Background and Ties to Minnesota

The Olde Crabs Hockey Club, LLC, was established in 1991 when a bunch of guys playing against each other on various teams in Westchester County, NY decided to join up to form a team to  play in over 50 division of Snoopy World Hockey Tournament in California.  One of their players was killed in an auto accident.  They hosted a charity tournament with all proceeds going to the American Diabetes Association as requested by his family.  After 3 successful early years and 4 years negotiating with the IRS, the Olde Crabs were granted 501c non-profit charity status. The Fall Tournament Hosted at the Danbury Ice Arena in Danbury , CT, draws 28-32  teams from across the US and Canada in  50, 60,70 and women’s 40+ divisions, is celebrating 15 years and has raised over $300,000 to support local charities.  The Hockey Club founder was Ron Faanes, a Roosevelt grad, class of ’59.  Minnesota Hockey Magazine did a story about their tourney and the yearly participation by the Minnesota Old Timers hockey club.  You can read that story by clicking >> HERE.

The following is the story of  the Connecticut Junior Rangers U12 Girls, one of the benefactors last year, written by Lindsay King and edited by Ron Faanes.

Quebec Pee-Wee Hockey Tournament, February 8-19, 2023

For over 60 years, 11 and 12-year-old hockey players from all over the globe have convened in Montreal to battle it out for what has colloquially referred to as “The Pee-Wee World Championships”. The tournament takes place at the Videotron Center, with a capacity of 18,000 fans. These young players have repeatedly called this tournament a “once in a lifetime experience”, often playing in front of more than 10,000 people and televised for all to see. The tournament is annually attended by over 2,000 competitors from over 40 countries, and takes place during the Quebec City Winter Carnival, which draws hundreds of thousands of visitors each year, as the largest winter festival in the Western Hemisphere. For the first time in over 60 years, the Quebec International Pee-Wee Hockey Tournament, the most prestigious amateur hockey tournament in the world, created a girls division. Twelve girl’s teams from around the world were selected to participate; the Connecticut Junior Rangers U12 Girls was one of the 12 selected.

This group was thrilled to have the occasion to compete against the best female youth hockey players in the world.  The CT Junior Rangers felt they were up to the task to compete on the world stage.

The tournament, more than hockey, presented an opportunity to be immersed in French-Canadian culture, touring such historic landmarks as Old Quebec and the Citadelle of Quebec. It was about meeting, competing against and forging friendships with players from all over the world who share the same passion.

Women’s hockey is one of the fastest growing sports in the world. Making its Olympic debut in 1998, those former players are now back in their communities, serving as role models and ambassadors for the game. There’s a long way to go, but the number of girls currently playing hockey globally is greater than ever before, and the numbers only continue to accelerate. The tournament’s decision to include girls in the Annual Tournoi International de Hockey is yet another example of progress being made and boundaries being broken.

The Path to Respectability

The CT girls went 4-1-1, losing in the Quarterfinals to the eventual Champions, the West Durham Lightning 2-0.

Over the course of the tournament, the girls beat teams from Montreal (2), New Brunswick and England. They also tied a very large team of Kazakhstan boys in an exhibition game 2-2.

Playing in front of thousands of people, on the big stage, our girls played their hearts out game in and game out.

Given that our team is made up of half 2011’s in a vastly predominant 2010 tournament, our girls were often outmatched in physical size, but never in speed, skill or grit.

Off the ice, the girls took in all Quebec had to offer. They went to the Winter Carnival and the Old City, fortunate that many of our days were unseasonably warm! They also loved the 63 year traditional of pin trading with teams from all over the world. It was great to see the “value” of the CJR girls’ pins increase as they continued to win throughout the week! Initially the boys were disinterested… not the case by the end of the week! And glancing through a larger lens, having Ukraine participatingthe tournament drew fans and emotions from all, and it was special to see our girls find understanding and warmth in supporting them. As is often the case, the lessons learned throughout the week were not confined to hockey.

All of the girls in the tournament were a part of something truly special. To be the very first girls division to play in the biggest youth hockey tournament in the world is something no one can ever take away from them. It was a great week for girls hockey, and to be a part of it in this way was a special experience these girls will cherish throughout their lifetime. Thank you for helping make this possible for them.

