Tourney Reflection 2013
Posted: Mon Mar 11, 2013 7:10 pm
Another year has come to an end, but before we shut off the lights and carry on with our usual hockey-related pursuits or turn our attention elsewhere, I figured it would be worthwhile to pause for a moment and once again offer up a few thoughts on the season.
2012-2013 was a tumultuous regular season filled with incidents one doesn’t see every day, but once sections rolled around, it was all business as usual. In Class A we were treated to a three-peat, a few new faces, a thriller of a semifinal, and a healthy dose of controversy to keep everyone talking. With St. Thomas Academy graduating to AA, one might wish that all will be love and roses in the small school bracket, but humans will be humans, and something will always be wrong. At least the teams all got their moment in the spotlight, and everyone got at least one competitive game out of their trip, as even lowly Marshall put together a respectable showing.
The main event offered a healthy mix of longtime favorites and relative newcomers, two of whom had sent some of the state’s most talented teams to the showers before they could bask in the bright lights of the X. The new teams turned out some quality support and a few wins, but in the end, it was the old hands who carried the day: Moorhead marched to a consolation title after a middling regular season, Duluth East’s Redeem Team failed to win the crown but still managed to go out in style, Hill-Murray cinched a second straight title game berth, and the Edina Hornets enjoyed their eleventh victory cake in the past forty-four years. While there were no five-goal heroes or three-overtime thrillers this time around, there were just a bunch of very good games involving the top five seeds, at least until the relentless Edina forecheck took total control in the end.
I mulled ideas for this little essay as I drove back to Duluth yesterday, and any number passed through my head; perhaps I should offer up some analysis on the championship runs in each class, or maybe I ought to venture a word on the tiresome controversies that have poisoned the Class A well. But when I sat down to write, those broader narratives faded from my mind, and I was left instead with a gallery of images. Those little snapshots write their own story, one that endures long beyond the debates that seem so pressing in the present.
I could spend hours trying to sort through all those little glimmers, but a short summary will have to do. There was Marshall’s delight at their effort in a 6-1 loss. A chat about the Centennial no-goal with Lou Nanne in the elevator. Settling into a seat with the fans of my alma mater and marveling at how little things change, even as my own time at that school fades deeper into the realm of memory. There was Chris Benson of Hermantown finding the words to accept the Herb Brooks Award moments after a crushing defeat. Press conferences with high school kids, often refreshingly unfiltered and punctuated by raw, sincere emotion. Meirs Moore, the delightfully cavalier East defenseman, grinning as he hoisted up the third place trophy. There was Edina exploding in delight and burying goaltender Willie Benjamin in a heap of humanity, leading him to describe his victory experience as “kinda squooshed.” Edina coach Curt Giles, normally the ideal stoic, joking freely with the press corps and his players. And then, all too soon, staring down at an empty Xcel Center from the press box, the arena staff pulling down the ads along the boards, prepping it for the next Wild game.
Hill-Murray’s Bill Lechner, ever the epitome of class despite the result on the ice, summed it up quite simply as he reflected on his five years of coaching Zach LaValle, both in hockey and in baseball: “We’ll cry, we’ll laugh; it’s so emotional. And life has to go on.” For his two captains, LaValle and goaltender John Dugas, it was indeed time to go on. Lechner wrapped his arm around his goalie’s shoulder and guided him out into a world beyond high school hockey. “Sure you don’t want to go out for baseball?” he asked. As they made their way around the corner Dugas took a few practice swings, cracking a smile for the first time since the game came to an end.
It was the sort of moment that transcended any discussion of private versus public or development path or class. It was the sort of moment that reminded me that no matter what happens in or around the Tourney, there is always something bigger going on: a re-affirmation of a unique local identity wrapped up in a coming of age story, and through it, the creation of something that rises above the otherwise steady progression from one stage of life to the next. Whoever the participants are, whatever happens on the ice, moments like that are a huge part of what brings me back, year after year. And so we go on—on to next year, when we can begin the cycle anew.
2012-2013 was a tumultuous regular season filled with incidents one doesn’t see every day, but once sections rolled around, it was all business as usual. In Class A we were treated to a three-peat, a few new faces, a thriller of a semifinal, and a healthy dose of controversy to keep everyone talking. With St. Thomas Academy graduating to AA, one might wish that all will be love and roses in the small school bracket, but humans will be humans, and something will always be wrong. At least the teams all got their moment in the spotlight, and everyone got at least one competitive game out of their trip, as even lowly Marshall put together a respectable showing.
The main event offered a healthy mix of longtime favorites and relative newcomers, two of whom had sent some of the state’s most talented teams to the showers before they could bask in the bright lights of the X. The new teams turned out some quality support and a few wins, but in the end, it was the old hands who carried the day: Moorhead marched to a consolation title after a middling regular season, Duluth East’s Redeem Team failed to win the crown but still managed to go out in style, Hill-Murray cinched a second straight title game berth, and the Edina Hornets enjoyed their eleventh victory cake in the past forty-four years. While there were no five-goal heroes or three-overtime thrillers this time around, there were just a bunch of very good games involving the top five seeds, at least until the relentless Edina forecheck took total control in the end.
I mulled ideas for this little essay as I drove back to Duluth yesterday, and any number passed through my head; perhaps I should offer up some analysis on the championship runs in each class, or maybe I ought to venture a word on the tiresome controversies that have poisoned the Class A well. But when I sat down to write, those broader narratives faded from my mind, and I was left instead with a gallery of images. Those little snapshots write their own story, one that endures long beyond the debates that seem so pressing in the present.
I could spend hours trying to sort through all those little glimmers, but a short summary will have to do. There was Marshall’s delight at their effort in a 6-1 loss. A chat about the Centennial no-goal with Lou Nanne in the elevator. Settling into a seat with the fans of my alma mater and marveling at how little things change, even as my own time at that school fades deeper into the realm of memory. There was Chris Benson of Hermantown finding the words to accept the Herb Brooks Award moments after a crushing defeat. Press conferences with high school kids, often refreshingly unfiltered and punctuated by raw, sincere emotion. Meirs Moore, the delightfully cavalier East defenseman, grinning as he hoisted up the third place trophy. There was Edina exploding in delight and burying goaltender Willie Benjamin in a heap of humanity, leading him to describe his victory experience as “kinda squooshed.” Edina coach Curt Giles, normally the ideal stoic, joking freely with the press corps and his players. And then, all too soon, staring down at an empty Xcel Center from the press box, the arena staff pulling down the ads along the boards, prepping it for the next Wild game.
Hill-Murray’s Bill Lechner, ever the epitome of class despite the result on the ice, summed it up quite simply as he reflected on his five years of coaching Zach LaValle, both in hockey and in baseball: “We’ll cry, we’ll laugh; it’s so emotional. And life has to go on.” For his two captains, LaValle and goaltender John Dugas, it was indeed time to go on. Lechner wrapped his arm around his goalie’s shoulder and guided him out into a world beyond high school hockey. “Sure you don’t want to go out for baseball?” he asked. As they made their way around the corner Dugas took a few practice swings, cracking a smile for the first time since the game came to an end.
It was the sort of moment that transcended any discussion of private versus public or development path or class. It was the sort of moment that reminded me that no matter what happens in or around the Tourney, there is always something bigger going on: a re-affirmation of a unique local identity wrapped up in a coming of age story, and through it, the creation of something that rises above the otherwise steady progression from one stage of life to the next. Whoever the participants are, whatever happens on the ice, moments like that are a huge part of what brings me back, year after year. And so we go on—on to next year, when we can begin the cycle anew.
