South St. Paul, which fell 5-3 at home on Saturday in Doug Woog Arena, hosted the Mirage (6-5-1) for a pizza party after the game. That’s 10 months removed from when the Packers won 3-2 in overtime last season at the Xcel Energy Center.

South St. Paul (6-5-0) hosting a northern Minnesota team for pizza after regular-season games has been the norm for years, except for during the COVID-19 pandemic. Packers head coach Dave Palmquist, who has been coaching for 30 years since high school girls hockey’s beginnings in Minnesota, said he appreciates northern squads such as the Mirage coming down to compete.

“Yeah, we’re going to feed them upstairs and send them home with their stomachs full and try to be as first class as we can be as a program and do it for them,” Palmquist said. ”I know they would do the same for us.”

Packers sophomore forward Sidney Thompson said the hospitality works out. Thompson played for the Packers as a freshman last season.

The Mirage never trailed in Saturday’s game against South St. Paul. (MHM Photo / Jeff Wegge)

“Everyone’s pretty nice after the game, and it usually goes well,” Thompson said.

Proctor/Hermantown head coach Emma Stauber, who faced Palmquist’s squads many times as a player and coach, can appreciate the hospitality amid one of six trips to the metro area this season. The Mirage have another four to go, and possibly a fifth, if the team gets back to Xcel Energy Center in February.

“He’s a very thoughtful coach, very well-disciplined teams,” Stauber said about Palmquist and the Packers. “They’re always good. They always work hard. So, regardless of who he’s got talent-wise, he’s always going to give us a game, so that’s why it’s so fun to play him and his program.”

Proctor/Hermantown junior forward Jane Eckstrom said her team got on the bus at 7 a.m. Saturday morning to get to South St. Paul for the 1 p.m. game. Eckstrom earned the team’s hard-hat award after the game when the Mirage already had an eight-hour day with a trip home ahead. Eckstrom scored and assisted on a goal.

“I think as a team, we love the team trips and the bus ride,” Eckstrom said. “It’s always a great time to get to know everyone better. We enjoy every moment we can get together. All the trips this season really mean a lot to us, and we make the best of it that we can.”

Mirage maintained the lead
Junior forward Ella Rothe most of it for the Mirage early with a first period goal on assists from Hailey Jussila and Morgan LaValley. South St. Paul responded in less than a minute when junior forward Alida Ahern tied the game 1-1 on an assist from junior defenseman Lily Pachl.

The Mirage then built a two-goal, 3-1 lead in the second period on goals from Eckstrom and senior Izy Fairchild as Anika Burke assisted on both scores. Eckstrom and Fairchild notably assisted on each other’s goals.

South St. Paul’s Lily Pachl scored a pair of goals on Saturday. (MHM Photo / Jeff Wegge)

South St. Paul closed the gap to 3-2 early in the third period when Pachl scored unassisted, but the Mirage made 4-2 less than three minutes later. Pachl gave her team another chance in the final two minutes when she scored for a 4-3 deficit on Eva Beck’s assist as the Packers left an empty net.

The Packers couldn’t tie it up after the ensuing faceoff as Burke put the Mirage up 5-3 with an empty-net goal in the final second of regulation. The Mirage finished with a 34-20 shots-on-goal advantage.

Mirage goalie Suri Langley stopped 17 shots for a .850 save percentage. Packers goalie Molly Jeffrey had 29 saves and an .879 save percentage.

Proctor/Hermantown won a third-straight contest after a 3-5-1 start to the season. For South St. Paul, the loss ended its three-game winning streak.

Gallery: Proctor/Hermantown vs. South St. Paul, Dec. 16, 2023.

The post Packers Host Mirage appeared first on Minnesota Hockey Magazine.

The post Gallery: Proctor/Hermantown vs. South St. Paul appeared first on Minnesota Hockey Magazine.

Phil Housley’s journey to hockey immortality is complete

As an under-aged player, a young Phil Housley tried out for the Squirt A team in his hometown of South St. Paul, but the future NHL star did not make the cut. It wasn’t long, however before the phenom made his mark and was eventually called up during that season.