Please enjoy these photos from the tournament.

Warm Regards, Ron Faanes & Lindsay King

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It also happened to be the first week of hockey season.

Granted the OK by Ponies girls hockey head coach Annie Cashman to take the team’s afternoon practice off, junior Brooke Nelson strolled into St. Croix Valley Rec Center just a few hours after her soccer season had ended ready to start her winter sport.

Cashman describes Nelson as a bit of a throwback. In this day and age of the specialized athlete, Nelson is one of the state’s best soccer players and also excels on the ice. 

And she does it while maintaining a low-maintenance attitude.

“She wants zero attention, zero accolades,” Cashman said. “She just wants to be there for her sisters and go out and play.”

In the midst of an impactful campaign for the ninth-ranked Ponies, Nelson had a bit of a coming out party on Hockey Day, scoring four goals, including a natural hat trick in the first period, in an 8-3 win over host White Bear Lake. 

Four of Nelson’s junior classmates are already committed to Division I schools to play hockey, and if she put her mind to it, Nelson could likely make it five.

Not bad for her “part-time job,” as Cashman describes it.

Brooke Nelson (12) battles a trio of White Bear Lake Bears for puck possession on Hockey Day Minnesota at Polar Lakes Park in White Bear Township. (MHM Photo / Jeff Wegge)

“She’s about as good of an athlete as you’ll come by,” said Ponies senior captain Avery Braunshausen. “She’s excelled in soccer since we were iddy-iddy-biddy. She excels in hockey. Having someone like that on our hockey team, and someone that knows what it’s like to play on a team that makes a state tournament, that knowledge is helpful.”

Nelson insists her soccer skills translate on the ice and make her a better hockey player.

“I think I’m able to see the ice differently than other people,” Nelson said. “In soccer, it’s all about finding space, and I can translate that on the ice, finding the puck in spaces that people don’t really expect you to.”

Nelson is one member of an outstanding junior class where she, admittedly, flies a bit under the radar, something she’s perfectly fine with. 

Josie St. Martin started the month with the U.S. National Team in Sweden and is headed for Ohio State. Addison Finn will play collegiately at Boston University, Josie Lang will attend Providence and Myah Krueger, who did not play at Hockey Day, is committed to St. Cloud State. 

“I’ve played with a lot of these girls since I was really little,”  Nelson said. “So for me, I’m just going out to play with my friends and do our thing.”

With all of that junior talent on its roster, Nelson’s Hockey Day performance showcases exactly what makes the Ponies dangerous as section time approaches.

On any given day, someone new can help carry the load, whether it’s one of their junior superstars, or one of its senior leaders.

“Brooke is a great player and we’re all super proud of her. But it just as easily could have been Josie or that whole junior class,” Braunshausen said. “Our whole team is so talented. Today it was Brooke.

“It’s one of things that makes us so successful and why our team excels, when we’re all using each other’s strengths. One of the things about our team is we all have different strengths and we have lots of moving parts.”

At Hockey Day, Nelson found herself on the business end of a collision early on that left her down on the ice and slow to the bench. 

After laboring back to her teammates and shaking off the trainer, it didn’t take Nelson to exact revenge.

One shift, to be exact.

Her next time on the ice, Nelson scored her first goal, one that gave Stillwater a 2-1 lead, an advantage it wouldn’t relinquish the rest of the way.

“When I scored, I was good,” Nelson said. 

So was Stillwater.

It’s early one-goal deficit was the first time this season the Ponies had trailed in a conference game, but it’s the kind of adversity that could come in handy as sections approaches.

When section play begins early next month, Stillwater will likely start with either Woodbury or East Ridge, two teams that have hung tough in both meetings this season.

Should the Ponies win there, potential semifinal and final foes could include rivals Hill-Murray and Gentry Academy, two of the best girls hockey programs in Minnesota.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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Edina avenges loss to Centennial to repeat as state champions

St. Paul — After her team’s semifinal win over Eden Prairie on Friday night, Edina coach Sami Reber did not hide her excitement about getting another shot at Centennial, one of only two teams to beat the defending state champion Hornets this season. 

“I think if we could have picked the opponent we wanted to play in the state championship game, it would be them,” she said. 

