Zellers has four goals and two assists in the first three games of round-robin play at the 50th annual World Junior Championship, playing in his home state at Grand Casino Arena.

“It’s so cool to be in this position now and know that I’ve always dreamed of playing in this tournament,” Zellers said, following USA’s 6-5 win over Slovakia in the preliminary round Monday. “Growing up, I wanted to play in the World Juniors before I wanted to play in the Olympics.

“That’s how big this tournament, how much it means to us. It’s just so special to be on this team, especially, it’s so much fun having it in Minnesota, too.”

Zellers, a Maple Grove native, takes a little extra pride in the prestigious tournament not only being held in the United States but also only minutes from where he grew up. Zellers is one of a few USA players with Minnesota connections, whether it be their home state or where they’re playing college hockey. He added that they’re feeding off the atmosphere and hometown support.

He noticed a kid during warm-ups who was wearing a Maple Grove sweatshirt, and of course he also has plenty of family and friends around supporting him.

“It’s so special to know you’re backed by kids that you were in their shoes not too long ago,” Zellers said. “It for sure motivates us and adds fuel to the fire and gives us for sure an extra step having 20,000 people have our backs.”

USA opened the tournament with a 6-3 win over Germany, followed by a 2-1 win over Switzerland the next night.

Against Slovakia, USA found itself in a 2-0 hole after the first period after an even-strength and power-play goal 2:22 apart. USA had no choice but to climb out of it in the final two periods, and they started with a four-goal second period.

Brendan McMorrow celebrates his goal against Slovakia to make it a one-goal game on Dec. 29, 2025 at Grand Casino Arena. (MHM Photo / Rick Olson)

Zellers’ linemate Brendan McMorrow slid a perfect pass over to AJ Spellacy off a two-on-one rush. Spellacy’s tap-in goal came shorthanded to get USA on the board just 1 minute, 50 seconds into the second period. McMorrow added his own goal to cut into the deficit again, for a 3-2 game.

McMorrow is from Lakeville, Minn., noting that he grew up “30 minutes down the road.” He has a lot of family attending the tournament, and it’s been fun to play in front of them, he added. USA coach Bob Motzko noted the Minnesota support from over the weekend, saying “the whole city of Lakeville was here.”

“I think in that first game, we came out and we were all just looking around just smiling, how cool it was. Towels waving and stuff,” McMorrow said. “With the crowd behind us, it definitely boosts us a little bit. And it’s been really fun so far to have this tournament in Minnesota, in our country.”

With the game tied 4-4 through two periods, USA got off to a fast start in the third which proved to be the difference. James Hagens put them up 5-4 only 18 seconds into the period. Then Zellers scored a power-play goal within the first five minutes for insurance that turned out to be a very important tally.

He got a pass from Brodie Ziemer, USA’s captain from Chaska, Minn. who plays college hockey for the Minnesota Gophers, on the backdoor. Zellers was left alone, and he didn’t miss his shot.

“Zellers gets another one,” Motzko said. “I heard it was his third game-winner already. Those greasy goals, he finds a way to get them.”

Will Zellers winds up to shoot the puck past Slovakia defenders on Dec. 29, 2025 at Grand Casino Arena. (MHM Photo / Rick Olson)

Zellers is just the latest Maple Grove product to shine at the WJC. He watched Brock Faber, current Minnesota defenseman, play in the 2021 and 2022 tournaments, winning gold in 2021. Last year, Zellers saw his friend and Maple Grove native and defenseman Colin Ralph win the gold medal at the WJC. Zellers and Ralph grew up together, and both played at Shattuck-St. Mary’s.

Contributing to his team on this level, on the big stage of the WJC is something Zellers said his 10-year-old self probably wouldn’t think is real and would be “freaking out a little bit.”

“You never know at that age how far you’re going to go in hockey,” Zellers said.

He added that he wasn’t the best in hockey at that age, wasn’t on the top teams, making the position he’s in now even more special.

His scoring spree started this fall at the University of North Dakota, where he’s tallied 10 goals and 15 points in 18 games so far as a freshman. Not much has changed with his game, Zellers said, but he feels like the biggest thing is he has more confidence. More production on the ice certainly helps confidence rise, too.

“Every player in this tournament is so good,” Zellers said. “I feel like one of the biggest things that separates a good player form a great player is just the confidence that you get from playing and the confidence that you get from coaches.

“I feel like once you start questioning yourself, that’s when things go south, so just making sure I know that I can pay here and I belong here.”

Gallery: WJC Preliminary Round Slovakia vs. USA

The post Home-Ice Production appeared first on Minnesota Hockey Magazine.

The post Gallery: WJC Preliminary Round Slovakia vs. USA appeared first on Minnesota Hockey Magazine.

Otto Leaves His Mark in Bemidji and the NHL

Heather Rule chronicles his career from Elk River to the NHL via Bemidj State.

Article is from our February Hockey Day Minnesota special print/digital issue.

The post Joel Otto: Gentle Giant appeared first on Minnesota Hockey Magazine.

Stauber wants to make Gophers ‘most fun team to watch in college hockey’

All Robb Stauber wants from his alma mater is an interview

When you talk to Stauber, his intensity, honesty and determination are readily apparent, and you have to believe him when he says he would love the opportunity to lift the University of Minnesota Golden Gopher hockey program back up to where it belongs — as the elite college hockey program in the country.

