1994 through 1996 was the only team to ever win the Allan Cup three straight seasons.

Fighting Sioux, Rams and Warriors unite – Allan Cup comes to Warroad

Warroad and Roseau have one of the greatest rivalries in Minnesota.  From Mites to the High School level, that game was circled on every calendar.   Roseau player Jamie Byfuglien noted,  “Cal would rarely miss any games particularly the Warroad – Roseau games and, looking back as far as squirts, I remember him wearing the long trench coat smoking a cigar.”  

Merging these two hockey powers into one force was the work of Cal.  Cal knew that if the Lakers were going to win it all, he needed the help of their neighbors.

“I grew up watching the Lakers and I always wanted to play for them,” Byfuglien said. That was the closest thing to professional hockey as there was up here.

Playing Laker hockey was second only to my youth and high school hockey in Roseau, where we won the state peewee, bantam and then the high school tournament.  I was fortunate to play on some great teams, including the three Allan Cups.”

According to Byfuglien, it was Greg Lund who was the guy who broke the ice, and started skating for the Lakers from Roseau.  

“I didn’t know what to expect, but my D partner was also from Roseau, with Greg Lund, who was about 4 years older than I,” Byfuglien said. Once we joined the Lakers, there was no rivalry that I know for the guys from the late 80’s and on as we were a team.

“Cal took us Roseau guys in with open arms. Every practice we had he was up watching, chewing on the cigar, arms crossed.  He knew it was also important for the wives and girlfriends of the players to feel welcomed, and that is what made it special.  Without Cal, the Lakers would not have had the success they enjoyed.

“Our practices were intense, we would scrimmage and play black on white, with Izzy taking a run at me and I would make sure he would get the brunt of the hit.  But at the end of practice, we would just go in, and BS in the locker room with everything that had just happened being left on the ice,  It was great fun.”

On the long road trips, the players were cared for by Cal.

“Cal would have the pre-game meal at McDonalds where every player got seven bucks, although some guys got envelopes that had more cash after the games,” Byfuglien said.  “What was paid was a secret for years.  On the road trip home he would always have a boxed lunch for all the players.  He took his time out during the day to make sure the guys were taken care of on the way home.”

Greg Lund recalled the respect the team had for Cal while playing for him.  

“He just loved the game, he would sit up watching us every practice,” Lund said. “Afterwards, he would come down to the locker room, and we would flip him crap and he would give it right back.”  

Lund looks back at the Laker practices with fondness.  “Our practices were like playing for the Allan Cup every night. The practices were intense; we would shoot on the goalies for 5 minutes and then go to war playing a best of 5 series up to 5.”  

The team and the community of Warroad went all out in their efforts to host the 94 Allan Cup.  One of the most important activities, fundraising, was headed up by Conway Marvin.

The community was able to raise the $40,000 needed to host the Allan Cup. The five-day round-robin tournament featured teams from across Canada with the travel expenses for these teams picked up by the Lakers.

Hanson said the 94 squad that brought in Chris Imes right off the Olympic team was really strong.

“Imes was a very good player, but was just another piece,” Hanson said. “He wasn’t even our best player, we were just that good.”

That team featured 2 All Americans and 13 Division 1 hockey players.

Wyatt Smith, a high school star, joined the club.  He would be on two Allan Cup championship teams before he graduated from high school.  Smith would later go on to star for the Gophers and play in the NHL for the Wild, among other teams.

The result was well worth the efforts as Warroad would take the Allan Cup on its home ice in dramatic fashion by winning the tournament in five games.  The team would need every player to get through the grind, and energy guys like Bruce Elson, Roger Lien, John Gillie, Wayne Bartley, Donny Riendeau and Jared Baines would make this vision a reality.  

Solid goaltending wins championships.  Without it, you will not win as it is almost impossible to hide poor goaltending in a long tournament.  The Lakers were blessed with Todd Kriebich providing a steady influence between the pipes, with Kriebich being awarded all-tournament honors on a consistent basis.

After the tournament, Player-Coach David Marvin summed it up best saying, “I can’t begin to tell you how much it means to me just because of my father.  I saw him get a little emotional there at the end.  None of us would be here if it weren’t for him.  He’s the ultimate team player.  This whole thing is for him as far as I’m concerned.”

1994 Lakers Allan Cup Champions

The Lakers were just starting their dominance of the Allan Cup.  

