Burrows put together an impressive rookie year with the Musketeers, racking up 22 points (9-13-22) over 25 games and helping Sioux City reach the Western Conference Finals.

That bookended a tremendous high school season, too, as Burrows recorded 59 points (19-40-59) over 28 games at Minnetonka. He was constantly regarded among the state’s top players and ultimately won Minnesota’s Mr. Hockey Award in March.

Despite that success, Burrows planned to return to northwest Iowa for a full year of junior hockey.

However, that plan changed in late June, as the right-shot forward received the opportunity to head west to the University of Denver.

“Some things moved around (at Denver), and the opportunity arose to come in here early, and I felt I was ready to make the jump,” Burrows said. “I really enjoyed my time in Sioux City and was looking forward to being back there, but I just felt being around the (Denver staff) and culture would be beneficial for my game in the long run, and I’m really happy with my decision so far.”

Hagen Burrows, an Orono native, is a finance major and one of five freshmen on DU’s roster. “He is fitting well into the culture of our team,” said Denver coach David Carle. “Hagen has tremendous skill and hockey sense, and he is adjusting well to the college level as an 18-year-old. There is a high ceiling for him, and we’re excited to help him continue to develop.” (Photo courtesy of University of Denver Athletics)

Burrows arrived on Denver’s campus in July and said that culture was evident from day one. It’s one of the factors that initially attracted him to DU; he committed to the Pioneers in April 2023. The other factors were Denver’s talent, coaches and 10 national championships – three of which have come in the last eight years.

He played his first two collegiate games earlier this month at Alaska-Anchorage, helping the Pioneers secure a season-opening sweep, and he hopes to make an impact throughout his rookie campaign.

At the same time, Burrows knows it’s a process and plans on taking his freshman season one day at a time – listening, learning and soaking up as much information as he can.

“Everyone has seen what they’ve done the last few years and the staff is one of the best, if not the best, in the nation when it comes to developing their players,” Burrows said. “Everyone here knows what it takes to be successful. So to learn from them each and every day is really exciting and is going to help me this season and moving forward.”

That feeling is mutual.

“We’ve grown our recruiting footprint in Minnesota over the years, and we’re always looking for the best players in the state that will fit into the culture here at Denver, and Hagen checked those boxes for us on and off the ice,” said Denver coach David Carle. “We’ve liked how he’s developed his game in Minnetonka and with Sioux City and believed he was ready for the college game this year.”

Success with the Skippers
Burrows played 86 games over his three seasons at Minnetonka and helped the Skippers win a Class 2A title in 2023. Burrows was also named to the 2023 All-Tournament Team.

Minnetonka looked poised for another deep run last spring but was upset by Chanhassen in the section final, which capped Burrows’ high school career. He finished with 135 points (58-77-135) over those 86 games.

Those who watched Burrows the past few seasons saw his game evolve, and they’re excited to see it continue at DU.

“I think we saw Hagen grow a lot, and the area where his game really evolved was his competitive nature, especially when the game got tougher. Because he was never afraid to go to the hard areas of the ice,” said Sioux City general manager Sean Clark. “Hagen’s a big body with a great IQ and a high skill level, and he’s got the ability to make a lot of plays all over the ice. And he was always a team-first guy.

Hagen Burrows was selected by the Tampa Bay Lightning in the fourth round (128th overall) of the 2024 NHL Draft after an impressive 2023-24 season. “That’s something you dream about as a kid, and to be lucky enough to have it happen to you is super surreal,” Burrows said. “I got to go out to Vegas and was at the Sphere, so I was fortunate to share that moment with my family and some friends and it was such a great moment.”(Photo courtesy of Sioux City Musketeers)

“We saw that right from the start last season and his ability to impact a game when the puck is on his stick is special. So, I think if he just continues to be himself he can have success at the next level, and he’s a kid that only continues to get better.”

Minnetonka coach Sean Goldsworthy said Burrows has continued to excel.

“I believe he’s ready,” Goldsworthy said. “It’s really hard to come through a program and be the marked guy and still produce at the level Hagen did for us. He saw every team’s best defensemen and received plenty of attention, and I think that’s one of the things that impressed me the most last season.”

Goldsworthy added that Burrows is one of the best leaders he’s coached, and he was impressed, but also not surprised, by how well Burrows handled splitting last season between the two teams.

The opportunity to join Denver early “says a lot about Hagen’s character,” too, and he’s simply a “selfless person,” Goldsworthy said.

“He’s obviously got the skill – great vision, deception, a quick release, good hands – and can play off other high-end players,” Goldsworthy said. “But what I think is so special about Hagen is he doesn’t cheat anything in life or hockey, and he makes his teammates around him better. And he also has the ability to self-correct and make adjustments to his game.