“This program is in trouble, and I’m not sure they know it,” Stauber said. “First of all, I hope I can get an interview. If I do, I will absolutely say what I believe. There is not a chance in hell I would say something I don’t believe in, just to get the job. I will explain what I would do — that we will unleash the talent to go north, south, diagonally, and all over, and do things that are very different to keep possession of the puck, and make the Gophers the most fun team to watch in college hockey.”

That’s the same attitude he brought to the job as head coach of Team USA’s women’s team, which he led down his own forceful and controversial path with a revolutionary style that swept the U.S. to the gold medal at the Winter Olympics in South Korea.

Don Lucia decided to retire early this week, after 19 years of coaching the Gophers to the first and only two NCAA championships they’d won since Herb Brooks won three national titles in an amazing seven-year run through the 1970s, ending a gap of 23 years.

The line of potential successors has been immediate, long, and growing, there will be major campaigns to support some of them.

Robb Stauber will be the one off to the side, easy to overlook, possibly, but armed with the exact outlook and historic perspective to do what many think is impossible: unifying the scattered M-Club hockey boosters who have turned away from the program, reuniting the entire state’s high school structure behind the Gophers, and, without even intending to, rekindling the torch that Herbie not only carried, but created.

In 1988, Stauber was the first goaltender to receive the Hobey Baker Award given to the player deemed to be the best in college hockey that season. (Photo courtesy of University of Minnesota Athletics)

Stauber’s resume is richer in quality than quantity, since coming from Duluth Denfeld High School to the ‘U,‘ where he became the first goaltender to ever win the Hobey Baker Award back in 1988, and dominated WCHA goaltending statistics while leading Minnesota to the NCAA Frozen Four in all three years he played. He played on some Team USA outfits, and played for the Los Angeles Kings in the NHL before becoming a highly decorated goaltending coach at Minnesota, UMD, in running his own hockey schools, and by coaching goaltenders for USA Hockey. Eight years after starting to coach Team USA goalies, Stauber was offered the chance to be head coach. Ironic timing in a game that has become more primitive in its evolution, and lost Stauber as a fan.

“I can’t stand watching hockey,” Stauber said. “It is so bad, that I have gotten sick watching dump-and-chase hockey. Four years ago, I was sitting upstairs at the Women’s Olympic finals, and we were up 2-0 with 14 minutes left. Our plan was to dump the puck in to protect the lead, and Canada scored twice to tie it and beat us in overtime.

“I said, ‘I can’t stay involved if this is how we’re going to play.’

“It was a miracle I got the U.S. coaching job,” Stauber added. “Reagan Carey, our manager, had been sitting upstairs with me watching the team play for years. I always talked to her about how we could do things differently. She recognized that we were doing some old-school things, and she decided to take a chance on me.”

Stauber made changes in personnel, including the addition of Maddie Rooney, the youngest player on the team, as one of three goaltenders. The current UMD star started all but one game in South Korea, including the brilliant performance in the gold medal shootout game against Canada.

But mostly, he patiently but surely changed the ingrained, instinctive style of every player on the team into his own concept, which greatly resembles the regrouping puck-control style of the Russians, and of Herb Brooks.

“I am really disappointed that the media never even asked us about the transition in the way we played, and the players have never truly gotten the credit for what we went through,” said Stauber. “They had all come from good college programs, and they were all used to playing the traditional style, which meant getting out of your zone and then dumping the puck into the other end.

“We wanted them to bring the puck back and regrouping, sometimes more than once bringing the puck back out of the offensive zone to keep possession. There was a lot of resistance, and a lot of pain transforming what they all believed in to what we wanted to do. The players would complain, ‘what about scoring?’ and I’d say don’t worry about scoring; if we keep the puck, the scoring will come. We looked like a peewee team sometimes while we were making the transition in style.”

The style of creative hockey Stauber believes in is in stark contrast to traditional North American hockey, which has become a simplistic game of chipping the puck out of the zone, and sending it in deep to the offensive zone, hoping to forecheck for a turnover and a scoring chance. So uniform is the game these days that if you listen to broadcast analysts their only assessment is: “They’ve got to get the puck in deep, and get pucks and bodies to the net.”

Stauber believes otherwise, and he is too young to realize that Brooks harbored the same beliefs, privately, before experimenting with them during his years with the Gophers.

Photo courtesy of Stauber’s Goalcrease Training and Equipment Center

“I was always enthralled with what Herbie was able to accomplish at Minnesota, and it made me want to go there as I was growing up,” Stauber said. “You look back at the Russian teams back then, and they were without question the best at skill and imagination of how to play the game. They don’t play dump-and-chase; they keep possession of the puck until they can create a good scoring chance. Herbie’s style was similar, and when he went to coach the New York Rangers, I watched them on TV every time I had the chance.

“In 1989, I got the chance to play for the U.S. along with John Vanbiesbrouck, and I got the chance to start against the Russians in what was Igor Larionov’s last World Championships. They had guys like Fetisov and Krutov and I think they started me so they could save Vanbiesbrouck. I didn’t sleep the night before. I’d studied them, and I knew they would pass up scoring plays to set up back-door plays, and I knew I would have to adjust my game because they could make a goalie look silly. I think we lost 3-1, but it was 2-1 late.”

