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Minnesota Wild Time Line page 31 |
| MINNESOTA
NHLERS: REMEMBERING THEIR ROOTS
[March 2, 1999] -- Information reveived compliments of the National Hockey League Players Association (www.nhlpa.com) The state of Minnesota has always been known as a breeding ground for some of the United States’ top hockey players. Where do players hone their skills? One particular event is the Minnesota State High School Hockey Tournament, a tourney that captures the attention of competitors and fans alike. The tournament, which begins tomorrow with eight teams in the A-pool and another eight in the AA-pool, is the equivalent to the Stanley Cup for a kid growing up in Minnesota. High school hockey in the region is comparable to football in Pennsylvania or basketball in Indiana. But the tournament is just as meaningful for those who don’t get the opportunity to play in it. Tickets are at a premium for the tournament as they are passed down through families. Players whose schools don’t qualify for the championship still follow it very closely. “If you haven’t been to Minnesota and you haven’t seen it, people don’t realize how built-up and how unique of an event it really is,” said Vancouver Canucks forward Darby Hendrickson, a native of Edina, Minnesota. “Families design their vacations around it,” explained Florida Panther rookie and Bloomington native Mark Parrish. “There’s families from up north that take the weekend off and they’ll come down and their kids … they won’t even know anybody in it but they’ll just take their vacations to go down and watch the state high school tournament. It’s just enormous.” Buffalo’s Derek Plante, a product of Cloquet High School, never made it to the tournament. But that didn’t prevent him from watching players like ex-NHLer Paul Broten, Hendrickson and others play in the championship. “Every spring or this time of the year that was our big … almost like vacation,” he said. “We’d take a couple days off of school and we’d go down there and watch all the games. It was a big family outing for us every year to go to the state tournament. It was a big deal. It’s still a big deal.” This year’s tournament will be no different than past ones for Plante. He’ll still be following it closely since his father is coaching the Hermantown Hawks in this year’s championship. This is the second year in a row Derek’s father will be coaching in the tournament. While Plante never had the opportunity to play in the championships, his good friend Darby Hendrickson did. For Hendrickson, who attended Richfield High School, playing in the tournament was in some ways similar to playing in the NHL. “I actually had a chance in my last year of high school to play in the tournament, but we lost our first game,” the 26-year-old centerman recalled. “But it was still a great experience.” What made the experience even more memorable for Hendrickson was the fact that his linemate was his brother Dan, who is currently playing with Dayton in the East Coast Hockey League. It was unique for them to share that experience together although Hendrickson has many memories from the days his father coached in the tournament. Darby’s father has coached Minnesota high school hockey for a number of years. He coached Richfield High School in the ‘70s and three years ago he coached Apple Valley to the state championship. Florida’s Mark Parrish is yet another NHLer who has enjoyed success in the state tournament. Unlike Hendrickson and Plante, he was much more fortunate in that he had the opportunity to play in the tournament three times during his high school career at Bloomington Jefferson. He was even lucky enough to be on two state championship teams, in 1993 and 1994. Parrish was teammates with Anaheim Mighty Ducks’ defensemen Mike Crowley and Dan Trebil at Bloomington Jefferson at the time. In his sophomore year, Parrish and his teammates went 28-0 on their way to winning the state title, becoming only the second team in Minnesota history to accomplish that feat. “It’s definitely something everybody looked on and said it’s a feather in the cap to be playing in the same tournament that all these other (NHL) guys played in,” Parrish said. “Then to get a chance to win it when everybody else wants to be a part of that. That was great.” Minnesota native Neal Broten has also played in the state tournament. He represented Roseau High School during the ‘70s and despite winning championships at almost every level of hockey including university, the Olympics and the NHL, it was the high school title that escaped his grasp. But Broten, an NHLer for 17 years until retiring in 1997, still has fond memories of the tournament. “Hockey is big time tradition in this