“I’m very confident that he’ll figure things out and, let’s be honest, I don’t think there are too many places that are better from a development standpoint either. So, I’m confident that staff will put him in a position to succeed.”

Hagen Burrows grew up rooting for the Pittsburgh Penguins and Minnesota Wild and said he tries to model his game after Sidney Crosby, along with Winnipeg’s Mark Scheifele. “We first got to work with (Burrows) as a sophomore, and his puck skills and vision were already elite, and he had some of the best hockey IQ I’ve been around,” said Minnetonka coach Sean Goldsworthy. “We’ve seen his body catch up to that over the last couple years and his whole game has come together into the player he is today.” (Tim Kolehmainen / Breakdown Sports)

Back to Tonka before Denver
As for Burrows’ decision to return to Minnetonka last season, it ultimately boiled down to his friends and family back home – which he joked is the “typical Minnesota answer.”

“It was definitely tough, especially with the way we started (in Sioux City),” Burrows said. “But I think it ultimately came down to the people and the tradition we had at Minnetonka. In the long run, I thought going back and playing one more year (with his childhood friends) would be something that was more important to me, and I’m glad I got the chance to continue playing in the USHL after the season, too.

“I got the chance to play with so many good people though, and overall I got a lot of experience that I think will help me in the future.”

Now he hopes that experience will parlay itself into the start of a successful college career.

He joins a Denver team with plenty of motivation, too, as the Pioneers look to defend their national championship. They’d be one of just two teams in the last 20 years to win back-to-back titles – UMD (2018-19) being the other – and certainly have the pieces to do so.

It’s a shared goal in the Mile High City, and similar to his new teammates, Burrows wants to help make that goal a reality however he can.

“Everybody is bought-in every day, and there’s a reason Denver has been one of the final teams there at the end (of the season), so I just want to help wherever I can,” Burrows said. “Everybody knows the amount of skill and talent that exists here, plus the coaching and culture.

“So, I’m just really excited to be here and it’s a really special group, and we want to go back-to-back.”

The post Change Of Plans appeared first on Minnesota Hockey Magazine.

“Right Back Where We Started From” by Maxine Nightingale, which was released in the 1970s.

Whether coincidence or part of a set playlist, the song seems fitting for a deep Minnetonka Skippers team that returned a bunch of key players from last winter’s dominant Class 2A state championship team.

Only two games in, Minnetonka turned in a couple of dominating efforts on its home ice, outscoring Rosemount and Andover by a combined 18-3 margin. The Skippers put up a 10-3 victory over Rosemount to open the season Friday before an 8-0 shutout of Andover, a program it met in last year’s state semifinals (though this time without the since-graduated line featuring Cooper Conway, Gavyn Thorsen and Cayden Casey).

With so many state champions – and multiple Division I commits – returning to Minnetonka’s squad this season, Skippers coach Sean Goldsworthy acknowledged that his team isn’t starting from square one.

“First off, they’re committed to each other,” Goldsworthy said. “So, when they all come back, it makes things easier on each other. We have a lot of returning kids from a team that had great success last year. So that matters.”

Minnetonka comes into the season as a top-ranked team, according to the preseason rankings from Let’s Play Hockey magazine, while Andover is ranked No. 10. And the Skippers shut out the Huskies while outshooting them 42-5 on Saturday evening.

Minnetonka and Andover boys hockey shake hands after the Skippers won 8-0 on Nov. 25, 2023 at Pagel Ice Arena as part of the Tonka Thanksgiving Preview tournament. (MHM Photo / Heather Rule)

Senior Javon Moore had hat tricks both days, giving him a team-leading six goals and 10 points through just two games. His effort against Andover was highlighted by a breakaway, shorthanded goal in the first period. His second hat trick in as many games came with just more than 10 minutes left in regulation, sending the game to running time with a 6-0 lead.

Moore is followed by the senior Garry brothers; Luke with two goals and five assists and Gavin with three goals and four assists. Against Rosemount, the Garry brothers scored goals 50 seconds apart for a 2-1 lead. Gavin recorded a hat trick, and senior Hagen Burrows added five assists on Friday.

Depth? They have that, too. A dozen players have at least a point on those 18 goals over two games.

The goal right now, Goldsworthy said, is to “get the fall hockey out of them,” which usually takes eight to 10 games, he added.

“I think what you’re seeing is these kids are committed to getting it out of their system in about four or five games,” Goldsworthy said.

Minnetonka lost only twice last season, to Chanhassen and Wayzata, on the way to a state championship. Even though it’s cliché, staying in the moment throughout the season helped drive that successful title run, Goldsworthy said.

“You’ve got to stay in the week,” Goldsworthy said. “That’s what we did last year. These kids know when they do that, our success came from living in the moment.”