Believing in a system that is alien to North American players was a bold gamble. Brooks did it with his hand-selected team for 1980, and while the changeover was virtually ignored by the media who don’t really understand the game’s nuances, Stauber was more concerned with getting all his players on board. His staff included Brett Strot, who had been Stauber’s trusted ally since they were teammates and roommates in Gopher days, and Paul Mara, a high school coach in Boston who joined fairly late.

“Paul got so excited about what we were trying to do that he’d call people and say they wouldn’t believe what we were doing. Coaching women is a lot different than coaching men. The women will listen to what you say, and do it. It was difficult to get them to go out and improvise, because they were used to being shown by Xs and Os what to do next. We wanted them to keep possession of the puck, but when they got a chance, to go for it and make plays on their own.”

Shades of Herbie’s “Sophisticated pond hockey.”

It wasn’t until late in their development year, December, maybe, that Stauber said he felt that everybody had bought into the whole plan. “If any one of us coaches, or any of the players, didn’t believe in it, it wouldn’t have worked,” he said. “When we got to the point where it was working, some Canadian players gathered to watch us practice. We were doing random regroups, and I’d say to the players that I didn’t know what the Canadian players could learn from it; they can’t figure out what we’re going to do, because we don’t know what we’re going to do.

“We did different drills every day, almost all of them situational, using different forechecks, all intending on getting the players to read what their opponents were doing, and anticipate what they might do. It was great, because no two days of practice were the same, and it forced me to constantly think of what more we might do. There are no drills that can work in every situation.”

Was he surprised at the impressive results the team achieved in South Korea? Was he nervous?

“No, I wasn’t nervous,” he said. “I was happy and excited, but not surprised. We executed the way we practiced, and part of execution is winning. After we won, some good hockey people started to understand what we were doing. But I don’t think the players ever got enough credit from the media, who got all caught up in the hoopla.

(teamusa.usahockey.com photo)

“I’m so proud of what we accomplished. After every game, Igor Larionov waited for me and gave me a hug. He was so excited about how we were playing, he said, ‘The girls are smarter than the guys.’ He was genuinely enthused about what we had done. The Russians learned to be the most creative and dynamic team ever in hockey, and I believe part of that was because their lives were controlled so much, that the only place they felt freedom was when they go out on the ice. We take it for granted.”

Interesting. We’re the opposite — we’ve got freedom, but everything on the ice is controlled.

“We had so many good people on the U.S. team, and many of them are going back to college next year,” Stauber said. “They might be miserable when they find out they’re going to have to go back to dump and chase.”

While Stauber hasn’t been associated with either the Gophers men or women since he quit coaching their goaltenders, he’s aware of the drop in attendance, the grumbling about the switch to the Big Ten, and he knows that the “new breed” journalists think any big name coach could come in and succeed, even though many of the most loyal diehards insist otherwise. All the most-mentioned candidates have some assets and liabilities, whether recruiting, or lacking head coaching experience, and some might be lured more by the large salary than any tradition or heritage.

Stauber covers all the bases — including a gold medal for his coaching experience. He’s only offering positives, including the NHL based criticism about the wide, Olympic ice sheet at Mariucci Arena.

“The wide rink? I would make that a home-ice advantage,” said Stauber. “Just this morning, a fellow who followed what we did with Team USA asked me if I’d plan on playing the same way if I got the Gophers men’s job, and I assured him I would. I have no intention of doing anything but what I believe in.

“But first of all, I hope I get an interview.”

The post From Gold Medal to Maroon and Gold? appeared first on Minnesota Hockey Magazine.

Absence of NHL might return purity to Olympic hockey   

Hockey will still be the primary attraction at the 2018 Winter Olympics in South Korea, but it will be out of curiosity more than rampant nationalistic fervor. A whole generation of new hockey fans will be amazed to see the Olympic hockey tournament. completely devoid of National Hockey League superstars.

   To that I say “Good riddance.”

   That’s not because I dislike the NHL, or the presence of so many high-skilled Europeans playing in the NHL. I love hockey at all levels, and the NHL represents its own pinnacle. But while it was great to see the NHL stars representing their countries, I got to experience two Winter Olympic hockey tournaments, one each way, and I realize that international hockey doesn’t need the dictatorial influence of the NHL, which considers the terms “participation” and “control” as synonymous.

   Since 1998, the NHL has closed up shop and allowed its players to return to their national teams, including the U.S., Canada, Russia, Sweden, Finland, the Czech Republic, Slovakia, Germany, Switzerland, Latvia, and any other countries that produce players of NHL quality. The changeover, heralded by most as a true world tournament of the world’s best players, makes this year an abrupt change back. Almost none of the players — even on the U.S. and Canada — will be  close to the NHL household names of the last 20 years.

Pavel Datsyuk (Photo by Jonny Watkins)

   Two notable exceptions make my choice easy for the gold medal: Russia. Or the independent athletes representing Russia, whichever is determined to be valid. Pavel Datsyuk, who was among the best players in the NHL for the past decade, retired from the Detroit Red Wings of the NHL and took his family home to Russia. He is playing in the KHL, the Russian Kontinental Hockey League, which is clearly the second best pro league to the NHL, and Datsyuk is cavorting around like a 20-year-old, making magnificent plays and scoring sensational goals.

