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.

One of my favorite stories from our family’s history comes during World War II, when my maternal grandparents – Julius and Phyllis Anderson – left their jewelry store and hair salon behind, and moved from Warroad to Detroit for a time. There were very few cars rolling off the assembly lines in the Motor City those days, with the carmakers converting their factories to assist the war effort. My grandparents, a few years before my mother was born in 1945, helped make bombers and other instruments of war. When I hear about the stereotypical “Rosie the Riveter,” I think of my grandmother.

My grandparents moved back to Warroad and started a family, with my grandfather serving as the town’s mayor for several years. When I would visit with them during my childhood in Warroad, and hear stories of their work during World War II, I recall tales of the buzzing, noisy factories, and the incessant traffic on Woodward Avenue, in the heart of Detroit.

Oddly, never once did I hear them talk about the hockey culture there, or hear Detroit referred to as “Hockeytown.” That’s not Detroit. Hockeyotwn USA is where I lived.

Nobody thought much about the nickname “Hockeytown USA” which was bestowed upon Warroad in the 1950s, when boys from our town first began winning Olympic hockey medals. It fit. It made sense. This tiny hamlet, hard by Lake of the Woods, was and remains the cradle of American hockey. The game is in your blood from birth. You grow up dreaming of playing in the NHL, to be sure, but your first goal is to wear not a pro sweater, but a Warroad sweater. And the first time you pull that black and gold jersey of the Warroad Warriors over your head – even if it’s just to sit the bench during a JV game with a few dozen parents and younger siblings in attendance – it sticks with you.

As I kid in the early 1980s, I played goalie in the net on the east end of the since-demolished Memorial Arena, beneath the scoreboard, and the massive sign below the scoreboard which read “Welcome to Hockeytown USA” in bright red letters. Nobody questioned those credentials. There was never a reason to do so. Warroad was a capital of American hockey, with the numbers and banners to back it up. While some rinks hosted birthday parties and figure skating competitions, ours held a welcome home ceremony for Dave Christian, where he could show off the gold medal he won in Lake Placid – the third gold medal our town got to claim – and sign a contract with the Winnipeg Jets, right there at center ice.

In the late 1980s, the first notable attempt at nickname theft happened, with St. Paul emblazoning the streetlights around the old Civic Center with banners declaring Minnesota’s capital city as “Hockeytown.” It was met with a strong rebuke immediately, from Minnesota Governor Rudy Perpich among others, noting that Warroad is, was, and will always be the true Hockeytown USA. To their credit, the St. Paul folks backed off. The banners came down, and when they went back up they proclaimed St. Paul as “Minnesota’s Hockey Capital.” We can live with that.

We knew about the Detroit Red Wings, of course. After bringing his Olympic silver medal home to Warroad in 1972, Henry Boucha played there for a time. The Wings shared a division with the Minnesota North Stars, so we got to see lots of games from Detroit. They were awful. The Dead Things was their accepted nickname at the time. We thought very little of them, rightfully. There was no talk about Detroit as a center of hockey in America. In the 1980s, the city was a poster child for urban blight, with high crime and an American auto industry struggling to survive. Watch Michael Moore’s first documentary “Roger and Me” sometime, for a frank look at how bad things got in Michigan at that time.

Now, please know, I am not a Detroit basher. It’s a great American city. It’s a good sports town, with passion for the local teams running high. It’s an architectural marvel, and when one visits and envisions what it was like in the heyday of American car manufacturing, one can see why it was called “the Paris of the Midwest.” It’s fun to see the city bounce back from the depths of urban decay and see projects like Little Caesar’s Arena signal the on-going resurgence of Detroit. I really enjoy some of Eminem’s music (if the mood is right) and some of the Motown artists (Stevie Wonder, the Temptations, Marvin Gaye, etc.) are cornerstones of American music. I love a good Detroit-style deep dish pizza, and National Coney Island (with 20 locations in Metro Detroit) is one of the great American junk food stops. I even drive a Ford, so in a small way I feel I’m a supporter.

There was understandable giddiness in the early 1990s, when the Red Wings got good again. Through smart drafting and development of players, and even smarter importing of some of the top talent made available by the breakup of the Soviet Union’s sports machine, the team was a contender for the first time since Gordie Howe was the marquee attraction. It was a good story when amid all of the rough economic news, the Wings brought the Stanley Cup back to the city in 1997, and three more times in the modern era. But in all of that hype and happiness, someone decided to take it a step too far.

