The 2022-2023 hockey season is upon us.  Join MHM this year as an advertiser/sponsor.

• We will be publishing 4 digital magazine issues this season, printing 2 of them.
• Award Winning 4 Color Gloss Magazine.  Gold medal award with the Minnesota Magazine Publishers Association Magazine of the year-Special Section. 
• You will be seen.  We will market our magazines by exposing our content through social media with Twitter, Facebook, Instagram and our e-Edition. 
• Our entire core team is intact for another season featuring some of the best writers and photographers in the business.
• Also…Sign up for our FREE e-Edition from the home page of our website or just click HERE.
• Making a Difference:  To date, we have sent over 360 kids in need to various hockey camps on scholarship via our MHM Foundation.

Please take a few minutes to review this media kit.  

We are looking for the right partners to join us as we promote hockey and help kids in need. Let’s team up!

We look forward to hearing from you.

Scott Tiffany
President&Founder, MHM

The post The 2023 Hockey Season is Here – Join Us! appeared first on Minnesota Hockey Magazine.

The 2021-2022 season is now upon us after a long break.  Join MHM this year as an advertiser/sponsor.

• We will be printing 4 issues of our magazine in 2022.  These will also be digital issues.
• Award Winning 4 Color Gloss Magazine.  Gold medal award with the Minnesota Magazine Publishers Association Magazine of the year-Special Section. 
• You will be seen: our social media will market the print magazine.  We will market our print magazine by exposing our content through social media with Twitter, Facebook and our e-Edition. 
• Our core team is intact for another season, and we have added even more writers and photographers.
• Coming Soon and NEW for 2022…Minnesota Hockey Magazine Podcasts with well-known hosts.  
• Sign up for our FREE e-Edition from the home page of our website or just click HERE.
• Making a Difference:  To date, we have sent over 300 kids in need to various hockey camps on scholarship via our MHM Foundation.

Please take a few minutes to review this media kit.  We are looking for the right partners to join us as we promote hockey and help kids in need. Let’s team up for good.

We look forward to hearing from you.

Scott Tiffany
President&Founder, MHM

The post Hockey is BACK! Join Us appeared first on Minnesota Hockey Magazine.

Hockey legend Marv Jorde is set to be honored on Monday, Dec. 22 for his lifetime achievement in hockey.  The event will take place starting at noon in St. Paul at Tom Reid’s Hockey Pub on West 7th just three blocks from Xcel Center.

Jorde has been involved in all levels of hockey in Minnesota for over 50 years. His efforts in playing, teaching and promoting the game will be recognized by Minnesota Hockey Magazine.com.

A very brief summary of his hockey career includes Jorde leading the Thief River Falls Prowlers to a state championship, then on to the University of MN, where he played under legendary coach John Mariucci.

Upon graduation, Marv played for several professional teams in the old USHL including the Rochester Mustangs and the Green Bay Bobcats. Additionally, Marv played on the US National team in a World Tournament.

Early Parker banquet banner

Marv then began his teaching and coaching career at St. Paul Park Senior High School. Marv took the Park high program to new heights winning five conference championships. To keep the team strong, Marv was instrumental in helping develop the hockey program in Cottage Grove.

At the age of 35, when most men have long quit playing full contact hockey, Marv was asked to help build the Kostka Electric Senior A hockey club. Senior A hockey at that time was at its zenith, with approximately 50 clubs in Minnesota and Wisconsin playing 60 minute, stop time, full contact games.

Playing for the pure love of the game, teams from all over the Midwest played to full houses. From Marquette Michigan, to Eagle River and Mosinee in the Badger State League to Roseau, St. Paul and Rochester in Minnesota, all these communities supported their local team, which played at an extremely high level of intensity and enthusiasm.

During its heyday, Wakota Arena in South Saint Paul would host Sunday triple headers.  Crowds that at times numbered in the thousands would come out and cheer, as their local St. Paul Steers hosted what was considered the St. Paul League, which featured teams based mainly out of St. Paul and the surrounding suburbs.

As a GM/coach /player, Marv not only built it to be a contender, but a seven-time National Champion. Marv’s club first called Kostka Electric and later called the St. Paul Parkers, won 12 Minnesota Senior A championships.

After 20 plus seasons, Marv’s career ended in a viscous check in a tournament in Las Vegas where he broke multiple bones. Marv has been honored by USA Hockey, winning its Ironman award, and has been inducted into the Thief River Falls Hall of Fame, the Old Timers Hall of Fame, the Park High Hall of Fame, and the Herb Brooks Foundation’s Hall of Fame.

His influence on the game of hockey and those who played with, for or against Marv, is why he is being honored. Marv played with incredible intensity and never missed a senior game.

Hockey legend Henry Boucha once remarked that Marv is one of his idols, comparing him with Gordie Howe in terms of longevity.  Henry would know; he played with Howe early in his NHL career with the Detroit Red Wings.

This celebration is open to the general public. Please come out to Tom Reid’s on Dec. 22 and celebrate the life of Marv Jorde and all the different people and organizations he influenced. In particular, all former Senior A hockey players, or anyone who played with, against or for Marv are invited.

The early list of people attending includes many former Olympians including Lou Nanne, Murray Williamson, Doc Nagobads, Henry Boucha, Ron Naslund and many of the Division I players who helped fuel the Parkers to the many state and national championships.

The post Local legend to be honored appeared first on Minnesota Hockey Magazine.

Boucha called his time playing for Glen Sonmor as some of the best years he ever played and the Minnesota Fighting Saints team that Somor put together was the best hockey team he had ever played on. To emphasize just how talented this team was, Boucha recalled one game in Phoenix, “We were slow starting out and about midway through the second period were down 6-0. One of the guys said let’s see what we are made of, and we decided to pick it up a notch, and ended up coming back to win 7-6.”