  In a roster listing of all the members of all the nations, Datsyuk’s name leaps off the page as the best individual player in the Olympics, even as he moves closer to his 40th birthday. Great as he is, Datsyuk’s individual skills are better suited to making his linemates and teammates better. That brings us to Ilya Kovalchuk, a mere pup of 34, and Datsyuk’s teammate on the St. Petersburg KHL team. Presumably they will play together on the Russian team, and alone, they make Russia a prohibitive favorite.

  The biggest name on Team USA might be Brian Gionta, former Boston College star who played for New Jersey, Montreal, and Buffalo, choosing to not re-sign with the Sabres after they acquired Jason Pominville from the Wild, in favor of being captain of Team USA. Former St. Cloud State scoring star Garrett Roe, ex-Gopher Ryan Stoa, both playing in Europe, and current WCHA players Troy Terry of Denver and defenseman Will Borgen of St. Cloud State also were named to the roster by coach Tony Granato.

St. Cloud State defenseman, and current Olympian, Will Borgen. (St. Cloud State Athletics)

  My recommendation would have been to call together representatives from all the college leagues and, just after the first of the year, select a college all-star team to go to the Olympics as Team USA. They would be youthful, exuberant, exciting, highly skilled, and if lacking pro experience, they would have been a huge attraction to the television moguls who are still looking for another miracle.

  Canada’s most recognizable names might be Mason Raymond, who starred at UMD and had some strong years with Vancouver in the NHL, before signing to play in Bern, Switzerland, and Chay Genoway, a four-year puck-rushing defenseman and superstar at North Dakota. He was signed by the Minnesota Wild, but got only one game with the parent club, and signed to play for Lada in the KHL.

  Very good players, but a considerable distance from Pavel Datsyuk.

  To me, the best part of the change to allow NHL players was to level the rink, to coin a phrase, for all countries, compared to the days when Russian and other European players who stayed home to play in their own leagues, where they might have been paid, but they also held jobs or were in the military to remain “amateurs” in the eyes of the Olympics, against the true amateurs from the U.S. and Canada.

  And perhaps the worst change in the tournament structure is because of the overwhelming influence of network television money — the only thing more dominant than the NHL. After Herb Brooks led Team USA to its incredible 1980 gold medal, the TV networks who were caught by surprise gathered all its forces for the 1984 Winter Olympics, anticipating another miracle. When the U.S. fell short of unfair expectations, the networks were left with huge plots of time and no Team USA. So they enforced a change to something that U.S. viewers could more easily understand.

  Instead of the traditional round-robin preliminary play that led to the top two teams coming together in an extension of that round-robin, which is why top-seeded Soviets and Sweden were scheduled in the final game, so the U.S. had to play the Soviets in the next-to-last round, then face Finland on the final day. Viewers who recall that might remember that the U.S. networks taped the game and played it back in prime time, while Canada television simply adjusted to show the gold-medal game live, in the afternoon.

  Apparently, U.S. viewers aren’t considered bright enough to figure out the unique and compelling round-robin structure, and must have an NCAA-basketball-like bracket of quarterfinals, semifinals and final. That, presumably, will never change back.

  After the NHL let its players loose to play in 1998 at Nagano, Japan, the next turn was 2002 in Salt Lake City, and I had the opportunity to lead one of the dozen separate staffs for the Olympic Committee, with our responsibility the intra-net computer reporting on hockey for all the on-site media types who couldn’t cover all the simultaneous events. Immediately after games, we sent a result piece, press conference story, and various pertinent sidebar features. It was fun and gratifying to watch up close and from the inside, particularly because Herb Brooks coached Team USA.

   We also produced off-game-day features, and I wrote one about how unfair it was of the NHL to hold all its players back until the day before the games actually started. Some of the lesser countries, including Latvia, had its hopes pinned to only a couple of standout players, and because the NHL wouldn’t release them, their plane was landing as Latvia was being eliminated in a preliminary round game. I wrote about it.

   Next thing I knew, a quite-abrasive fellow from the NHL office was present, and assumed control over what I was controlling, editing and even delaying the deadlline stories we produced, to assure any information going to the world’s media would be positive PR for the NHL, rather than incisive facts we accumulated. When I had a long discussion about the situation with the Olympic Committee’s very astute media director, he hesitantly explained to me that he was powerless to do anything to counter the NHL’s control.

  Of course, the NHL was just as eager for Canada to win as the U.S., and when Canada beat the U.S. team in the gold medal final, any observer of the media enclosure would have been certain the Games were being held in a Canadian city as in the U.S.  Another strong NHL influence was to get the Olympic tournament played on NHL size rinks, rather than the traditional 200×100 international ice sheets, which allow much more playmaking and skating and much less forced congestion.

  The more recent games are in harsh contrast to the purity of coverage in Lake Placid, N.Y., in 1980, when I had the thrill of covering all the hockey in the most spectacular Winter Olympics hockey tournament ever. That, also, was a Herb Brooks production, only at that time the official pros of the NHL were not allowed, and only the European pros who were employed outside their hockey endeavors were allowed. That meant all the players from the Soviet Union, Sweden, Finland, the Czechs, Germany and others were essentially pros, while Brooks conquered all with his college-based team that included a dozen Minnesotans and seven from his 1979 University of Minnesota NCAA champions.