Signs proclaiming Detroit as “Hockeytown” started to appear in the late 1990s – a full 40 years after the name had rightfully landed in eastern Roseau County. They put the name at center ice of Joe Louis Arena. They opened up a sports bar called the Hockeytown Café in downtown Detroit. If you email a Red Wings employee, the address is “jsmith@hockeytown.com.”

Um, hey, Michiganders, we have a problem here.

On a spring day in the late 1990s, the afternoon hosts of a sports talk show in Detroit called up Warroad mayor Bob Marvin, to talk about the co-claims on the Hockeytown nickname. If one expected a respectful discussion of how we got here, they were let down. Warroad, its people and its hockey history were the butt of several condescending comments, with the jockeys asking Marvin why the city hadn’t copyrighted the name years ago (“Has Detroit copyrighted ‘Motown’ or ‘Motor City?’” was his rhetorical response), and demanding that everyone in Warroad cheer for the Red Wings in the forthcoming playoffs and hold a big celebration “when the Wings win the Cup.” Added one of the commenters, with a definite air of sarcasm, the celebration “…will probably involve a trip to the Dairy Queen.”

I spoke to an attorney friend at the time, and learned that from a legal standpoint, it’s an impasse. Detroit’s moves to copyright the “Hockeytown” name mean that Warroad cannot prevent them from using it. Likewise, Warroad’s long history of using the “Hockeytown” name mean that Detroit officials would probably lose a legal challenge.

So here we sit, with two communities uneasily sharing the same nickname. One of them is due to history, tradition and on-ice success. And one of them due to a deep-pocketed advertising campaign funded by a family of pizza makers.

In advance of the 2014 Winter Olympics, the CBS show 60 Minutes sent a crew to Warroad to do a story about this small town’s hockey culture (the New York Times had been there a few weeks earlier). I recall sending a note to a friend who runs the local Chevy dealership – one of the first businesses you see when you enter town from the west – imploring him to put up a sign that read “Welcome to Motor City” in advance of the TV crew’s arrival He didn’t do it, apparently not sharing my sarcastic sense of humor.

Really there was no need. When you come to Warroad from east or west, you see the water tower emblazoned with hockey sticks, and you see an even bigger sign that leaves no doubt about where you are.

“Welcome to Warroad, Hockeytown USA” it reads. Thank you. Case closed.

# # #

Jess Myers covers pro and college hockey for The Sports Xchange, The Athletic and 1500 ESPN Twin Cities. He is a proud graduate of Warroad High School.

The post The Real Hockeytown appeared first on Minnesota Hockey Magazine.

Facts on Why Warroad is HOCKEYTOWN USA

From the outside looking in, there is something special about the town of Warroad. Not only was it once one of the largest Chippewa villages on Lake of the Woods, but it now boasts the title of Hockeytown USA®. With names like Bill Christian, Cal Marvin, David Christian, Gordon (Ginny) Christian, Roger Christian, Dan McKinnon, Gigi Marvin, Henry Boucha, T.J. Oshie, and Brock Nelson in their lineup,

Come Early, Stay Late, Always Open

Warroad must be doing something right. But, what makes the old “war road” from which the river and village derived their name different in regards to hockey?

A volunteer from Hockeytown USA® shares how Warroad is a force to be reckoned with:

In the medal round of the 1960 Olympics, the United States men’s team defeated the Soviet Union 3-2 with Bill Christian scoring two of the three goals and his brother, Roger, getting both assists. In the next game that clinched the gold medal, Roger scored four goals and Bill got three assists. From that moment on, Warroad became Hockeytown USA.

So how does a tiny community on the Manitoba border maintain such a lofty claim for almost 60 years? I am going to share some of our hockey history that will answer that question and then give you an insight as to what we are doing now to make sure that this tradition of excellence continues.

In 1949, Warroad’s Memorial Arena was built. Native lumber was planed at the Marvin Lumberyard and thousands of 1-inch boards went into building the rafters and the roof. Finally, Warroad hockey was inside.

Hockeytown’s presence on the world stage began in 1955 when Gordon Christian played on the National Team. In 1956, both Dan McKinnon and Gordon Christian were members of the US Olympic Team. Two years later, Cal Marvin was the coach of the National team with Dan McKinnon and the three Christian brothers on the roster.

1960 – The remarkable Gold Medal win at Squaw Valley

1965 – Roger and Bill Christian played in their second Olympics

1965 – Cal Marvin was chosen to manage the US National Team for the World Championship in Oslo, Norway

1969 – State HS hockey tournament, Championship game between Warroad and Edina. Over 16,000 fans on their feet cheering Warroad and the electrifying Henry Boucha

1972 – Henry Boucha made the Olympic team, won a silver medal, and soon after joined the NHL.