Housley went on to receive the Most Valuable Player award from a team that initially cut him. Today in Toronto, Housley receives hockey’s highest individual honor when he becomes one of seven new members inducted into the Hockey Hall of Fame.

Enshrined into the U.S. Hockey Hall of Fame in 2004, Housley joins fellow NHL players Sergei Fedorov, Nicklas Lidstrom and Chris Pronger along with women’s Olympian Angela Ruggiero, Hockey Hall of Fame Chairman Bill Hay and Carolina Hurricanes owner Peter Karmanos among the Hall of Fame’s class of 2015.

Housley becomes just the third Minnesotan to be so honored, joining White Bear Lake’s Moose Goheen (1952) and Eveleth’s Frank Brimsek (1966).

“Which is incredible because of all the great players that have come out of here,” Housley said. “You look at that 1980 team and a lot of those players had great careers so it was a little bit surprising to me but certainly I’m very honored.”

Housley is thrilled his wife Karin, a Minnesota State Senator, and children Taylor, Reide, Wilson and Avery will all be in attendance in Toronto along with several friends from his eight stops throughout his NHL career (Buffalo, Winnipeg, St. Louis, Calgary, New Jersey, Washington, Chicago and Toronto).

The absence of Housley’s parents, MaryLee and LeRoy, who have both passed away will not go unnoticed, however.

“I know they’re going to be looking down on me very proud and I’m sure they’re just gleaming up there,” Housley said. “That’s going to be a little bit emotional for me when I mention my mom and dad, because they had so much to do with it.”

(Photo courtesy Hockey Hall of Fame)

After starring at South St. Paul High School, Housley was selected by the Buffalo Sabres in the first round (No. 6 overall) of the 1982 NHL Draft. The 18-year-old defenseman so impressed Scotty Bowman, the Sabres Coach/GM at the time, Housley made the team the following Fall and was named to the 1983 NHL All-Rookie team.

He never spent a day in the minors in a career spanning 21 seasons and nearly 1500 games with eight teams. The seven-time All-Star’s 1,232 points (338 goals and 894 assists) were the most ever registered by a U.S. born player at the time of his retirement in 2003. Former Minnesota North Star and Dallas Star Mike Modano eclipsed that mark in 2007.

Housley won gold as a member of Team USA in the 1996 World Cup of Hockey and was an Olympic silver medalist in 2002 playing under coach Herb Brooks in Salt Lake City. He most recently made his mark internationally when he led Team USA to gold as Head Coach of the U.S. National junior team in the 2013 World Junior Championships in Ufa, Russia.

After nine years behind the bench guiding Stillwater High School’s boys team, Housley is in his third season as an assistant coach with the Nashville Predators, first under Barry Trotz and now under Peter Laviolette.

Nashville happened to be scheduled to visit Minnesota on Nov. 5, Housley’s final game with the Predators prior to his departure to Toronto for Hall of Fame festivities.

“It’s fitting that we’re playing Minnesota right before the induction ceremony takes place on Monday,” Housley said. “It’s been just a great summer, I had a grandson (born) about six weeks ago and, obviously with the call (to the Hall of Fame).”

Housley was joined on the ice by his entire immediate family during a pre-game ceremony honoring his accomplishment in which he dropped the ceremonial first puck between Wild captain Mikko Koivu and Nashville captain Shea Weber.

“He contributes an awful lot inside of our locker room with our team and our young players and to the coaching staff,” Laviolette said after the Predators defeated the Wild 3-2. “For him to get recognized for his career is pretty special.”

Housley has been charged with mentoring a young defensive corps in which five of Nashville’s blue liners are 25 or under, including Seth Jones the fourth overall pick in the 2013 NHL Draft. Jones, who was a rookie in Housley’s first year behind the Predators’ bench said he loves playing for him.

“A lot of the D on our team are kind of young and still learning the game,” Jones said. “It’s funny because we are all very offensive and like to skate the puck just like he did so whenever he gives insight everyone’s all ears.”

Fellow defenseman Mattias Ekholm referred to Housley’s resume` and the instant credibility that comes with it on the ice.

“His numbers speak for (themselves),” Ekholm said. “He almost has a point a game in the NHL. How many defensemen can do that?