   That truly was a “Miracle on Ice,” and covering it was extra special because nobody thought the U.S. had a chance, and almost none of the other media people knew anything about the U.S. players, who had trained for the previous year based in Met Center in Bloomington.

  My favorite recollections are from watching all the games I could, marveling at the skill level of the Soviets and the Swedish and Finnish teams, because our apartment was a last-moment deal at a home across the street from the high school, which was the Olympic Media Center, and the adjacent arena, where all the games were.

  My other favorite moment was when Brooks walked off from the interview room the day after the U.S. had stunned powerful Sweden with a 2-2 tie in the last minute. Brooks had confided in me that he didn’t want to bring two players to post-game media sessions, but figured he had to, right up until the Soviets said they would not. That allowed Brooks, still striving for East-West unity, to leave his players in their dressing room while he met the media. New York columnist Mike Lupica ripped him for being so egotistical he would not allow any of his players to be interviewed — which was far easier than to go out into the cold night air and interview whichever players he wanted to, if he only knew them. Brooks declared that if the columnist he’d never met thought he was coming alone because of his ego, from then on the media could talk to his assistant, Craig Patrick, because Brooks wouldn’t be coming to any more interview sessions.

   I told Brooks he shouldn’t give up the world stage, and he told me he had arranged with the arena manager to hide out in his office after games, in an area the media could not get to, and that I could meet him in that office after every game. That meant I got exclusive interviews with Herb Brooks after every U.S. game, and still have time to race outside and talk to every U.S. player as they departed after showering and dressing.

   It remains a highlight of my career, and maybe one of the best parts of it was that any reporter could use instincts and personal initiative to cover the players and the Games as best they could. A far cry from what was to transpire in the six Winter Olympics tournaments since then.

Note to readers: This article will be in the soon-to-be-published February Winter Special Edition of Minnesota Hockey Magazine that features Hockey Day Minnesota 2018 and St. Cloud hockey.  It will be available in print at store newsstands across Minnesota including Target and Walmart.  Digital issue will be available on the PressPad mobile app platform for Minnesota Hockey Magazine via Apple Store and Amazon/Kindle.  If you want to get it free, subscribe to our e-Edition and it will be sent directly to your email box.  Thanks.  MHM Staff

The post Amateur Hour appeared first on Minnesota Hockey Magazine.

Warroad is HOCKEYTOWN USA because of Cal Marvin.  Cal Marvin and his Warroad Lakers Senior Men’s Hockey Club were the cornerstone of modern day hockey in Warroad.  Cal was the guy who made it all happen.

Cal Marvin was born August 29, 1924, the youngest of the five boys and second youngest child of George and Almina Marvin.  George Marvin had arrived in Warroad from Canada, after learning the grain business, and came to manage the Canadian Grain Company’s elevator, lumber and fuel interests.  When the expected shipping center didn’t materialize, Marvin stayed and bought a lumber business. Through many innovations this is now a highly successful business, known as Marvin Windows, which now employs over 5,000 people worldwide.

While his three brothers Bill, Jack, and Tut worked to build the Marvin Company, Cal took a different route.

The early years, Cal Marvin, Wes Cole and Les Lightning

In the movie, “It’s a Wonderful Life,” George Bailey is given the opportunity to see what would have happened if he was not around in his local community. Similarly, Warroad certainly would not be the same without Cal.  

Dick Roberts, who grew up just a few houses from Cal, knew him well.  “Cal Marvin was full of energy, a go to guy, full of ideas; his mind was always working and for his whole life Cal would get things done.  He didn’t like to take no for an answer.”

Cal enjoyed his youth and loved sports. After graduating from Warroad High, Cal went off to Carleton College where he soon discovered that college was not his calling.  

With the war in full force, he felt led to join the Marine Corps and went off to San Diego for training.  He then served in the South Pacific fighting against the Japanese in Saipan.  When the war ended, Cal came back to his hometown; where instead of going into the family business he became a successful businessman in the resort and hospitality industry.  This gave him time in the winter, and soon Cal became a fixture in the Warroad hockey fabric.  

When Cal came back from the war, he wanted to help the community as it had no rink.  The Warroad Pioneer reported on March 8, 1945 that, “Marine Private Cal Marvin revived the sport here this winter while home on furlough from active duty in the South Pacific.”

Cal and a few helpers flooded a rink on the schoolyard, and with the rink now in place, and Max Oshie as a star player, he was able to start up the Warroad High School team.

Warroad gets an Arena – the building of the Castle on the Corner

In Cal’s mind, what Warroad needed more than anything else, was a place to play hockey indoors.  Dead or alive, he was committed to seeing this through.  While serving in WWII, his love for the game was off the charts, and if he had not made it back from the war, he had named the Warroad Arena Fund as the beneficiary of his $10,000 life insurance policy.

Cal was now ready to begin to put together the group that would plan and start the work needed to make his dream come true.  With his good friend Dick Roberts, Cal and Dick called a meeting to put together a small group that would become the members of the Warroad Memorial Arena Association.