1980 – David Christian and His teammates shock the hockey world with a Lake Placid gold medal. A week later David came home, school was let out and [Warroad] packed the Memorial Arena to honor him and watch him sign his NHL contract.

Our high school boys team has kept Warroad in the hockey headlines with 21 state appearances and four championships. Our girls team, which started in 1998, has been in the state tournament 8 times and have been state champions twice. Over 70 boys have played division one hockey and 10 of our girls have received scholarships to division 1 schools.

2008 – T.J. Oshie turned pro with the St. Louis Blues

2010 – Gigi Marvin made the Olympic team

2013 – Brock Nelson, David Christian’s nephew signed with the NHL’s New York Islanders where he excels with them and US National teams

2014 – Both Gigi and T.J. participated in the Sochi Olympics and the national media had a field day with these two Warroad high school classmates

Every highlight, every accomplishment that I just described had a common thread – a foundation – connecting them all. That foundation was the Warroad Lakers. The Lakers were an amateur team that entertained fans for over 50 years. A team that was so successful that their name was synonymous with excellence in Canada and the US. In Canada, because that is where the Lakers competed and played for championships from British Columbia to New Brunswick. Their success is honored by Laker jerseys and sticks and records in the Canadian Hockey Hall of Fame in Toronto.

Fame on our side of the border was achieved by the repeated presence of US National and Olympic teams that came to play in our town. They came to Warroad for three reasons: their relationship with Cal Marvin, their relationship with the Christian family, and the opportunity to play the Warroad Lakers. Through USA Hockey, we have been able to host the visiting national teams from Germany, Norway, Sweden, Finland, Japan, Czechoslovakia, and most recently, three visits from the women’s national team.           

For every Warroad High school boy that had a dream of playing college hockey, the Lakers offered a special opportunity for development. Our talented skaters were welcomed at Laker practices and rewarded with a spot on the team for playoffs.

The best example of this is what occurred in 1976, when David Christian joined the Lakers for the playoffs. David played on a team that won the Manitoba Championship, then beat the Saskatchewan representative, then followed that by eliminating the British Columbia winner and flew to New Brunswick to play for the Canadian title. David was the team’s leading scorer and, most significantly, played on a line with his dad, Bill Christian. For a hockey dad that has a hockey son, I cannot imagine anything more perfect.

So what is Hockeytown doing today to continue this legacy? We are fortunate to have people on our Arena and Youth boards that had a close connection with the previous generation that provided us with such beautiful facilities and a commitment to the game.

There were many that gave their time, but I would like to mention three: Cal Marvin, who was the Arena Board president and Youth Hockey President for 50 years. Bill Christian, who served on the Arena Board during the construction of both our arenas and was our town’s Bantam coach for years. There is a photo in our adjoining arena that honors Roger and Bill. It doesn’t reference any game they played or goals they scored. It is there as a tribute to two men, who for 30 years, led the volunteer crews when work had to be done at the arenas. This included: new locker rooms, a press box, installation of artificial ice, new dasher boards, a new lobby, whatever was needed.

Those of us that serve Warroad hockey do so with the greatest respect for these men and the others that worked with them.

Mike Marvin, a long time youth hockey coach, shared with Minnesota Hockey Magazine what makes Warroad hockey unique:  “First – We are very proud of Warroad’s Indian heritage and the many Native coaches and players in our program. For instance, last year there were six Native players on our Pee Wee team competing in the State Tournament. 

The second thing that makes us unique is that each player can attend the practices of every team in town.  Girls can attend boys’ practices and boys are welcome to skate with the girls; young kids skate with the older kids and vice versa. I don’t know of another town where this occurs.

And finally and most important: ice time in Warroad is free. There is no hourly charge to players or families like in other communities. There is a huge sign in our Olympic Arena that says:  HOCKEYTOWN — COME EARLY — STAY LATE — SKATE EVERYDAY.  This is the message that we preach to the kids and their parents.

We are trying to teach them what came natural to Henry Boucha and David Christian; we want them to live at the rink like T.J. Oshie and Gigi Marvin did.  We offer unlimited ice time and know that if they use it, Warroad will continue to produce skilled players and continue the legacy of Hockeytown, USA.”

It is clear that Warroad cares about each individual player. From the time they first learn to skate, girls and boys alike are given the same opportunities to succeed. The history of Hockeytown USA® will forever live through the game. The memories made in the locker rooms, on the ice, and in the homes of the community. Make no mistake, Warroad hockey is here to stay.

The post A Quick Look at HOCKEYTOWN USA appeared first on Minnesota Hockey Magazine.