“It’s a huge honor for him and I think it’s long, long overdue.”

Housley says he feels fortunate to be able to coach a defensive unit with such great work ethic.

“These guys come to work and they’re eager to learn, they want to get better, they’re great competitors,” Housley said. “They’re one of the strengths of our team and they’re all mobile so it sort of fits hand in hand.”

Housley spoke proudly of growing up and honing his skills in South St. Paul during a 2012 interview with Minnesota Hockey Magazine.

“We had 10 outdoor rinks and that’s all we did,” Housley said. “Hockey was just my passion whether it was in the winter or the summer playing ball hockey.”

Like most kids, Housley said he would head to the outdoor rinks after school but that wasn’t enough. He would also make his mom get up an hour early on school days so he could skate before school as well.

Housley vividly recalled getting up especially early on Saturday and Sunday mornings to be first at the rink because he knew the rinks were flooded on Friday and Saturday nights.

“I just loved driving up and looking at that fresh sheet,” Housley said. “It was fun just to be around by myself doing different things and eventually all the kids would come and we’d have some pick-up games.”

Last week Housley spoke about how much the community of South St. Paul meant to him and his development.

“You surround yourself with people that shape you at a young age, you know, all the coaches and just the community itself,” Housley said. “It’s a blue-collar town, you had to work hard … and it was great to grow up there.”

Housley fondly recalls many of his youth coaches including legendary South St. Paul Peewee A coach George Powers, along with his squirt coaches Tom Moore and his own father, LeRoy. But he singled out his Bantam A coach, Paul Moen, a well-known figure in South St. Paul, who spent several years as an assistant coach at South St. Paul High School in addition to his work with Minnesota Hockey.

“I really loved his intensity and just joy to see the guys together at practice and winning at games,” Housley said of Moen in that 2012 MHM interview. “He just had a passion for it and he’s still doing those things today.”

Although Housley was center throughout his youth hockey career, Doug Woog, his coach at South St. Paul High School, had other plans in mind for him.

“He decided to put me back to defense,” Housley said. “He thought I could see the game in front of me really well and thought I had pretty good mobility.”

“Or he maybe just wanted to play me more, I don’t know,” Housley added with a chuckle.

Whatever it was, the decision spawned a remarkable and well-decorated playing career for which Housley will now be immortalized in Toronto.

“You never really think when you enter the NHL that you’re playing to become a Hall-of-Famer, you’re just in the moment,” Housley said. “But certainly when you look back at all the hard work you put into it and all the great people and players that you played with that put you in this position I’m very grateful.”

Editor’s note: Dan Myers and Scott Tiffany contributed to this article.

The post From South St. Paul to the ‘Hall’ appeared first on Minnesota Hockey Magazine.

Taylor Heise makes the most of shot at redemption in  3-2 Red Wing win

SAINT PAUL – All Taylor Heise wanted was another chance. Her Red Wing teammates are thankful she got it.

The freshman forward who missed an open net early in the third period, bounced back to score the game winner with 52.4 seconds remaining in the Wingers’ 3-2 Class 1A girls’ third-place win over South St. Paul on Saturday morning at Xcel Energy Center.

After watching her redirect of a 2-on-1 pass from teammate Reagan Haley sail over the crossbar the Wingers up 2-0 to start the final period, Heise wasn’t about to let the opportunity get away when the identical situation presented itself in the final minute.

“When I missed that [first one] I was really mad,” Heise admitted. “But when we came back I said I wasn’t going to miss the second one.”

Heise scored twice, with Haley assisting on each, after Kayla Oberding opened the scoring at 9:50 into the game. The win gives Red Wing and coach Scott Haley a third straight, and fourth overall, Class 1A third-place trophy.

“We are the master of the third-place game,” coach Haley said. “That’s a three-peat.”

Before Heise’s misfire, Red Wing nearly extended its lead to 3-0 with half a minute to play in the second but was thwarted by the brilliant effort of South St. Paul goalie Sydney Conley.

With Red Wing’s Maddy Hardyman racing into the Packers’ zone all alone, Conley opted to charge at the Winger’s junior forward, knocking the puck away with a diving poke check above the hash marks. Conley then quickly recovered to deny Haley, a Minnesota-Duluth recruit, with a terrific toe save.