On the invitation list was 35 business owners from Warroad.  It was not an easy sell.  Warroad had few sidewalks, no library, and the roads were in poor shape.  Many in the community felt the ice arena was not where the funds should go.  

Cal led the way for a fundraising effort to build the first indoor rink, his “Castle on the Corner.”  Cal was able to raise the funds through bingo nights, benefit auction sales, variety shows, raffles and other fundraisers, and by 1947, he had raised $9500.00 in the Warroad Arena fund.  

Cal proved his critics wrong, as this money that was spent to create an arena was one of the seeds in the ground that put Warroad on the map, not just locally and in Canada, but throughout the hockey world.

With the support of the community, the blueprints from the University of North Dakota rink and a volunteer force ready to go, the plans for the arena were now in motion.  With local carpenter Ed Christian scaling back the plans, it was now time to get the building started.  Christian would later see his three boys Gordon, Roger and Bill play in this building, and in time all three would represent the USA as Olympians.

Ginny, Bill and Roger Christian all wearing the USA Jersey

Cal would miss only a short bit of the entire project, but he had a good excuse.  His marriage to Beth took place that summer.  He flew to his wedding and, after honeymooning for two days, returned to his project.  This lifestyle didn’t stop Cal and Beth from enjoying each other’s company, as winters are cold and long in Warroad, and they somehow managed to have 12 children.

With the arena built, it was now time to fill it up with hockey players, with practices and games for all ages. Mike Marvin saw firsthand his father’s devotion to the game.

“Dad wasn’t one of those who just loved hockey at the level that he was at, but he wished success for everyone, at every level,” Mike Marvin said. “That is evidenced by his 40-some years as president of our youth hockey organization; with all the countless meetings that he sat through.  Dad fought to build the arena and he fought to make the hockey programs successful.”

In the Beginning- the birth of the Warroad Laker hockey

Warroad Lakers First Hockey Team

In the summer of 1946, Cal wanted to get a senior hockey team in Warroad.  In order to do so they needed to have uniforms.

“Cal and I planned a dance in a local seed house,” Roberts said. “The dance was very well attended by the people in town.  We raised $1300.00 that night which at that time, was a lot of money for the complete uniforms”.   

With uniforms now in hand from the fundraising dance in the summer of ‘46 by Cal and Roberts, it was time to organize.

The Warroad Lakers Hockey Club started in 1946 -1947 when Warroad pharmacist E.J. Holland called a meeting to organize a men’s team that would play in the States-Dominion League against teams from Northwest Minnesota, including teams from Hallock, Crookston, Roseau and Thief River Falls.

Led by Cal Marvin, this group of hockey players from Warroad would take their game to Grand Forks and started the University of North Dakota program.

The Birth of UND Varsity Hockey

The following year, with Cal Marvin leading the charge, they would bring the University of North Dakota varsity program to life.  Marvin felt strongly he could make a solid college team and asked Red Jarrett, the UND Athletic Director, to give them a chance to bring players into the University of North Dakota and start a varsity program.  Marvin followed through, getting the players and, with the help of Jarrett scheduling games, started the varsity hockey program at UND.

In the first year as a UND varsity team, they traveled by train out to play mighty Michigan, defeating them in front of few fans by a 6-5 score.  The Wolverines would rebound the next night, and in front of a full house, beat UND sending them back for the long train ride home.  

When the team arrived back in Grand Forks, at 7:30 a.m., in well below zero weather, they were greeted by Jarret and the university band, after becoming the first UND sports team to ever beat a Big 10 team in any sport.

With a limited college schedule, the players would often head home for the weekend to play for the Lakers, against the local competition from around the Northwest.

Cal Marvin and the Lakers

The Warroad Lakers may have been the greatest amateur club to ever play the game of hockey.  The Lakers dominated the sport.  Showcasing talent with speed, skill and toughness, the Lakers would beat national and Olympic teams.

The Lakers didn’t start hockey in Warroad, but hockey in Warroad would not be the same without them.   The club has not played a game in 20 years, but it is during the 50 years they played that Warroad became known as HOCKEYTOWN USA.  

Cal Marvin’s name was synonymous with the Warroad Lakers.  As the leader of the Lakers, Cal was known for his ability to get the guys needed to be a winning team, and then manage their ice time.  In addition, for 50 years, he was loved by the guys who played for him.  They knew he cared and would do whatever he could to help them out.

“Dad’s commitment to hockey and the Lakers was so unwavering,” Cal’s son Mike said. “But the same commitment that he had for the Lakers Hockey Club is the same commitment that he has for his family.  And I don’t just mean our family.  I mean his brothers, his cousins, his nephews, everyone.”

This was not beer-league or no-check hockey.  This was intense, 60-minute stop time, full-contact hockey.  It was common to play with pain, and if you weren’t prepared to play, you would be leaving worse than you arrived.

How good was the Warroad Lakers Senior Men’s Hockey Club?

In 1960, the U.S. Olympic team traveled to Warroad, only to get beaten by the Lakers. This wasn’t the first time the Lakers beat a U.S. national squad. In 1958 they did it not once, but twice.

Lakers playing Team USA

Later, that 1960 U.S. team would take the Olympic gold medal in Squaw Valley with Warroad players Roger and Billy Christian on it.

Not only did Bill and Roger Christian play on the first U.S. team to ever take the Olympic gold medal, but for many seasons, they also played for the Lakers.   