  In a feat never seen before in USA Hockey Olympic history, Warroad Minnesota native T.J. Oshie scored four shootout goals in leading team USA over the Russia 3-2 in overtime.  The epic game lived up to the hype and then some, with both teams playing as if   it was a game seven of the playoffs (or for the Gold medal) instead of a preliminary game leading to the medal round.

With a sellout crowd at the Bolshoy Ice Dome, in a game that had as much hype and build up that would rival the gold medal game featuring Canada and Team USA in Vancouver, the players did not disappoint as the game became a classic.  The game will go down eternally in USA Olympic hockey history.  The feat was noticed from the highest office in the world, with a tweet from President Obama and the White House congratulating Oshie and the team.  It was most celebrated in Warroad Minnesota, the small town just miles from the Canadian border that is the official Hockey Town USA.  No USA team has ever won a medal at the Olympics without having a Warroad native on the roster.

The pace was lightning fast for a full 65 minutes. The hits were punishing and delivered with purpose.  Throw in the bravery exhibited by players like Minnesota native and former Cretin Derham Hall and present New York Ranger star  Ryan McDonough  taking one for the team using whatever body part was available to block shots, including taking one off his unprotected back by diving in front of a one timer by NHL star Alex Ovetchkin, shows the type of determination that leads to victory. 

The loud, pro Russian crowd that included Russian President Vladimir Putin watched the teams skate to a 2-2 at the end of regulation, a score that held up only because an apparent Russian goal with 4:40 left in the third period was disallowed after video review. The long blast from Fyodor Tyutin from just inside the blue line hit the back of the net, was tipped by the left face off dot at about chest level by a team mate past U.S. goalie Jonathan Quick, but was waved off after a video review showed the net was off its moorings.

The five minute 4 on 4 shoot out yielded several scoring chances, including a clean break away by Patrick Kane, who found himself all alone after getting behind the Russian defense.  With two defenders chasing him, Kane tried to go five hole, and his shot was stopped by Russian goalie Sergei Bobrovski.

With the game tied, it was now headed to the shootout, the first time Team USA has ever been involved in one while at the Olympics.

For such a time as this, Oshie was picked for the team. Oshie was one of the last players chosen by Team USA Executives, and in the selection article written by ESPN’s Scott Burnside, this very moment was a key factor for he being on the team.

T.J. Oshie’s magic in shootouts was a frequent topic of conversation when general manager David Poile and his selection committee chose the U.S. Olympic team roster.

“You know at some point we are going to end up in a shootout, and we are going to want T.J. Oshie,” Poile said more than once. Coaches had the same mindset about Oshie’s specialty. The Americans appreciated what he brought to the team in general, but they loved his shootout prowess. He was like the team’s ace in the hole.

The deal maker for Oshie in earning a spot on Team USA was his ability to score in the shoot out.  When called upon this season by the St. Louis Blues, Oshie has an amazing 70% scoring ratio in beating the goalie in a high stakes game called the shoot out.  With the pressure that goes into every game in the NHL, when it comes down to a shootout and the winning team getting the extra point, all of these extra points for winning in a shootout can decide the fate of a team making the playoffs or not. Oshie has made 25 of 46 shootout attempts in his NHL career. This season, interrupted by the Olympic tournament, he has made 7 of 10 attempts, plus the one penalty shot he has tried. No one in the league has made more.

The rules for overtime and shootouts in Olympic hockey differ from those for the NHL.

Preliminary round: Five-minute, 4-on-4 overtime.

Playoff rounds (qualifications round, quarterfinals, semifinals, bronze medal): 10-minute, 4-on-4  overtime.

Gold medal game: 20-minute, 4-on-4 overtime. Teams also get a 20-minute break before the OT period and will change ends.

 Shootouts: This is where it gets interesting. Each coach designates three players for the shootout, and they each must take one shot. According to international rules for Game Winning Shots (aka shootouts), “If the game is still tied after three shots by each team, the GWS will continue with a tie-break shoot out by one player of each team, with a reversed shooting order. The same or new players can take the tie-breaking shots.

Russian Coach Zinetula Bilyaletdinov dropped Evgeni Malkin after his first miss and went Ilya Kovalchuk-Pavel Datsyuk-Kovalchuk-Datsyuk-Kovalchuk. U.S. Coach Dan Bylsma went Oshie-Oshie-Oshie-Oshie-Oshie. That proved to be the winning formula.

