The thrill of victory and the agony of defeat played out on the ice at AMSOIL Arena last week, where enough drama filled the place to satisfy even the most zealous hockey fan. You could pick your favorite, and make the case for high school hockey in the 7A and 7AA championship games, determining slots in the  
Minnesota State High School Hockey tournament, which is already underway, down at Xcel Energy Center in Saint Paul. Or it could have come from the college games, where both the UMD men and women took over the arena and played some more tight-checking but spectacular hockey all weekend.

Because the high school hockey tournament is simply the biggest high school tournament in any sport in the country, it commands the spotlight this week. A pair of familiar names are carrying the pride and hope of Northeastern Minnesota, with Hermantown, the No. 1 ranked team in Class A, and Duluth East, wearing the underdog disguise in Class AA, surviving major tests to claim their rightful spots at state.

East’s spot was perhaps NOT rightful this season, because Elk River was clearly the No. 1 seed. And after one period of their final, it appeared obvious that the Elks were loaded and the ‘Hounds were struggling. Elk River’s Jacob Jaremko, one of the top candidates for Mr. Hockey, got the puck in his own end on the first shift of the game. An East forechecker fell down right in front of him, and after a few powerful strides, he slipped the puck through the skates of a defenseman, then zoomed up the boards and whistled a shot past East goaltender Gunnar Howg at 0:48.

Jax Murray made it 2-0, and before the period ended Jaremko grabbed the puck, cut across the slot, and scored again, with a backhand, and it was 3-0. The only seed of positivity for East was that the shots were 9-9. In the opening minute  of the second period, an Elk skater was penalized for kneeing. When his time was up, he sprinted across the ice and stapled East’s Shay Donovan into the sideboards. It was worth a 5-minute major and a misconduct, and it was time for the Altmann Brothers to do their thing. Ash Altmann scored a power-play goal at 6:09, and Nick Altmann drilled a shot in off goalie Benjamin Meyers at 7:54 -- two seconds before the power play ended.

Amazingly, Nick Funk slammed in a rebound at 13:03 and the game was tied 3-3. Elk River regained the lead at 4-3 when Reggie Lutz scored at 14:42, sending East into the third period in arrears once again. With 5:16 remaining, Ryan Peterson carried to the net from the right corner. There was no opening, but Peterson threaded the needle with a shot into the upper short-side corner, and it was 4-4.

Overtime raged on, and on. Through the first extra session, and into the second. “I can’t believe what kind of condition East is in,” said Elk River coach Gordie Roberts, the former North Stars defenseman. “We’re in good shape, but as the overtimes went on, we were tired, and they kept coming at us. They have great character, and they kept forechecking hard and backchecking hard.”

At 1:49 of the second overtime, Nathaniel Benson got the puck in the right corner for East. He spun and flung the puck across the slot. Garret Worth, a ninth-grader who has earned his spot on the regular East forward rotation, sense the puck coming and ducked away from a defender for just an instant -- just enough time to get his stick on the puck and deflect it into the left edge of the net.

East, hopelessly out of the game in the first period, stunned the big, fast, strong and talented Elks 5-4. With their 14-10-4 record, the Greyhounds were not among the top five seeded teams. They face St. Thomas Academy (24-4) in the 1 p.m. game of Thursday’s quarterfinals, right after Bemidji (23-3-2) faces Edina (24-1-2). On Thursday night, No.1 seed Lakeville North (28-0) takes on Hill-Murray (21-7), and Eden Prairie (18-9) ends the night by facing a talented Blaine outfit (22-5-1). East has the poorest record in the bunch, but if playing the toughest competition from all over the state can make a team battle-hardened for the playoffs, then don’t count out the Greyhounds.

The Section 7A final was an emotional affair, with Marshall, the private school up on the hill, trying to finally beat Hermantown because this is the final year for Marshall to play Class A, moving up to AA next season. The Hilltoppers were ready and willing, but the Hawks made sure they weren’t able in their showdown.

Marshall came out and jumped to an 8-3 edge in shots in the first period. But from that point on, the Hawks smothered Marshall’s hopeful attackers, while outshooting the Toppers 9-1 for the rest of the first period, and 15-1 in the second period. Ryan Kero scored from the left edge on a power play at 3:15 of the middle session, and Parker Hawk -- c’mon! A kid named Hawk scoring for the Hawks? -- drilled a 30-footer on a rush for a 2-0 lead. Nate Pionk sniped the right edge midway through the third period, and Kero converted a perfect 2-on-1 feed from junior defenseman Wyatt Aamodt to make it 4-0.

Hermantown, which has played in and lost five consecutive Class A final games, opened the tournament on Wednesday as No. 1 seed, with a glittering 25-2-1 record. They were to face Spring Lake Park (16-11-1), making its first state tournament appearance. Top challengers are Breck, Mahtomedi and East Grand Forks. Breck (21-7), which played St. Cloud Apollo (22-4-2). Wednesday opened with powerful Mahtomedi (24-2-2) facing New Ulm (18-8-2), and defending champ East Grand Forks (23-4) battled New Prague (20-8) in the second game of the day.

Semifinals, of course, are Friday, with both state titles determined Saturday. It’ll all unfold on TV, but if you can make it, the real thrill is being there.

Drama Dominates UMD Men and Women

Hope for a strong finish and a playoff run into the NCAA tournament still swirls around the UMD men’s hockey team, as the Bulldogs head into their final regular-season weekend at Western Michigan. The UMD women, meanwhile, suffered through similar nail-biting times last weekend, and will need a minor miracle to come back to playoff life.