U.S. National Team and Olympian players that donned the Warroad Lakers jersey included the likes of John Noah, Dan McKinnon, Gordon Christian, Roger Christian, Bill Christian, Sam Grafstrom, Dayton Grafstrom, Myron Grafstrom, Bob Lund, Jim Stordahl, Henry Boucha, Blaine Comstock and David Christian.  Cal Marvin also coached the 1958 team and was manager of the 1965 U.S. National team.

hrist

David and Bill Christian- played together as Lakers

Interestingly enough, the United States has never won a gold medal in the Olympics without a member of its team being from Warroad.  

“One of the nicest testimonies about my dad Cal and the Lakers was something that Chris Imes said after he had played for the Olympic team and then came to Warroad and played for the Lakers in the playoffs,” Mike Marvin recalls. “Imes told Virg Foss, of the Grand Forks Herald, ‘You know Virg, I’ve been on a national championship college team and I’ve played in the Olympics, but I’ve never had so much fun as playing for Cal Marvin.’”

Besides representing their country, the Lakers had numerous players who played or coached in the NHL, including Clarence Schmidt, “Sugar” Jim Henry, Ed Kryzanowski, Bill Juzda, Allan Hangsleben, Henry Boucha, Dave Christian, Bob Johnson (coach), Howard Walker and Chad Erickson.

Mike recalls overhearing Billy Lund, who played professionally in Texas say “Cal, we’re getting paid and we’re playing, but it’s not like Laker hockey.  That was so much fun.’”

Five Lakers are now members of the United States Hockey Hall of Fame, including Cal Marvin, Bill Christian, Roger Christian, Henry Boucha and David Christian.  I know of no other amateur hockey club that can make these claims.

The largest challenges that Cal and the Lakers ran into were from being too successful.   Over the course of 50 years, the club played in many leagues, but soon wore out their welcome, as team owners refused to allow them in their league.

The Lakers saved the best for last.  With Cal’s son David as player-coach, the Lakers became the only senior team ever to win the treasured Allan Cup in a three-peat, winning the title back-to-back-to-back. In its final season, the team made it to the finals but a banged up squad came up short.

“There wasn’t anybody who wanted to win more than Cal…no one,” David Marvin recalled. “Yet, he could handle a loss.  He’d always be in your corner.”  

John Hanson, who played on all three of the Allan Cup championship teams, said “Cal recruited guys that were extremely competitive.  We always wanted to win, practices or games, we played to win.”

The Lakers and Cal Marvin are no longer with us. Cal lived a wonderful life not only doing what he loved, but leaving Warroad with a rich, historic legacy that contributes to its HOCKEYTOWN USA fame.

David and Cal Marvin with Allan Cup

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Warroad’s Gigi Marvin is on a quest for Olympic gold

When Team USA hits the ice in February for the 2018 Winter Olympics in Pyeongchang, a Warroad, Minnesota native is likely to be one of the team’s unheralded leaders. Defenseman Gigi Marvin is a part of a class of veterans hoping to take Team USA to its second-ever gold medal in women’s hockey.

Warroad girls hockey players Emily, Haley and Lindsey Lorenson pictured here with Gigi Marvin (Photo by Jenna Lorenson)

Marvin, one of six Minnesotans on the centralization roster, started her decorated career in Warroad, where she was the recipient of the 2005 Ms. Hockey Award. Though she lives on the east coast, she still runs a camp in her hometown. “I know almost everyone in the youth program by name,” Marvin says via phone as the U.S. prepares for the 2017 Four Nations Cup.

“I just love children,” she says. “I love being able to share what I’ve learned. I’ve been taught by some really good hockey minds, and to be able to pass on some of the experiences I’ve had to kids is huge.”

A Big Year for USWNT

What she’s done for future generations of hockey players extends beyond camps. The U.S. National Team players staged a boycott of the 2017 World Championship, striving for equal treatment from USA Hockey. Deciding to skip a major tournament like Worlds didn’t come without risk. “I think that shows the degree to which it had to change,” Marvin says. “Because you had your best athletes willing to give up five games when they only get nine games every year. That’s unheard of.

“We literally train every day for only nine games, and ultimately for the Olympic gold medal game. So, we 100 percent knew what we were sacrificing, what we were letting go of.” But Marvin and her teammates believed the cause mattered too much.

“It was a no-brainer for us,” she says. “Was it scary? Yeah. There’s always uncertainty. But we knew without a doubt that this needed to happen, and change would come.

“The unity ran deep. It’s awesome. It wasn’t just us. Even more than us, it’s going to impact my niece, my cousins, the little girls I coach. I’m not going to reap the benefit of this really. Everyone who comes after us is going to.”

The Next Goal

Having scored a new contract – and a fifth gold medal at Worlds when a resolution was found before the tournament – Marvin is focused on the Olympics.  “It’s always big,” she says. “We don’t wake up and dream of playing in the World Championship, we dream of playing in the Olympics.”

Marvin’s career is brimming with success. She captained the Gophers to the Frozen Four her senior year. She won a Clarkson Cup in the CWHL with the Boston Blades. She won an Isobel Cup in the NWHL with the Boston Pride in a year when she was named Defenseman of the Year and made the first of two NWHL All-Star Game appearances.