The 1994-95 squad was not as talented as the year before, but what they lost in talent, they made up for in chemistry.  The team found a new league playing in the Southeastern Manitoba league and filled out its schedule by playing strong teams like the St. Paul Parkers, Minneapolis Bucks and the Sun Valley, Idaho Suns.

In the playoffs, the team cruised to its fourth straight Manitoba title defeating Thompson 12-1, Notre Dame, 6-2 and St. Anne 6-3, and defeating Notre Dame in the championship by a 10-4 score.  

The Lakers would catch a big break in the next round, as the were to play the Cupar Canucks for the Manitoba Saskatchewan championship.  Cupar would jump out to a 2-0 lead in the best of 5 series, but after the Lakers defeated them 3-2 back in Warroad, the Cupar team forfeited the remaining 2 games giving the Lakers the title.  

Many of the Cupar players hadn’t planned on losing, and when they did, the guys needed to be back at work by Tuesday, having planned most of their vacation time for the Allan Cup.  Cupar Manager Kelly Findling said his guys had taken time off through Monday, and, “since we all came over in one bus, we decided to play the Sunday game.  If we had won, we’d go to the Allan Cup.  If we lost, we’d be done, our players are professional workers, not professional hockey players”.

Cal Marvin was not pleased stating, “I don’t understand it.  In 48 years of amateur hockey, I’ve never seen anything like this.  You play all year to get to the championship and pull out one win away from the finals.”

Why Cal couldn’t understand this was obvious.  Nothing like that would have ever crossed his mind.  The Laker commitment to hockey, which was Cal’s commitment to hockey, would never have allowed for such thinking.

In the Allan Cup playoffs at Stony Plain (located just west of Edmonton) the Lakers posted wins over Powell River British Columbia 9-2, and Stony Plain 3-2 and dumped the Truro Nova Scotia Bearcats 5-2.  Stony Plain would win the play in game and the Lakers would defeat them 3-2 with goals by Knutson, Donnie Riendeau and Wyatt Smith.  The Lakers would finish the year with a 35-8-1 record and the Allan Cup.

That summer, the Amateur Hockey Association of the United States gave its Hall of Fame Heritage Award to Cal Marvin.  The award is based on outstanding service and significant contributions to American hockey.

The Laker team was not finished, and would soon make history, becoming the first team ever to win back to back to back Allan Cup titles.

The following year the Allan Cup finals were hosted in Unity Saskatchewan.  In the first game, Knutson’s hat trick helped defeat Stony Plain 6-2.  The next night, Roseau native Billy Lund would get  four goals, while Donny Riendeau added three as the Lakers destroyed the Truro, Nova Scotia Bearcats 11-3.  The Lakers then rallied from behind to defeat the Unity Miners 4-2.  The Lakers would defend their title beating Stony Plain by a 6-1 score to earn their third consecutive Allan Cup.  The team would finish the year 35-1.

The three-peat is the only such performance in the history of the Allan Cup.

The team under David Marvin as player-coach had an amazing run, winning five straight Pattison Cups (the Manitoba championship), Three straight Patton Cups (the Western Canada championship, and three straight Allan Cups (the Canadian AAA senior amateur championship).

One problem that the Lakers had was they were too good and in the end, after a 50 year run, that would be the killer.  They were not wanted in the Manitoba Senior League, after posting a 70-14-1 record over the previous two years, the team was told they were no longer welcome in the Southeast Manitoba Hockey League.  

With no league to play in, and no team wanting to play in Warroad unless they were paid to come in and play, Cal made an announcement that the 50th season would be the last of Laker hockey.  

With an amazing half-century run, a 50th reunion was planned to be held in Warroad on the day of Game 3 of the Manitoba playoffs.

The Manitoba champion would be decided by a best-of-five series between the Lakers and an Ille des Chenes team, which had added two former NHLers to its roster.  The Lakers would win that series 3 games to 1 setting up a series with the Kindersley Klippers, a town of 5,000 on the Saskatchewan border.

Sweeping that series in three games proved costly, however, as injuries to key players would decimate the Lakers. Injuries would knock out Billy Lund (knee) and captain Scott Knutson, who would take a vicious cross check to the back, along with Jared Baines (knee) Hanson (shoulder) and Riedeau (leg bruise).   

The Lakers would go out in style in the Allan Cup Finals. They defeated Stony Plain 6-5 before falling 4-1 to a loaded Powell River squad and lost to Truro 4-3 to end the round robin. The Lakers eked into the semi final game behind the sensational goaltending of Todd Kriebich, who shut out Turo 3-0 setting up a dramatic last Laker game.