You want drama? How about the men battling Nebraska-Omaha for a 1-1 tie on Friday, through overtime, only to lose in a shootout when Duluth East grad Jake Randolph scores a highlight-film shootout goal? Or, how about if the Bulldogs battle the Mavericks again on Saturday, to a 1-1 standoff that makes it through overtime, only to lose when -- you guessed it - Jake Randolph again scores a sensational shootout goal?

Both games 1-1, but Omaha escaped onto their late-night busride home with two extra points for the shootout victories. With only this weekend’s two games left, the scenario couldn’t be tighter. First place North Dakota has 47 points but must go to Miami of Ohio to face the second-place outfit. Third-place Nebraska-Omaha is at home against last-place Colorado College, with the chance to bypass Miami, or fall behind Denver and UMD. Denver, which is one point behind UNO and two ahead of UMD, plays at St. Cloud State. And UMD, fifth and right now out of home ice for the playoffs, is at Western Michigan.

In the battle against UNO, the teams were scoreless through two periods. The third started, and UMD defenseman Carson Soucy scored at 1:32. The crowd was still cheering when, barely a minute later, James Polk scored for a 1-1 tie. Then they returned to the scoreless chess-match. UMD was missing Alex Iafallo, who was ill, but they got top scorer Dominic Toninato back from an injury. In the shootout, Jake Randolph zoomed in and beat goalie Kasimir Kaskisuo with a deft move. Justin Crandall went for UMD but Ryan Massa stopped him. Jake Guentzel tried next for UNO but was stopped, then Andy Welinski missed for UMD. When Austin Ortega did a quick-stop shot to score for UNO, it was over.

In the second game, again the Bulldogs struck first, with Justin Crandall deflecting the puck past Massa at 18:03 of the second period. That stood until 6:51 of the third when Brian O’Rourke scored with a screened shot from the right point for the 1-1 tie. Again, overtime solved nothing. This time, UMD shot first in the shootout, and Toninato zoomed in and scored.

Randolph was first up for UNO, and he set a new standard for shootout goals. He skated in hard at Kaskisuo, made a strong deke and cut to his left, and as the goalie slid over to cover him, Randolph switched hands to grip his stick with his right hand only, and reached all the way across, past Kaskisuo, and tucked in his shot. Justin Crandall was stopped on UMD’s next try, and Jack Guentzel was stopped for UNO. Austin Farley also was stopped as UMD’s third shooter, and Ortega came in hard. Kaskisuo had to be looking for a big deke, but Ortega, who has scored 10 game-winning goals for Omaha against an NCAA record 11, instead fired a shot past the goalie’s glove, and Omaha had won again.

The games go into the record book as ties, but those little shootout points could make the difference in home ice for the playoffs. Omaha, incidentally, is going to be an NCHC power for years to come. On the Mavericks top three lines, the nine forwards include six freshmen and three sophomores, with two more freshmen and two more sophomores among their six defensemen. Coach Dean Blais is set, and the youth movement might pay off this playoff year.

Shannon Miller Exit

The UMD women faced the extra pressure of playing a best-of-three series against Bemidji State, knowing a victory would put them into this week’s league playoff semifinals, but that a loss could knock them down and out of both the WCHA and the NCAA tournament field.

Faced with as many distractions as incentives, the Bulldogs were stung by Whitney Wivoda’s rebound goal with 1:14 left in the first period, and it became 2-0 when Stephanie Anderson scored at 6:16 of the second. Brienna Gillanders got a goal back for UMD before the second period ended, but Anderson scored again midway through the third period. UMD rallied through the closing minutes, and got a goal from Zoe Hickel, but Bemidji State held on for a 3-2 victory.

In Saturday afternoon’s second game, Ashley Brykaliuk scored at 7:31 of the third period to break a scoreless tie. And at the end, when the Beavers pulled goalie Brittni Mowat, Brykaliuk broke in all alone in the closing seconds, and was pulled down by Lauren Miller. It would have been a penalty shot, but in the final two minutes of a game, if a fould prevents an empty-net goal, a goal is awarded. So it ended 2-0 and Brykaliuk got both goals.

That set the stage for Sunday afternoon’s big showdown. Once again, the teams battled through two scoreless periods. Much like the two men’s games, the teams dueled through the third. Defenseman Brigette Lacquette got loose on the right side, cut back across the crease and scored at 4:42. It seemed that despite their shaky start to the weekend, the Bulldogs were going to advance, after all.
In the last minute, Jim Scanlan pulled Mowat for a sixth attacker. With 34 seconds remaining, Hanna Moher lunged for a blocked shot and scored on Kayla Black, ruining her shutout bid and tying the game 1-1. UMD had several great chances in overtime, but after 12:08, a turnover gave the Beavers a 3-on-2 rush. Stephanie Anderson passed to Kaitlyn Tougas, on right wing, and Tougas scored.

The goal and the victory by Bemidji State dropped UMD just beyond the eight teams that qualify for the NCAA tournament. At this point, the minor miracle UMD needs would be for at least a couple of the teams ranked ahead could lose in their league playoffs, and possibly fall lower than UMD.

That seems too far-fetched to even consider. But in this crazy season, where Shannon Miller was notified she and her coaching staff would be dismissed after the season, one final chance to play after seeming to be eliminated would be the ultimate irony.

John Gilbert has been writing sports for over 30 years. Formerly with the Star Tribune and WCCO. He currently hosts a daily radio show on KDAL AM.