Despite the shutout loss, Andover split its games in the Tonka tourney, defeating No. 3-ranked Chanhassen 3-2 on Friday behind a pair of Casey Rodgers goals. The Huskies came into the season looking to replace the production of its top line from 2022-23; Conway-Thoreson-Casey scored 65% of the team’s 167 goals last season.

Chanhassen, which fell an overtime-goal short of the state tournament with a loss to Minnetonka last year, starts the season 0-2 with a one-goal loss to Andover and a 2-1 loss to Rosemount on Saturday. The Storm, who hit the ice just before the school’s football team took the field at U.S. Bank Stadium on the way to a thrilling Prep Bowl championship, trailed the entire game before getting a goal in the final minute of regulation.

Thanksgiving means puck drop on boys hockey
Most of the boys hockey teams got started with their seasons over the weekend. After the turkey coma ends, hockey players and fans head to various rinks on Friday and Saturday of Thanksgiving weekend for regular-season hockey and various holiday tournaments.

On the same night that Edina’s football team suffered a heartbreaking loss to Centennial in the Class 6A Prep Bowl, the No. 2-ranked Edina Hornets – last season’s runner-up in hockey – shut out No. 8-ranked Maple Grove 3-0 in the Wayzata Turkey Trot at Plymouth Ice Center. Wayzata started its season off with a pair of victories against No. 7-ranked Moorhead (6-1) and Maple Grove (6-4) in its home Turkey Trot.

White Bear Lake opened its season with a 4-3 overtime victory over Duluth East at home. Nolan Roed scored a pair of goals, including the winner at 2:37 of the extra session.

In Class 1A, last year’s runner-up Warroad lost 3-2 in overtime to St. Cloud Cathedral. Griffin Sturm scored the winner just before the final horn in overtime. Murray Marvin-Cordes scored both Warroad goals.

The post Tonka Is Back appeared first on Minnesota Hockey Magazine.

Mikko Koivu, seen here in a Sept. 29, 2019 preseason game vs the Winnipeg Jets, will have his No. 9 retired in a pregame ceremony ahead of the Wild’s March 13 game against the Nashville Predators. (MH Photo / Rick Olson)

That franchise, the North Stars, retired two numbers in the 26 seasons they were based in Minnesota. The first was Bill Masterton’s No. 19. The number was issued only once again (briefly to Chuck Arnason in 1978, according to Hockey Reference) after Masterton suffered what proved to be a fatal head injury during the North Stars’ first season in 1967-68. The official jersey retirement didn’t happen until 19 years later.

The other player had to wait 15-plus years before being honored. That’s quite a difference from Koivu, whose last game with the Wild was played in August 2020 in the NHL’s play-in tournament in the Edmonton bubble. Koivu was a solid defensive center during his 15 seasons with the Wild but he was never considered flashy.

That wasn’t the case with right winger Bill Goldsworthy, whose No. 8 was put in the Met Center rafters on Feb. 15, 1992, after seven other players had worn it. That makes Goldsworthy the last player for a Minnesota NHL team to be considered worthy of one of the ultimate honors in sports.

“I remember how emotional he got,” when he found out they were going to retire his number, said Bill’s son, Sean, who is now the coach of the Minnetonka boys’ High School hockey team. “From that old era of tough love and being stoic. I’d very seldom seen him in tears, but I do remember that when told me, ‘There’s nothing that can make me more proud to be a part of this than to feel I was that important to the franchise.”

Indeed, he was.

Cover of the game program for Goldsworthy’s number retirement ceremony. (Photo courtesy of Vintage Minnesota Hockey)

Goldsworthy was the first star player in North Stars’ history, both because of his ability to score goals and how he celebrated them. Goldsworthy had only six goals over three seasons in 33 games with the Boston Bruins before he was taken by the expansion North Stars as the NHL went from six to 12 teams in 1967. He had 14 goals in each of his first two seasons in Minnesota, but then took off in his third year. He had 36 goals in 75 games in 1969-70 and followed that with goal totals of 34, 31,27 48, 37 and 24.

Goldsworthy combined his goal-scoring ability with a celebration in which he would raise his left leg and pump his right arm. “I don’t know when it started exactly,” said Lou Nanne, who was a teammate of Goldsworthy’s for nine-plus seasons in Minnesota. “He really started doing it in the second year. Then people began talking about it.”

The “Goldy Shuffle” was unique because signature hockey celebrations were not the norm in the late 1960s. If the Met Center crowd was at first confused about the shuffle, they soon began to expect it. “He was a really charismatic hockey player, Nanne said. “He’s the kind of player that you liked to have on your team because you knew he was going to sell tickets for you.”