state and the state tournament just has always stood on that pedestal,” Broten said. “It’s just a great event. It shows that in the fans. They pack the arena for pretty much every game. 16-17,000 people will be at the Target Center. That’s what makes it so nice.” Tom Reid, an NHLer for 11 seasons with the Chicago Blackhawks and Minnesota North Stars from 1967 to 1978, does the colour commentary for the tournament which can be seen statewide and in parts of the Dakotas. Tom also does TV work for the University of Minnesota hockey team. “It’s a lot of fun because there’s so much hype with it,” Reid said. “They all have their prep bands, they all have their cheerleaders. It’s four days of non-stop hockey and it brings a lot of the people together from all over the state. “You get a lot of coverage media wise -- radio, TV, newspaper. And so you get some of the small schools coming down here competing against some of the larger schools, in some cases. And of course you have your delegations of bus loads of kids coming down to watch the games. It gets pretty good.” Over the years, Reid has been able to watch a number of NHLers pass through the tournament. He has watched Hendrickson and Parrish, Crowley and Trebil, as well as Jamie Langenbrunner, Matt Cullen and many other players currently in the NHL. And then there are former NHLers like Bill Nyrop, Henry Boucher, Donny Jackson and the Broten brothers (Neal, Aaron and Paul) who have also been a part of the tournament’s history. “It’s a great stepping stone,” Reid said. “When you talk to these players who have played at the pro level, they go back to their roots and they talk about playing for their communities and what it was like to play high school hockey and to achieve the goal of getting to the state tournament. It’s pretty emotional for a lot of these kids.” MINNESOTA WILD, USA HOCKEY AND MEDIAONE TO BROADCAST THE WOMEN'S 1999 DIVISION I NATIONAL ICE HOCKEY CHAMPIONSHIP[March 22, 1999] -- The National Hockey League's (NHL) Minnesota Wild in a partnership with USA Hockey and MediaOne announced today that MediaOne will broadcast the 1999 Women's Division I National Ice Hockey Championship on Friday, March 26 and Saturday, March 27 live from Mariucci Arena throughout the Twin Cities metro area. The 1999 National Ice Hockey Championship features Brown University, Harvard University, the University of Minnesota and the University of New Hampshire. "The Minnesota Wild is proud to support this year's Women's National Ice Hockey Championship and looks forward to great hockey action this weekend," said Minnesota Wild CEO Jac Sperling. "Women's hockey has grown tremendously over the past few years and is beginning to receive the national attention it deserves. Through our partnership with USA Hockey and MediaOne, we are pleased to deliver the first-ever live broadcast of this exciting event." MediaOne will broadcast all four games live on the following channels throughout the metro area: Channel 61 - Brooklyn Park and Northwest suburbs The Semifinal Games are scheduled for Friday, March 26th at 5:00 p.m. and 8:00 p.m. Brown will meet Harvard in the first game, and Minnesota will face off against New Hampshire in the second game. The two semifinal winners will then meet in the Championship Game on Saturday, March 27th at 7:00 p.m., while the Third-Place Game will be played at 4:00 p.m. the same day. The announcers for the tournament games include play by play announcers Anthony LaPanta and Tarmo Kubitz with expert analysis by University of St. Thomas women's hockey coach Kevin Gorg and former NHL and University of Minnesota star Pat Micheletti. "MediaOne is proud to partner with the Minnesota Wild and USA Hockey to be the only source to broadcast this national tournament on live television," said Jeff Harkman, MediaOne Twin Cities Vice President and General Manager. "We know a big audience for women's hockey exists in the Twin Cities and we are pleased to bring it to our customers." For tickets to the AWCHA Women's National Ice Hockey Championship please contact the Mariucci Arena Box Office at (612) 624-8080. Tickets are available for all sessions. AWCHA 1999 Division I National Ice Hockey Championship
Date Game Opponents Time (CST)
March 26 Semi #1 Brown Univ. vs. Harvard Univ. 5:00
Semi #2 Univ. of MN vs. Univ. of NH 8:00
March 27 Third-Place L Semi #1 vs. L Semi #2 4:00
Championship W Semi #1 vs. W Semi #2 7:00
MediaOne, the nation's leading Broadband services company, provides entertainment, information, and communications services to approximately five million customers, including 320,000 customers in the Twin Cities metro area. For more information on Minnesota Wild grass roots hockey programs, call Matt Majka at (651) 602-6007. |