 Top-seeded Edina (28-2-1) made the most of that chance in Saturday’s girls’ Class AA title game with a 2-1 win over No. 2 seed Centennial (25-4-1) to capture its second straight state championship. Edina closes the season with 14 consecutive wins.

Aliyah Lance’s goal just 2;39 into the third period snapped a 1-1 tie and proved to be the game winner as Edina goaltender Megan Smith made seven of her 13 saves in the final period to preserve the lead. 

Edina’s Lolita Fidler found Lance coming through the slot with speed and Lance did the rest with a slick move on a defenseman before roofing a shot over Centennial goaltender Mackenna Stoterau who finished with 25 saves.

“Our team is so talented with so many girls that all bring something to the table,” Lance said. “So to be able to be a part of that and just work as a team, just get the bunces going our way, it’s just great.”

Lance’s goal came roughly two minutes after Centennial’s Anneke Linser rang a shot from in close off the right post in the period’s opening moments. 

Emily Oden broke a scoreless tie 8:38 into the second period when her slapper from the top of the left circle beat Stoterau with the aid of a Lolita Fidler screen. Six minutes later, Centennial’s Gabbie Hughes who, along with teammate Linser and Edina’s Oden are Minnesota Ms. Hockey finalists, scored a power-play goal to tie it up heading into the final period.

Despite a 15-7 shot edge with only a goal and a tie game to show for it, Reber said the Hornets were almost giddy during the second intermission.

“We’ve been in situations like that before,” Reber said. “We had 17 minutes left of our season and, with seven seniors on the team and a big junior class as well, I know a lot of those girls were not going to have any regrets coming off the ice.”

there were no regrets for an Edina team which had a target on its back from opening night on.

“Coming back the second year, everyone’s out to get us” Oden said. “To defend it is super hard and to win it again is definitely special.”

The teams played to a scoreless first period in which the Hornets outshot the Cougars 7-2 with neither shot coming from Centennial’s top line of Hughes, Linser and Emily Nadeau. The trio entered the game with a combined 82 goals and 184 points on the season but, of the 24 shots they attempted against Edina, 16 either missed the net or were blocked.

“They really gave us a dogfight,” Linser said. “It was hard to get to the net and they were on us. We did what we could and we tried our best.”

The Hornets said the game plan against Linser and Hughes in particular was to be as physical as possible at the risk of taking penalties. 

“We spent a lot of time on how we were going to defend them but kind of just playing our own game, that’s all we can really do,” Edina defenseman Eva Hendrickson said. “We gave them the credit they deserved but, in the end, our players, I think, took it to them.”

“Physicality is something we definitely hype as a team and when you’ve got two players who you know are going to play a lot of minutes in a game, you want to wear them down as much as possible,” Reber added.

The Cougars complete the best season in school history with their first state championship game appearance and their heads held high.

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Breck captures second-ever state championship with a 3-2 OT win over Warroad

St. Paul — For the first time in six years, the Class A state title game had to be settled in overtime. Funny enough, that’s exactly how the Breck  Mustangs won their first state title in 2012.

After a valiant comeback by the Warroad Warriors, the Mustangs needed just eight seconds of overtime to capture the Class A championship, with a dramatic 3-2 win.

It was the fastest ending to an overtime in Minnesota State High School State Tournament history.

After the Mustangs won the opening draw, they skated into the Warroad end and freshman Sadie Lindsay threw a puck on net and just like that, the underclassman had the overtime winner; crowning Breck the champions in Class A. The freshman said it was a dream come true.

“It was one of the greatest feeling of my life, honestly,” Lindsay said. “To win the state championship has always been a huge dream of mine and it’s a dream come true to win.”

Lindsay wasn’t the only underclassman who played a large role in her team’s success as goaltender Uma Corniea, just a seventh grader, made 25 saves in the win. Every time the camera panned to her on the Xcel Energy Center jumbotron, there was always a big smile cracked around her face.

“I was always play better when I’m smiling,” an ecstatic Corniea said after the win. “And just life is better when I’m smiling, so I just like smiling I guess. And it just helps me be confident in the net.”

When the puck dropped to open the first period, it looked to be all Mustangs as they had eight shots on net in the first five minutes of play. Yet Warriors goaltender Quinn Kuntz stood stall making save after save. Both teams also had power plays in the first period but weren’t able to convert. Breck ended up having 14 shots on net by the first intermission.