Tom Reid, who also played with Goldsworthy on the North Stars, remembers him for his ability to score goals and also for his quick temper. The stats support both things. Goldsworthy had 267 goals in 670 games with the North Stars and accumulated 711 penalty minutes, including 110, in 1968-69. Goldsworthy still ranks sixth in all-time goals in the Minnesota/Dallas franchise record book.

“He had an eye for the back of the net,” said Reid, now the Wild radio analyst. “Bill had a terrific wrist shot and a quick release. But he was one of those guys who could snap in a hurry if something were to happen.”

Such as?

The banners of Bill Goldworthy and Bill Masterton hanging high over the Met Center ice. (Photo courtesy of Vintage Minnesota Hockey)

“One game Bill came off the ice,” Nanne recalled, “I was right there. There was a half minute to go in the period and (coach Wren) Blair was going through his usual antics of yelling at Goldy. Goldy didn’t break stride, coming toward the bench, and going full speed he drilled Wren with a right. He dropped him with his glove on. We all piled on (to break it up). We go up in the locker room after the period and Wren says to Bill, ‘Come in my office and we’ll finish this.’ As as soon Bill entered, Wren said, ‘Sit down.’ He knew Goldy would have killed him.”

Because this was hockey in the late 1960s, Goldsworthy was not only not suspended for punching his coach and general manager, but he ended up starting the next period after initially thinking Blair had benched him. “Wren had told Goldy to sit on the bench,” to begin the period, “so Goldy didn’t come out on the ice,” Nanne said. “The referee said, “Wren, get somebody out here.’ Goldy came out and the crowd started cheering.”

Goldsworthy, who added 18 goals and 37 points in 40 playoff games with the North Stars, was traded to the New York Rangers in November 1976 after appearing in 16 games that season. He played two seasons in New York before finishing his career in the World Hockey Association with Indianapolis and then Edmonton in 1978-79.

Goldsworthy would later work for the North Stars before joining the San Jose Sharks as a scout. He also had some minor league coaching jobs. But Goldsworthy’s proudest moment in hockey likely came the night his jersey was retired.

“That whole weekend I remember watching him emotionally manage things and breaking down multiple times behind the scenes,” said Sean Goldsworthy, who was in his 20s at the time. “He needed moments to digest the intensity of the emotions. Getting the franchise from expansion and into legitimacy. Getting out of the Original Six (with Boston) and getting respect in the league. Those years were critical for Minnesota and the NHL. … To see those players re-engage in their relationships and brotherhood (was special).”

Bill Goldworthy, holding his banner, acknowledges the cheers of North Stars fans at his Feb. 15, 1992 number retirement ceremony at Met Center. (Photo courtesy of Vintage Minnesota Hockey)

Sadly, Goldsworthy passed away in 1996 at the age of 51 after battling AIDS. Goldsworthy, who had battled alcoholism at different points in his life, discussed the situation with the St. Paul Pioneer Press in 1995. “There was a period of three to five years after my divorce when I was really into the bottle and I wasn’t careful about my sexual relationships,” he told the paper. “And there were a few times when I was a scout for San Jose, after I started to drink again, that I wasn’t as careful about sex as I should have been.”

Goldsworthy’s friends and the hockey community rallied around him. Reid recalled a fundraiser for Goldsworthy that was held in the Twin Cities and included “everybody who was anybody in hockey in this area.”

Goldsworthy wasn’t the last former North Stars great to have his jersey retired. Neal Broten’s No. 7 was retired by the Dallas Stars in February 1998 and Mike Modano’s No. 9 in March 2014. Modano, of course, only played a few seasons in Minnesota before becoming a dominant player in Dallas.

In a classy gesture the Stars franchise paid for members of the Goldsworthy  and Masterton families to be in Dallas for Modano’s jersey retirement. It was there that Sean had a meaningful conversation with Broten, who had grown up in Roseau, Minn., watching Bill play for the North Stars.

(Photo courtesy of Vintage Minnesota Hockey)

“Neal told me how much he thought of my dad and I reciprocated that to Neal,” Sean said. “I told him that, ‘My dad taught me the game of hockey by watching you.’ To watch Neal emotionally accept that gratitude was really cool.”

As for what playing with the North Stars meant to Bill Goldsworthy, Sean has no trouble recalling his father’s words.

“I remember him saying, ‘There’s nothing more special than playing in Minnesota,'” Sean said. “It was so dear to his heart and nothing meant more to him professionally than to have his jersey retired by the Minnesota North Stars. Thinking back to J.P. Parise, Tom Reid and Lou Nanne, who became surrogate fathers to me when my dad passed. They had a brotherhood that was unmatched, even in today’s game. They raised their families together and played together for a decade. To be recognized by the franchise he put his heart into and loved, he finally felt at peace.”

The post A Worthy Honor appeared first on Minnesota Hockey Magazine.