The battered Lakers would do their best playing for a four-peat in the championship of the Allan Cup but the Lakers were beat up having played five games in five nights and the injuries had taken their toll.

They led the host Powell River team 2-1 after the first period, but the Lakers would eventually come up on the short end of a 7-3 decision.

The 50 year reunion had 422 mailing addresses to all of the former players that were known.  With 570 players having donned the Laker jersey, not all the players were found.

Cal Marvin – led Lakers for 50 years-as a player, coach and GM

“It was quite a party,” Cal said at the time. “Unbelievable. With guys coming from Florida, British Columbia and Calgary.  David worked hard putting that together.  He wrote a lot of letters and made a lot of telephone calls.  There gets to be quite a bond between the guys when they play together like we did.  When you come from Winnipeg when it’s 30 below, you don’t do it for the $25 … you don’t leave home with your wife chewing you out at the door unless it is for something that you believe in, that you want to do and to be with your teammates.  The game really has to mean something to you.”

Cal Marvin and his weekly column for the Warroad Pioneer and Commonwealth newspapers would no longer feature the Lakers.

On this 20th anniversary of the last season of Laker hockey, and with 50 years of Laker hockey now in the books, the last chapter on the Lakers now has been written.  They may be gone, but hardly forgotten, as they are the reason Warroad is HOCKEYTOWN USA.

The post Warroad Lakers – Senior Hockey at it’s Best appeared first on Minnesota Hockey Magazine.

A basketball tournament on Saturday, eggs and bacon on Sunday and a Monday-morning school announcement proved to be the genesis of the Warroad Warriors’ girls’ hockey program, one of the most successful girls’ hockey programs in the state of Minnesota.

“In 1998 I had a daughter in seventh grade, and at the time the only sport (in town) for girls in the winter was basketball,” former Warriors’ girls’ head hockey coach Ron Tviet said. “We know how many kids are going to play on a basketball team. A couple of other dads and I were at a 7th-grade girls’ basketball tournament. We thought women’s hockey was going to blow up. We should get on the bandwagon.”

That conversation started a chain reaction in the community that would not be stopped.

“I went to church the next morning with a friend, Albert Hasbargen, the manager of the hockey arena,” Tviet recalled. “We went to breakfast after church. We were talking, and he said ‘when do you want to start?’ The next day he called me and said ‘I scheduled you for ice time next week.'”

Tviet, a teacher in the Warroad school system and first coach in the history of the girls’ program, got on the PA system and made an announcement to the school Monday morning that a meeting would be held in his classroom.

Warroad athletic director Warren Keller, who Tviet said wasn’t even invited, showed up as well.

“He talked to me right after the meeting asking me about what I was going to need and what my thoughts were,” Tviet said.

Although they had kids and the support of the AD, they still needed money.

“Kathy Unertl, our city clerk, suggested we contact the Minnesota Amateur Sports Commission,” the former head coach said. “She wrote the grant, and we ended up getting almost $14000. That ended up buying our equipment. We had to have some matching funds for the grant. CCM and Christian Brothers were a great help. We were off and running.”

They were off and running with a 15U and a 12U team. The plan was to stick with youth hockey for three years and then jump to high school. Like the program’s start, everything was accelerated.

“I think I had six girls (on the 15U team) that had been playing with the boys already,” Tviet said. “That was a key to our success.”

(Photo by Jeff Wegge)

Another key to early success was Tviet, who had coached at various levels in the Warroad system for 23 years, 17 of them at the squirt level.

“If you take out those six girls, the rest of the girls were about at that level,” he said. “I am not much of an X’s and O’s coach. I am a skills coach, but that is what we needed at that time.”

The first year schedule did not allow the Warriors much time to test the waters. The Warriors opened up against an established Grand Rapids program which had Tviet questioning his scheduling decision.

“We ended up beating Grand Rapids 3-2,”Tviet said. “Then Bemidji was having a 15U tournament. They needed another team, and they called to see if we would play. I remember thinking to myself ‘I don’t want to throw these kids to the dogs’ but we agreed to go to the tournament. We ended up winning the tournament.”

The first-year program would finish the season undefeated and won the Class B state championship.

Tviet said an essential aspect of the immediate success was the commitment from boys’ program and its coach at the time, Cary Eades.

“He made sure the boys supported the girls,” Tviet said. “One time we were in a playoff game in Hibbing in the morning and Cary had his kids do a team breakfast, and then they all came to our game. He was supportive in every way. That is something you don’t see in every community.”