Saturday’s shootout

Round 1: Oshie scores for US, Malkin misses for Russia

Round 2: James van Riemsdyk stopped for USA, Datsyuk stopped for Russia

Round 3: Joe Pavelski stopped for USA, Kovalchuk scores for Russia

Round 4: Kovalchuk stopped,  Oshie misses (tied 1-1)

Round 5: Datsyuk scores, Oshie scores (2-2)

Round 6: Kovalchuk scores, Oshie scores (3-3)

Round 7: Datsyuk stopped, Oshie stopped (3-3)

Round 8: Kovalchuk stopped,  Oshie scores (USA wins 4-3)

The first question Dan Bylsma faced afterwards in the press conference was why he had stuck with Oshie.   “T. J. has been exceptional on the shootout, and in his career he’s been outstanding,” Bylsma said. “By far the best number on our team, this year in particular. Once we got to the fourth shooter, and the quality moves he had, even when he missed, we were going to ride him out.”

The post Oshie leads Team USA to epic victory over Russia appeared first on Minnesota Hockey Magazine.

Henry Boucha as an Olympian
(Submitted Photo)

When Henry’s name was mentioned to his fellow 1972 Olympic Silver medalist team mate Ron Naslund, the first thing that came to mind was how tireless Henry was.  Naslund, a Minneapolis Roosevelt player was asked to try out for the Olympic team late in the tryout process, and as a 28 year old player, made the team. Playing against the world’s top players,  Naslund watched with amazement and recalled “Henry was just a tireless player.  I mean he never got tired.  He would kill penalties, work the power play and just keep going, just a terrific hockey player and a real good guy”.

Marv Jorde, a winner of USA Hockey’s Ironman award given to people that have tirelessly given to the game and is a story in himself that we will tell another day, was mesmerized the first time he saw Henry play.

Jorde coached the St. Paul Park Indian High School Hockey team in the 60’s and 70’s and recalled ” The first time I saw Henry Boucha play was his sophomore year.  we were playing on the Iron Range in the Holiday Classic and Boucha was playing defense.  The more I watched him, the more mesmerized I became, as not one time did he lose the puck in his defensive zone and he just controlled the game.  This was against one of my very good Park High teams (the team lost in the sectional final that year).  I watched him play the whole game as he never once came off the ice.  With the score tied 2-2 and now in overtime,

Henry Boucha with Warroad Warriors team mates
(Submitted Photo)

Henry decided it was time to end the game, and skated an end to end rush, and once in on his top two defenders, he did a spin move causing the two defenders to collide while he split them and went in to score the winning goal”.

Boucha is a treasure in Minnesota Hockey lore and is considered to be one of the best all-around athletes to come out of Minnesota.  He participated in football, hockey, baseball, and track and was offered full scholarships to compete in all four sports. Henry chose hockey and his story speaks for itself.  From his youth days of winning the Bantam state championship for Warroad, to the memorable “David vs Goliath” state final with Edina, his Minnesota legend started.

Henry Boucha was instrumental in the USA medalling
(Submitted Photo)

Add onto the world scene, where he helps in leading his team to qualify for the Olympics after getting the US out of the B pool in the 1971 World tournament, to earning a silver medal in Sapporo Japan, and finally playing in the NHL and WHA, Boucha’s career is inspiring from his athletic accomplishments and even more of accepting his Native American culture and making a difference. For those old enough to recall Henry Boucha, they will know the impact he had on hockey at all levels in Minnesota and for those that are younger learning a piece of hockey history about this icon makes his book “Henry Boucha, Ojibwa Native American Olympian” a must read.

It ties together a story of a person that overcame a number of personal tragedies and heartache to achieve heights at the highest of levels in his profession. He holds the record for the fastest goal scored in the NHL while with the Detroit Red Wings.  A horrific eye injury ended his career after six seasons in the NHL.  He continued to play in the WHA with the Minnesota Fighting Saints and after many surgeries retired from hockey at the age of 25.

Henry Boucha scores his first NHL goal with Detroit
(Submitted Photo)

If you can’t make it to Dave’s in Fridley or Stillwater this weekend, purchase Boucha’s book online at HenryBoucha.com or at Amazon.com.  Be sure to check out this week’s Minnesota Hockey Magazine Radio Show as Henry discusses his life in and out of hockey with our host Pete Waggoner. Last year, Scott Tiffany and MinnesotaHockeyMagazine.com sat down to talk hockey in a multiple part series. Here are the first and last parts of those interviews. For the whole story, you really don’t want to miss out, we recommend buying his book this weekend at Dave’s Sports Shop.[vimeo id=”62318782″ width=”620″ height=”360″] [vimeo id=”64475284″ width=”620″ height=”360″]

The post Dave’s Sport Shops to host Boucha book signing events this weekend in Fridley and Stillwater. appeared first on Minnesota Hockey Magazine.