Boucha recalled playing on the team with some of the stars of the team that included David Keon, Johnny “Pie” McKenzie, Mike “Shaky” Walton, Wayne Connolly with Mike Curran and Carl Wetzel tending goal along with Minnesotan’s Keith Christiansen, George Konik, Pat Westrum, Dick Paradise and, of course, Carlson and Butters.

“I have no doubt in my mind that, in a seven-game series, we would have beat the North Stars,” Boucha said confidently.

Butters, now serving as a full time pastor for Hockey Ministries International to serve the hockey community and hockey players, was known for his toughness as a player. According to former Gopher teammate Brad Morrow, Butters was without fear and recalled one fight where he took on a whole team.

“We were playing Colorado College and Billy just went nuts,” Morrow recalled as if it were yesterday. “When he skated over in front of the CC’s player bench taunting the entire team for a fight, when no one came out, Butters jumped over the boards and into the CC players box and then just started swinging, taking on the whole team”.

Morrow is still amazed on the turnabout that Butters has made from one of the toughest rowdiest players he had ever played with to one who is now all about his Christian Ministry.

Carlson, who has also had a major change of character, was known as a fierce hockey fighter who took on the toughest NHL fighters and stood up for his teammates. Ironically, he now can be found as a referee in the Adult Hockey League as well as doing local youth games. Carlson, whose brothers appeared in the hockey movie “Slap Shot” as the Hanson brothers would have been in the movie if not for his playing for the North Stars. The movie, about a fictional professional team in Charlestown, Penn. named the Chiefs whose antics were more thuggery than hockey, was a studio success and featured Paul Newman as its leading man.

Sonmor’s style of coaching was always tough, physically tough. Sonmor had mentors that reflected that mentality. He recalled playing with the legendary John Mariucci for the old Minneapolis Millers, and when it came time for the championship series with Omaha, the Millers GM told the players that it was now up to them.

Mariucci told the guys that in order to win the best of 5 championship series, they would need to take only one game in Omaha, as he was convinced they would win two in Minneapolis on their small sheet of ice. Sonmor recalls literally beating the crap out of the Omaha team the first night, then winning the next three, as the Omaha team played scared the rest of the series. After a serious eye injury, Sonmor made the successful transition from player to coach.

Mariucci’s influence, along with Sonmor’s own physical style, created a coach that just loved the physical game. Sonmor did not disappoint as a general manager either, when in the mid 70’s, the World Hockey Association was birthed, giving St. Paul a franchise, Sonmor did a masterful job in creating one of the best hockey line ups ever to play in the state. At the outset, the Saints had a policy of favoring local players, with the 1972–73 roster featuring no fewer than 11 athletes who were either born in Minnesota or American citizens. This was almost unheard of in the early 1970s, when few NHL or WHA teams had even a single American player..

After starting out as GM and coach, Sonmor handed the coaching reins to Harry Neale. The team put on a far more entertaining show with the Saints games consistently outdrawing their cross city rival Minnesota North Stars. The league in many ways was very futuristic, and took out the center red line for a much faster game that took the NHL almost 25 years to figure out.

The interesting fact with the three men who visited Sonmor on Saturday Dec. 14, was they also played for the North Stars. In fact, Carlson was involved with the turn around, as with the Cleveland Barons folding in the 1978 season and merging with the North Stars, the team had an infusion of talent. Glen’s long-time friend and new North Star GM Lou Nanne, then took a bold step and told management that they needed a new coach, and that coach needed to be Sonmor. The problem was that Sonmor was successful in the WHA, and the NHL and the North Star ownership at that time did not want anything to do with Sonmor.

Sonmor recalled Nanne the negotiator, “Lou knew when he had the upper hand, and always won when he had the upper hand as he was one of the best there was in getting what he wanted.” In this case, Nanne held firm, as he knew the Gunds and the ownership knew they needed to make a change in the culture of the team.

Sonmor did just that, turning around what was considered a soft team into a team that battled the way the hardened Sonmor only knew. By adding tough guys and character people, the Stars were no longer going to be the team that other teams pushed around.

To prove his point, as the Stars were approaching making the playoffs and lining up against the rugged Boston Bruins, two months before in a late February game, the fiery Sonmor came into the locker room prior to the game and said tonight is the night we make our stand. Sonmor recalls telling the team “I don’t care what the score is at the end of the game, but by the time this game is over, Boston will know they won’t be able to push us around anymore. At the first time, not the second or the third, but the first time they pull any intimidating move, WE WILL RESPOND.”

Six seconds into the game, Bruins center Steve Kasper brushed his stick into Bobby Smith’s face. Smith, known as a gentle giant, and a smooth goal-scoring playmaker, dropped Kasper with a few hard rights to Caspers head. According to Sonmor, the first period had over 400 minutes in penalties, and at the end of the game, Carlson recalls both teams having only 7 or 8 skaters left, as the rest of the team was already tossed out for fighting.

The North Stars may have lost that game, but the key was they had stopped the endless losing in Boston as just two months later, the Stanley Cup series would start and have the Stars facing the Bruins in Boston for the first two games. The Stars would win both games in overtime before heading back to the Met where they would take the series leading to their improbable run to the Stanley Cup.

It is with great memories and fondness that the hockey community reaches out in prayers and visits the ailing Sonmor as all know that Sonmor would do the same for them. It is obvious that Sonmor appreciates all the kindness that is being expressed in his time of need.

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The post Saints March in On Sonmor appeared first on Minnesota Hockey Magazine.