Not surprisingly, the AD got behind the program from the very beginning.

“At Christmas, Keller came to me and said it looked like we were ready to make the jump to a varsity program after one year,” Tviet said. “We sat down and put together a budget, a schedule, and he said he would take it to the school board and we will go from there. The school board approved it for the next year, and that was it.”

With no teams close to Warroad, the travel schedule for the first year was brutal. Tviet, estimates the team put on 4,500 miles in its inaugural varsity season.

“The kids lived on the bus,” Tviet told Minnesota Hockey Magazine. “They would do homework on the way to the games and on the way home they would bring pillows and sleeping bags and would sleep in the seats or on the floor. We would get back to Warroad at two in the morning, and there would be the parents, waiting to take the kids home.”

Support for the Warrior girls didn’t just come from the school. It also came from what Tviet and current head coach David Marvin call ‘the important hockey people in Warroad.’

“The people who were respected the most in the community wanted to see our girls’ program be successful,” Marvin said. “When they put their name behind it that meant ‘everybody get behind it.'”

Chief among those ‘important hockey people’ was Marvin’s dad, the legendary Cal Marvin, who passed away in 2004.

“Cal Marvin was the godfather of Warroad hockey,” Tviet said. “He was instrumental in supporting the endeavors of girls’ hockey. He was behind it one hundred percent.  He kept a watchful eye over everything. He had a spot in the rink where he would watch practices. If there was ever anything you wanted to know or anything you needed, you went to him. He was a quiet guy but when he spoke you listened.”

The girls’ program was immediately taken in by the community.

“A lot of girls’ programs spin their wheels fighting for equality while we just have to spend our time figuring out how to get better,” David Marvin said. “When kids play girls’ hockey in Warroad they know they are not second fiddle. We get prime ice times. We get great schedules; we get everything the boys get. In some ways we get more things than the boys. The girls know they do not have to worry about equality or fairness. It is established.”

Tviet added, “When girls’ hockey came into many communities they had to fight for everything. That was not so in Warroad. The community opened their arms, and we were taken in just like that.”

(Photo by Jeff Wegge)

The level of commitment to hockey – boys or girls – is not lost on the residents of Warroad, least of all someone who grew up in town, the team’s current head coach.

“As a kid growing up in Warroad you didn’t know any better,” Marvin said. “There weren’t a lot of things to do, but the arena was always open. That is where you went; that is just what you did. Later on in life, I realized that Warroad is pretty special with the free ice and things like that. As a kid, we didn’t know that we just went to the rink and had fun.”

Tviet summed up the community’s hockey relationship.

“We had a high school coach in Warroad years ago named Tom King. He said ‘what we have in Warroad is a commitment – a commitment to excellence.’ That fits the girls’ program well. The people who are involved in the program are dedicated to the program.”

After three years behind the varsity bench, Tviet decided to step down.

“I had been coaching for almost thirty years, and I was ready to get out,” he said. “I was more of a skills coach, and when I left, they were ready to take the next step. Three years after I left they were in the state tournament with Scott Knudsen as the head coach.”

Five years after Tviet stepped down, Marvin stepped in.

Marvin took the head job in 2006 and was behind the bench for five straight state tournament appearances, including back-to-back championships during the 2009-10 and 2010-11 seasons.

“Mostly I had to open the door and know not to interrupt them,” Marvin said of the state championship teams. “They were that good. They were that type of kids where I just had to make sure I didn’t screw it up.”

In all, Warroad has made eight state tournament appearances with three runner-up and three third place finishes in addition to its two titles.

Marvin has surrounded himself with a solid group of assistant coaches ever since he took over.

“Derrick Comstock has been with the program since the beginning,” Marvin said. “He works with our defensemen. Darrell Shaugabay has been a youth hockey coach for thirty years and has been my assistant for the past five years. A couple of my former players, Beth Olson and my daughter Layla, are also on my staff.”

This season Warroad should have another strong team.

“I have a great group of kids,” Marvin said. “We are led by Madison Oelkers who is going to play for Mankato State and Katie Kotlowski who is going to play for Wisconsin in two years. They are surrounded by a group of young, talented kids who people don’t know about yet, but they will.”

They will be known in a program whose roots took hold in a basketball gym and over bacon and eggs, but was built on the backs of a group of athletes and a community that – unlike few others – embraced the idea of a girls’ program when it wasn’t a popular position. Never second-class citizens, they started with an improbable undefeated start and have never looked back.

The post A Diner Dream Come True appeared first on Minnesota Hockey Magazine.