In the ensuing mayhem Conley pulled down a Red Wing player to earn herself a tripping penalty to complete an eventful 20-second sequence. Conley said her decision to challenge Hardyman the way she did was a matter of her instincts taking over.

“It was kind of just an adrenaline rush,” Conley said. “I was just, ‘I might as well do something and not let her have a chance,’ and it worked my way.”

“It was as great a goaltending display that I’ve ever seen, I think,” South St. Paul coach Dave Palmquist said. “I mean, it was point-blank robbing them, stealing goals from them.

“We kind of motivated the team by saying, ‘Look at what your senior goaltender is willing to do for you guys, you guys gotta pick it up,” and in the third period we played really well and were right there, it just didn’t go our way today.”

The Packers indeed came back in the third to tie the game on goals by AJ Deering and Taylor Cashman 3:03 apart past the period’s halfway mark making Heise’s heroics necessary.

“To get the two goals to tie it up, that was a great effort, gutty effort,” Palmquist said. “Except for the end result, I’m really happy with the way we played today and, obviously our goaltender was again outstanding.”

The post Wingers clip Packers for 3rd appeared first on Minnesota Hockey Magazine.

Prowlers act like they’ve been there before in beating Packers

SAINT PAUL – The South St. Paul girls’ hockey team is no stranger to state tournaments. The 2015 girls’ state hockey tournament is the Packers’ 14th in their history, the most of any school in Minnesota. For the Thief River Falls Prowlers who made their first state tournament in girls’ hockey history in 2015, facing a state tournament tested team such as the Packers may have seemed a daunting task.

But not for the Prowlers.

Thief River Falls overcame their lack of state tournament experience to outlast South St. Paul 4-1 in the Class 1A state girls’ hockey semifinal. The Prowlers will move on to play in their first ever state final against the reigning state champion Blake Bears Saturday afternoon at the Xcel Energy Center.

“It’s nice to put a Thief River falls stamp on it,” Prowlers coach Whitney Restemayer said. “Not only are we the only Thief team to be here, but we are beating good teams too that have a lot of history and have been here a lot. We’re just doing our thing.”

Even with a 53-8 final shot differential in their favor, the Prowlers found themselves only up 2-1 with 13:44 left in regulation after Packer forward Corbyn Jenkins took a pass and buried the puck just inside the left pipe.

Despite the lack of experience with close games at state, Thief River Falls displayed the confidence of a veteran squad when faced with adversity.

“I could hear it on the bench, ‘we’re going to put up one more. This game is ours’,” Restemayer said.

The Prowler bench turned out to be right when junior defenseman Briana Jorde went five-hole on Packer goaltender Sydney Conley with 1:42 left in the game to give her team the 3-1 lead.

With Jorde sealing the victory with her goal, the Prowlers are set to play for their first state championship, Saturday. As they look to make history themselves, they hope to end a historic storyline for the Blake Bears.

“We are trying to make a history for ourselves and be that team to win the state tournament. But it would also be kind of nice to be that team that ends Blake’s [two year] streak.”

The post No experience necessary appeared first on Minnesota Hockey Magazine.

Palmquist, South St. Paul mirror girls’ prep hockey success

This is the 21^st year girls’ hockey has been a State High School League sanctioned activity. For all 21 years, the South St. Paul Packers have had the same head coach – Dave Palmquist. Palmquist, who started his coaching career in the boys’ game, won career game No. 500 last season. His successful career has in many ways mirrored the continued growth of the girls’ game.

Palmquist grew up in Hibbing, but after his family moved south, played as a youth in the Columbia Heights system before playing his high school hockey for Bruce Hendrickson at Minnehaha Academy.

A center most of his career, Palmquist graduated from Minnehaha and played for Craig Dahl at Bethel before returning to his al ma mater. Hendrickson knew his former player wanted to get into coaching so Palmquist was hired as an assistant. He served as an assistant coach for one year and just two years out of college was named Minnehaha Academy’s head coach.

