Duluth East and Hermantown went to the state hockey tournament filled with optimism and confidence. This would be their year to go all they way. It didn’t work out that way. Edina simply overran Stillwater 6-1, Eagan 3-1, and Lakeville North 8-2 in the title match.
In Class A, Hermantown lost for the fifth straight year in the Class A final, this time when a 1-0 lead against a swift and skilled East Grand Forks team turned into a 7-3 disaster. So stunning was the Green Wave as it rolled up and over the Hawks that it seemed a long time ago that the Hawks had opened the tournament with a 6-3 victory over plucky Luverne, and a 4-2 semifinal victory over New Prague.
The Greyhounds, on the other hand, were one and done in the AA championship bracket. They found that their second half scoring eruptions were greatly dependent on the broad shoulders of Jack Kolar -- the only senior among their crop of promising forwards and the ignition switch that got the rest of them scoring. Kolar missed the first eight games of the season after straining the medial-collateral ligament in his left knee in a preseason scrimmage at Minnetonka. When he came back and got going, he helped his line, with Nick Altmann and center Brian Bunten, become one of the state’s best. In the process, he scored 21 goals in half a season.
But a team that went from having trouble scoring to a team with a sizzling line nobody could contain returned to offensive voids when Kolar wrenched his knee late in the 7AA final against Elk River. Kolar had scored eight goals in three games until then, but I wasn’t sure he could play in the state tournament. He tried to. Playing on one leg, Kolar didn’t score -- and neither did the ‘Hounds, as they fell 3-0 to a very good Eagan team in the quarterfinals.
East came back to get past Stillwater in the consolation semifinal, but Kolar injured his shoulder in that game, and coach Mike Randolph didn’t even dress him for the concolation final, when East lost to a surprisingly good Roseau team.
“I’m really proud of Jack Kolar,” said Randolph. “At the tournament, we taped his knee and braced it, and I talked to our trainer, and his dad, who told me he didn’t want Jack to play, but Jack told him it was his senior year, his last chance to play in an East uniform, and he wanted to play. On one leg, he played really well for us.”
The story of the Eagan game was that with Kolar hindered, defensemen Phil Beaulieu and Alex Trapp tried to help the offense. Beaulieu made some spectacular rushes in the first period, threatening to score several times, but nothing would go in.
I asked Eagan coach Mike Taylor if he made a tactical move to contain Beaulieu after the first period. “I didn’t have to,” he said. “The kids were all yelling at each other that we had to contain him. We knew Beaulieu was really shifty, and he likes to handle the puck, but in the first period I think we were trying for the big hit, and all we got were big misses.”
In reality, Beaulieu and Trapp tried to do too much, over-running their positions several times. As the game went on, and a 1-0 deficit became 2-0 midway through the third period, the frustration and over-intensity met at a painful intersection, and Eagan hit an empty net to win 3-0.
The biggest question in high school hockey is: Will Mike Randolph return as East coach?
“I don’t want to quit coaching,” Randolph said. “But I have to balance that with watching my son, Jake, play at Nebraska-Omaha. How much will it hurt to miss seeing him play? I’ve got to think about it.”
Jake Randolph is in his second year with the Omaha Lancers junior team in the USHL, and he is leading the league in scoring. He will take that skill to UNO next season. The ideal scenario, to me, would be for Dean Blais to hire Randolph as his assistant coach. He would be the best tactical assistant Blais could find, he’d be a great recruiter, and he could watch Jake play the next four years in the process.
Blais, incidentally, has a load of skilled players coming in next fall. Beaulieu is among them, and so is Avery Peterson, the Grand Rapids sniper who won the Mr. Hockey Award last Sunday. Also, two sensational players at Eden Prairie, defenseman Luc Snuggerud and center Steve Spinner, are both committed to the Mavericks. Eden Prairie led their semifinal against Lakeville North 4-2 when Lakeville North scored at 15:25 and 16:29 of the second period to tie it, and the teams battled until 8:26 of the second overtime when Nick Poehling scored on a power play to win it. Spinner had two goals for Eden Prairie, but Nick Poehling, who joined brothers Jack and Ryan on a colorful line for Lakeville North, got the last two to tie and win the game.
Another colorful performance was turned in by Edina’s Tyler Nanne, grandson of Lou Nanne. He scored a hat trick in the first period and four goals in all in Edina’s first game.
The Herb Brooks Award went to Roseau’s Zach Yon, son of former Roseau and Gopher star Billy Yon. Zach Yon got himself loose time after time, and turned in an astounding performance at the tournament. He got 14 shots on goal in Roseau’s opening 2-1 overtime loss to Lakeville North. Then he got 14 shots again Friday in the consolation semifinals against Centennial. He capped it with a 9-shot game against East in the consolation final. That’s 37 shots on goal in three games. Yon is committed to North Dakota.
The best post-game press conferences were won, once again, by Hermantown coach Bruce Plante. After beating New Prague 4-2 to reach the final for the fifth time in a row, Plante said: “I get so much grief about finishing second...The only time I dont mind is when they compare me to Bud Grant. I love that guy. He shoots ducks, fishes, and all that shit -- same as me.”
Both Randolph and Plante are among the elite of Minnesota high school coaches for a very similar reason. They are extremely competitive and intense, but they instill in their players the understanding that success indeed comes from playing their best and their hardest in attempting to win. It goes without saying that if they don’t win, they still come away winners.