The Mustangs came out with the same fire in the second period and two minutes into the frame, sophomore Olivia Mobley found the back of net, giving her team a 1-0 lead. Mobley’s goal was assisted by freshman Emily Zumwinkle. It was Mobley’s fourth goal and team-leading eight point of the tournament. Breck was able to get a couple more power plays but Warroad’s penalty kill was superb, keeping things contained at a one-goal game.

It was an uneventful start to the third period, but the final five minutes of regulation was when pure chaos erupted. The Warriors would finally get on the board via the power play when junior Kaitlyn Kotlowski blasted a shot from the point and things were tied at one.

Just shortly after the tying goal, Lindsay streaked in a on 2-on-1, and it appeared she scored the go-ahead goal; crashing hard into the net. But after video review, it was determined that net came off its moorings when the puck passed the goal line, therefore it was waved off. On the ensuing faceoff after the waved-off goal, Mobley batted a loose puck into the back of the net and Breck had a 2-1 lead with 2:30 left in regulation.

With Warroad trailing and a championship on the line, the team pulled Kuntz for an extra-attacker. Breck had a chance to seal the deal with an empty netter but they instead were called for an interference penalty and the Warriors now had a 6-on-4 advantage. That’s when sophomore Marlie Johnston netted an equalizer, sending things to overtime and once again the Warriors were right back in it

“I thought we had a good third period,” Warriors head coach David Marvin said. “We were fortunate to still be in the game at that point. We thought we were one shot away. We battled hard.”

Despite surrendering two leads in the final five minutes, Mustangs head coach Rhonda Engelhardt knew the game was far from over.

“I wanted to make sure they were still confident,” Engelhardt attested. “The game wasn’t over, we still had it, go out there and give it everything you got. That was the theme was to just go out there and we’re not done, were going to win this game and they needed to believe that.”

And Breck did exactly that. Even with a younger core of star players, they did not waver in the biggest games of their lives.

With so many talented players at such a young age, it appears the Breck Mustangs will be a force to be reckoned with for years to come in girls hockey.

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No. 2 Centennial vs. Eagan

Minnesota Ms. Hockey finalists, and Minnesota Duluth recruits Gabbie Hughes and Anneke Linser combined for nine points to lead second seeded Centennial to a 6-1 win over Eagan in their Class AA semifinal matchup on Friday night.

“They’ve been playing really good hockey all year long and stepping up in big games,” Centennial coach Kristina King said. “I didn’t doubt their abilities but I didn’t know they’d put so many goals up on the board tonight. It was fun to see.”

Hughes registered a natural hat trick by the 12:29 mark of the first period, with Linser assisting on all three goals, and added a fourth tally in the third. Hughes assisted on Allison Pitlick’s third-period goal to complete her 5-point night while Linser’s second period goal was her fourth point of the night.

Cougar goaltender MacKenna Stoterau saw her shoutout bid thwarted by Eagan’s Lauryn Roszak with 3:09 to play but finished with 22 saves. Maddie Nickell had 17 saves for the Wildcats.

“I think we were just in the right spots at the right times and we knew what to do,” Linser said. “We just kept doing it.”

What the Cougars  kept doing was coming through the slot with speed and open space, a recipe for disaster any time, but especially when facing Centennial’s lethal top line of Hughes, Linser and Emily Nadeau. 

“We knew that that first line had a lot of scoring power so we ended up, obviously, behind and then trying to work our way back,” Eagan coach Dan Wilson said. “When you give players like that that space they and take advantage of that so, more often than not, you’re going to see them put the puck in the net when you give them that space and those shots in the slot area.”

Nadeau appeared to get the Cougars on the board first when Nickell batted Hughes’ backhand shot up in the air with her blocker and the puck dropped down in front of her at the left post. Nadeau whacked at it but, despite heavy scrutiny by the replay officials, it was ruled to be Hughes’ goal.

“I personally think she got the goal,” Hughes said. “It was sitting there on the goal line and she was the one that crashed the net and banged it home and I think she deserves the credit for that one.”

While Centennial (25-3-1) has been to the state tournament three times, the last appearance coming in 2008, the trip to the title game is a historic one for the program.