“Doors just kept opening up,” Palmquist said. “At age twenty three I was a head coach and from there it has just been in my blood – something I have a strong passion for. I love the game. I love watching hockey at all levels. I love the teaching part of it. [Coaching hockey] was a natural fit. Never once have I ever felt I was in the wrong profession. It has been a real blessing.”

After down seasons in years two and three, the new head coach built the program into a conference champion. Despite the success and a program moving in the right direction, Palmquist felt it was time for him to make a change.

“It was a tough decision. I loved everything that Minnehaha Academy stood for with Christian faith and the religious background, but I wanted to take on a new challenge.”

Birth of a Program

The boys’ position opened up at South St. Paul and the young coach applied. What happened next was not what Palmquist expected.

“I interviewed and I knew it went pretty well, but they offered the job to someone else. That was the first year they were starting girls’ hockey in Minnesota. [They said] you didn’t get the boys’ job, but we would love you to start our women’s hockey program.”

With the girls’ game just getting off the ground Palmquist wasn’t sure how moving to the girls’ game would sit with his colleagues.

“It was a tough decision, because girls’ hockey was really new,” Palmquist admitted. “I didn’t know what I was getting into. I think a lot of my colleagues in coaching were wondering what I was doing going to the girls’ side. Twenty one years later we can see how many males have gone over to the female side.”

For the game to get off the ground, the Packers’ program needed the same type of support as any of the early programs – passionate parents and hockey fans. South St. Paul had a long hockey tradition so it was an area suited to start a girls’ program.

“South St. Paul is known as a hockey community – always has been,” the former Redhawks’ hockey star said. “Back in those early days we had fathers who were hockey players and hockey stars during their days at South St. Paul. Now they had daughters and they were passionate about making it an awesome experience for their kids. A lot of those dads helped coach in those early years. We were able to get off and running because of those fathers who stepped up and understood the game. We have always had great youth coaches developing kids in those prime years. It makes a huge difference.”

Another advantage South St. Paul had was they had a successful ringette program in the school. There were a number of girls who were going into it as good skaters.

“I didn’t know anything about ringette,” Palmquist admitted, “except that they did skate and they used basically an upside down hockey stick with a ring. They were really good at it. Those girls were really excited to make the change to hockey.”

They could skate, but they needed to learn how to translate what they could do into hockey skills. Palmquist spent a lot of time on the fundamentals. The more the girls’ game changes, the more it stays the same.

“I really had to focus on the skills of hockey – which I am still doing twenty years later – but those first few years teaching them hockey was the focus. I spent a lot of time teaching them what this great game was all about.”

With the checking rules in the girls’ game, if a team can skate, Palmquist and other girls’ hockey coaches have said that good skating teams – even more than the boys, can dominate the puck. In the early days it often just took one or two great players to dominate a game; because of the growth of the sport that has changed.

“I think a lot of coaches would say we have been able to develop more depth on our teams,” the coaching pioneer said. “We have more well rounded teams from the standpoint of not having just one or two superstars.”

The Streak

Most high school hockey fans know about the 86 game winning streak the Packers had from 2001 to 2004. Palmquist’s teams in those days had depth and talent.

“The thing I am most proud of is over twenty years a lot of kids have come and gone, but we have maintained and been a factor for twenty years,” the Bethel Royals graduate reminisced. “That is something I am really proud of. During that run you can’t have a run of 86 games without a loss and four state championships without great players. I was blessed to have group of young players that were special. They were kids with winning attitudes that refused to lose. They were not going to be denied. They had the skill, but they were willing to put the work in to be the best. Something we are proud of is the best teams don’t always win. We may have had the best teams, but they did find a way to win. The girls stepped up to the challenge every time.”

The success of the Packers during those times did a lot to help the growth of the girls’ game, but also might have hurt it.

“It drew hockey to the forefront,” Palmquist said. “The coverage we had from 2000-2005 – our Packer team was on the front page of the Star Tribune and the Pioneer Press when we were winning and when we finally lost too. It brought girls’ hockey to the forefront.”