But Olympic gold has eluded her so far.

She’s one of just six players on the centralization roster that will be making a third Olympic appearance. That group – US captain Meghan Duggan, Kacey Bellamy, Hilary Knight, and sisters Monique Lamoureux-Morando and Jocelyne Lamoureux-Davidson – laced up in 2010 alongside Jenny Potter, Angela Ruggiero, and Natalie Darwitz, the last three players on the National Team from the 1998 gold medal-winning roster. That was the first Olympics to feature women’s hockey and the last time the U.S. took home gold.

The team is determined to bring gold back to the United States. Canada has repeatedly managed to cause heartbreak for the U.S., despite the US winning seven of the last eight World Championships, including the last four consecutively.

Yet, Marvin says her advice for the team’s younger players is to not be overwhelmed by the excitement and their determination. “Simply take it in and enjoy every single day,” she says. “That’s the heart of it. If you go to work every day and you’re consumed by results or consumed by performance, that’s not enjoyable. You lose sight of the moments and memories you make with your friends, your teammates, your co-workers along the way.”

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Brandt, Cameranesi, McMillen, Stecklein and Team USA take on Canada this week.

The 2014 U.S. Women’s Under-22 Select Team hits the ice tonight to kick off a three-game series Canada in Calgary, Alberta and, not surprisingly, Minnesota is well represented on the U.S. roster.

University of Minnesota players Hannah Brandt (Vadnais Heights), Dani Cameranesi (Plymouth), Milica McMillen (St. Paul) and Lee Stecklein (Roseville) will be laced up and ready to go when the puck drops at 7:30 p.m. CT tonight to begin the 11th three-game series between the U.S. and Canada since 1999. Additionally, former Gopher and NHL goalie Robb Stauber is among a trio of Team USA assistant coaches.

Minnesota’s four representatives on the team’s 22-player roster is tied for the lead among twelve different states whose players were chosen after participating in the 2014 USA Hockey Women’s National Festival, which took place Aug. 12-16 at the Lake Placid Olympic Center in Lake Placid, N.Y. Stecklein is one of three players from the 2014 silver medal U.S. Olympic squad to also appear on the U-22 team, along with Boston College forward Alex Carpenter and Harvard defenseman Michelle Picard.

The 2014 U.S. Women’s Under-18 Select Team will also face Canada in a three-game series this week. Minnesota associate head coach Joel Johnson is serving as the head coach of the U.S. U-18 team for the 2014-15 season. The U-18 series begins at 6 p.m. CT Thursday.

All games in both the U-22 and U-18 series will be streamed live at usahockey.fasthockey.com.

Series vs. Canada Schedule

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Five with Minnesota ties remain for final games of National Junior Evaluation Camp

USA Hockey today trimmed its 2014 National Junior Evaluation camp roster from 42 to 27 in advance of its final games against the Czech Republic, Finland and Sweden later this week. The University of Minnesota’s Hudson Fasching (Burnsville) is one of three Minnesotans remaining in camp vying for roster spots on the U.S. National Junior Team which will compete in the 2015 International Ice Hockey Federation World Junior Championship, Dec. 26, 2014 – Jan. 5, 2015, in Montreal and Toronto, Canada.

Fasching, the lone Minnesota-bred forward and one of five eligible members still in camp from Don Lucia’s 2014 U.S. National Junior Team which finished fifth in Malmo, Sweden, is joined by defensemen Ryan Collins (Bloomington, University of Minnesota commit) and Jack Dougherty (Cottage Grove, University of Wisconsin commit). 2014 Minnesota Wild draft picks Alex Tuch (first round, 18^th overall) and Louis Belpedio (third round, 80^th overall) also remain in camp.

Jim Johannson, USA Hockey’s assistant executive director of hockey operations and the general manager of the 2015 U.S. National Junior Team, said those dropped from the Evaluation Camp roster today remain in consideration to be invited to December’s training camp from which the final team will be selected.

“As a staff, we have been very pleased with the effort and competitiveness of the 42 players in camp,” Johannson said in a statement released by the team. “The three remaining games this week provide an opportunity for additional assessment of the players that are staying. We will continue to evaluate the players released today throughout the fall.”

Forwards let go by Team USA coach, and Burnsville native, Mark Osiecki include Minnesotans Keegan Iverson (St. Louis Park, Portland Winterhawks), Taylor Cammarata (Plymouth, University of Minnesota), Vinni Lettieri (Excelsior, University of Minnesota), Austin Poganski (St. Cloud, University of North Dakota) and Connor Hurley (Eagan, University of Notre Dame).

Defenseman with in-state ties cut buy Team USA were Mike Brodzinski (Ham Lake, University of Minnesota), Tommy Vanelli (Minnetonka, Medicine Hat Tigers) and Clint Lewis (Burnsville, Cornell University). Hudson, Wis. defenseman Ian McCoshen (Shattuck-St. Mary’s), who also played for Lucia on last year’s team, has been sent home for precautionary reasons according to USA Hockey’s release.

The trimmed Team USA roster will play Sweden on Wednesday (Aug. 6), Finland on Thursday (Aug. 7) and Czech Republic on Saturday (Aug. 9). All games are being played at the Olympic Center’s USA Rink.

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