“It’s the first one in Centennial history for us,” Hughes said. “I think it’s a huge honor to do it for our community and to do it for all the little kids that we see up in the stands. It’s just an unbelievable feeling.”

The Cougars beat both of the remaining semifinal contenders back-to-back in December (3-1 over Eden Prairie and 3-2 over Edina) but King isn’t counting on getting an advantage from those wins.

“It obviously gives us some confidence, and it gave us some confidence, but we forgot that,” King said. “It’s a whole different playing field.”

No. 1 Edina vs. No. 5 Eden Prairie

Top-seeded Edina earned a chance to repeat as Class AA state champions on Friday night with a hard-fought win over Eden Prairie. The Hornets outshot the Eagles 47-15 for the game but goaltender Alexa Dobchuck nearly stole the game for Eden Prairie (19-10-1) stopping 43 of those shots in Edina’s 4-2 win.

“I’d like to say it would be the first time I’ve seen it but I think I’ve seen it every day in practice and every game we’ve played for five years,” Eden Prairie coach Jaime Grossman said. “I’m definitely going to miss seeing that on a regular basis.”

Dobchuk’s remarkable performance included 22 second period saves, as state tournament record for saves in a single period. Edina needed a couple of deflections and balanced scoring to beat the Senior Goalie of the Year finalist as eight Hornets picked up points in the game.

“Edina’s a really good team and they always seem to play their best in the big spotlight,” Dobchuk said. “To be perfectly honest, those are the best games for me because I love taking shots and so I love playing Edina.”

Olivia Swaim, Brooke Tucker, Aliyah Lance and CC Bowlby scored for Edina while goaltender Megan Smith stopped 13 of Eden Prairie’s 15 shots. Crystalyn Hengler and Ava Wagner scored for the Eagles. 

“She always plays well against us, she always plays well in general,” Lance said of Dobchuck. “So to have 30 shots on her and not have one go in in a while, it’s definitely frustrating but it’s still motivating that we know we have to bear down and get one in there.”

Swaim opened the scoring with her 10th of the season on a deflection of a Evelyn Adams shot that eluded Dobchuk at 8:23 of the first period. The Hornets appeared to be heading to the dressing room for the first intermission clinging to that one-goal lead but Thursday night’s scoring hero for the Eagles, Crystalyn Hengler, would have none of that.

Smith was unable to control the rebound on a shot from Eden Prairie’s Sydney Langseth and Hengler pounced on it to score her 20th of the season with just 13.8 seconds remaining in the period. 

That did not sit well with the top-seeded Hornets as the defending state champions exploded out of the gate in the second period, dominating the Eagles to the tune of a 22-2 shots advantage. But Edina had nothing to show for it as Dobchuk was there time and again to deny the Hornets and keep her team in the game.

“You give up a goal with a few seconds left in a period, it’s never easy but we were tied,” Reber said. “We had dominated most of that period so we just wanted to keep the momentum going in our favor. We knew Dobchuk was hot tonight and so we just wanted to keep peppering her.”

All that peppering finally paid off for Edina just 2:20 into the third when Turner’s shot from the left point glanced off Eden Prairie defenseman Claire Kuipers and behind Dobchuk for a 2-1 Hornets lead. Six minutes later, Tucker set up Lance to give Edina some breathing room.

But just 10 seconds later, Smith struggled to control another Langseth shot and Wagner was there to pull the Eagles back within one. Eden Prairie made a push but came up short and Bowlby sealed it with an empty net goal in the final seconds. 

Grossman said he expected a closer, more back-and-forth game and feels like the spotlight may have been a bit to big for some of Eden Prairie’s younger players.

“You’ve got to give credit to Edina too because they’re good at taking you off your game,” Grossman said. “I think they did a good job of taking us off our game tonight and making us earn every inch. I think they were really physical with us and I think that got some of our kids off their game.”

Waiting for the Hornets (27-2-1) in the championship game is second seeded Centennial (25-3-1), one of just two teams to have beaten Edina this season. That 3-2 December loss only serves to motivate a determined Edina team.

“I love it,” Reber said. They’re one of two teams that beat us this year so we’re ready for then and we’re excited . I think if we could have picked the opponent we wanted to play in the state championship game, it would be them.”

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