A stickler for fundamentals, South St. Paul girls’ hockey coach Dave Palmquist demonstrates some techniques to his team during a 2001 practice at Wakota Arena. (Pioneer Press file photo)

With a team that dominant, other schools had to build programs under the Packers’ shadow. Still growing programs had to take their lumps against the four-championships-in-five-years Packers. Getting kids to try something new knowing they would have to play a team so far above their skill level couldn’t have made a coach’s job easy when trying to build a program.

“We were a team that a lot of people loved to hate,” Palmquist said.

When they finally lost in the state quarterfinals in 2004 it was like a pressure release valve, at least to the girls playing high school hockey at that time.

“Legend has it that some of the other teams who played later in the evening were at a movie theater and word got out that we lost to end our streak,” Palmquist recalled. “Basically the theatre erupted because they heard we lost.”

Consistent Success

Despite the loss, South St. Paul came back and won the title the next season, showing its resiliency in posting a 30-1 record according to Palmquist. The Packers have been remarkably consistent since.

“The number one thing is that you have to have great players,” Palmquist said. “We also had the same coaches for 18 of these 21 years. You see that in all sports. When you have that consistency in a program – the girls knew what the program was about. That was a big factor in our success having that consistent coaching staff.”

The consistency of the coaching staff allowed the program to adjust, but it took Palmquist some time to realize it was better for him to adjust to the players than make the players adjust to him.

“One of the things I learned early on is knowing what kind of players you have will dictate what kind of system you set up,” the only head coach in Packers’ girls’ hockey history said. “We were scrimmaging in Stillwater in 2002 – the year we won our first state title – we were 2-2 and we were trying a crazy type of forechecking system. We had a lot of talent and I remember turning to Coach [assistant coach Pete] Edlund and saying we are restricting these kids too much. They have too much ability. When we unleashed them and let them just use their ability we proceeded to win 86 in a row. The lesson being you have to read your team. Over the years we have been able to adjust our systems to what fits for that team.”

Palmquist does stick to some basic principles in his coaching, but as a player didn’t always practice what he now preaches.

“In high school and college I didn’t like to come back in my own end a lot,” the former forward said. “We still tell stories about that. Now as a coach it is so different. It is so uncharacteristic of me now because I always preach defense and coming back hard. [As a player] scoring was something that was more on my mind than playing defense that is for sure.”

Always on his mind as a coach has been holding everyone in the program up to a high standard – on and off the ice.

“You have to develop a program that has high expectations and high accountability. I don’t think you can be successful without both. We have built such a tradition at South St. Paul that I feel as a coach I see it as my responsibility to continue demanding accountability and discipline within our program. Play to win, but most importantly I want to develop a place where kids want to come to each day – to the rink and a place where kids are cared about and appreciated.”

“My style is demanding, but I care about my players,” Palmquist continued. “I feel like if I am not demanding and don’t expect the best out of them they won’t reach their potential. I feel like these kids today can do so much more than they think they can. It is my job as a coach to try to bring that out.”

Focus on Family

The coach is also focused on delivering a positive message off the ice.

“We are about developing kids for life. We’ve brought a consistency to the community where they know what we stand for. My faith and my family are important so I stress that to the kids. They know those things are way more important than winning. Their faith and their family are the things that are going to get you through.”

Even on the ice, family is front and center with Palmquist.

“This year I have been so fortunate – my son is coaching with me. We are having a blast this year. My daughter played for me and graduated last year and now I get to coach with my son.”

Josh Palmquist replaced long-time assistant coach Edlund who retired a few seasons ago. Corey McGinn, who is also a South St. Paul graduate, is also part of the staff. Both the younger Palmquist and McGinn work mostly with the forwards while the head man switched his focus from the forwards to the defense.

This season the Packers have not gotten off to the start their fans are used to, but Palmquist believes the pressure to succeed every season helps his program.

“When we lose it is a big deal and that is a good thing. I expect this team to be there at the end even though we started 7-5-1. We have a great goaltender and I believe we will be competitive down the stretch,” Palmquist said. “Four year starter Sidney Connelly is between the pipes. She’s given up something like fourteen goals in eleven games. She works so hard. Anna Barlow has been one of only two girls in my 21 years who has been an impact player since seventh grade. She is a straight A student and a great leader. Taylor Cashman brings a lot of leadership to the team and scoring.”

No one can expect the Packers’ program to reach the absurd levels they reached in the early 2000’s. In order to get this team and future teams to compete at the highest level again is not much different than what the sport has to do to continue growing.

“We still need to work our youth and continually work to make hockey affordable and something that these kids can do and help grow our numbers.”

According to the State High School League, nearly 3,800 young women competed in girls’ hockey last season in Minnesota. The only reason the sport has been able to grow and thrive for twenty one years and counting is because of countless hours of dedication by athletes, parents and coaches like Palmquist.

The post Packers a reflection of their coach appeared first on Minnesota Hockey Magazine.

With cancer beaten Nikki Karg takes her battle back to the ice

I have the opportunity to meet a lot of very interesting people in my job for KARE-11. Every so often I get to meet one that inspires me. This week I had the honor of telling the story of a young woman who possessed strength that I am not even sure I have at a 35-year old, and she is only 18.

Watch the story here.

(Photo submitted by Gordy Karg)

Nikki Karg is a senior at South Saint Paul high school. She is playing on the junior varsity right now to start the season with the hope that she’ll join the varsity as soon as she can. It’s not that she isn’t talented enough, it’s that she is trying to regain her strength from battling leukemia for the last year.

I first met Nikki at a pep rally last fall in South St. Paul. Her family and friends were having a benefit that night at the school’s football game and I was doing my sportscast there live as a part of our Friday night football coverage.

I met and talked with her father Gordy Karg. Gordy is the kind of guy that you could talk with all day. Quick with a story and even quicker with a smile and so, so very proud of his family. Gordy told me about his daughter’s diagnosis of A.L.L. Leukemia and how he was 100 percent certain that she would kick it within a year.

I’ll admit his conviction got to me. I try to make a habit of never promising news coverage. In my line of work it’s darn near impossible to make good on them. News breaks, schedules change, events come up and inevitably things get pushed around.

But that night when Nikki’s father told me with such certainty that she was going to beat this and that we should do a follow-up story when she does, I took him up on his offer. I told him that when she kicked cancer’s butt, I wanted to know.

I was so thrilled to get that email.

If you met and talked with Nikki right now, you’d barely ever know that she went through such an ordeal. She looks and sounds like a completely healthy teenager who is getting ready for college. Although she has a few scars on the outside, remnants of her body rejecting a transplant from a family member, her scars on the inside seem to have healed completely.

Nikki and I talked for about 15 minutes last week. She chronicled for me the previous 10 months of chemotherapy, radiation treatments, and bone marrow transplants while never once letting her smile slip from her face.

(Photo submitted by Gordy Karg)

Nikki’s parents told me stories of nurses and doctors who loved to see her because of her positive attitude and infectious smile. They all recalled the day when the initial diagnosis came and how they knew that, of all of their three children, Nikki was the one who was tough enough to handle it. And how no matter how scary things got, she refused to let leukemia take the fight out of her.

During our conversation there were a few tears; when Nikki passionately recalled knowing that it wasn’t her time because she still had more to do. From Bridget and Gordy about they day they heard that their little girl had cancer and the helpless, horrible feeling that it carried with it.

It was a life-changing event for the Karg’s and how could it not be? None of us can ever truly know how we would react in the face of such adversity. We can only hope that we’d react the way the Karg family did. By coming together and gaining strength in each other.

Nikki is winning now. Her leukemia is in remission. She wants to go to St. Thomas to get her MBA so that she can start her own non-profit to help teens with cancer because she and her family believe that it’s a group that is largely ignored.

Like so many parents Gordy and Bridget swell with pride when they talk about their daughter’s new purpose in life. Keep in mind that she once wanted to be a doctor, the dream of so many parents because of its financial stability.

This Christmas the Karg’s will be able to celebrate the holiday back home after spending it in a hospital last year. But Nikki’s Christmas wish won’t come on the holiday

Her perfect gift won’t come until the day after when she has her final test to see if the cancer has stayed away. While the family is confident all will be just fine, there is always a little doubt.

Still, after all they have been through, even the possibility of being clear of this experience is the best present of all and no gift wrap is needed.

The post It wasn’t her time appeared first on Minnesota Hockey Magazine.