Cloquet's Marshall Hayes leaped in celebration after catching a touchdown pass from Alec Turnbull to conclude the scoring in the 40-36 North Branch victory on Proctor's artificial turf.

Thanksgiving week is here, and all of us who are hockey fans can indeed be thankful that hockey is here and now – with an enormous home-opening series at AMSOIL Arena for the UMD Bulldogs who take on perennial WCHA Women’s favorite Minnesota in a no-fans series that could already have title overtones.

The Bulldogs have a few key victories to go to prove they belong among WCHA contenders, but they opened last weekend with a 5-0, 7-3 sweep at Minnesota State Mankato while the powerful Gophers won 4-0 but were then beaten 2-1 at home by Ohio State to add some mystery to the usual question of whether the league has tightened up or will Minnesota and Wisconsin be the two co-favorites for the championship – as usual.

Emma Soderberg, the junior from Sweden who is coach Maura Crowell’s choice to replace four-year stalwart Maddie Rooney in goal, notched the opening game shutout and then held the fort as the UMD offense did its job, reflecting the sort of balance that the Bulldogs haven’t shown in a decade or so. 

But in Saturday’s second game, UMD scoring star Gabbie Hughes was tackled from behind and thrown down, with the back of her head hitting the ice. She was slow to get up, helped to the dressing room, and we can only hope any concussion protocols can be completed and she can return to her slot centering the first line.

I’m eager to see Soderberg against the Gophers, especially after I mistakenly called her “Sorenson” in last week’s Reader.

The UMD men are getting ready to head for Omaha and the pod-like start to the NCHC season, but for now, the women give us enough of an attraction to provide the proper diversion from college and NFL football, which prove to be a major downer last weekend, and give us the need for a diversion.

With the Vikings and Packers both losing last Sunday, and the Gophers managing to pull out a strange victory against Purdue while Wisconsin proved upstart Northwestern may well be the best team in the Big Ten, we must pause to ask what is happening to officiating at the alleged highest levels of the sport.

I mean, I walked the sidelines at Proctor and watched a fantastic shootout between North Branch and Cloquet for a Section 7AAAA semifinal, and then another impressive show when Greenway/Nashwauk-Keewatin crunched Two Harbors in the second semifinal – and the season finale for all concerned – there wasn’t a questionable call in either game, compared to the great job done on the high school games.

North Branch's Ashton Labelle was gone on a 41-yard run for his second touchdown against Cloquet.

To briefly recap, North Branch defeated Cloquet 40-36 in an amazing offensive show. North Branch kept taking leads only to have Cloquet catch up. And neither side had a kicker that we know of, because both went for two-point conversions after all 11 touchdowns.

That was the difference in the game, because North Branch’s Ashton Labelle scored two touchdowns on 16 carries for 178 yards, and, just as important, he barreled in for all seven conversions giving him 26 points for the afternoon.

Cloquet matched up well until the sixth Lumberjacks touchdown, when Reese Sheldon scored with a 13-yard pass from Alec Turnbull, but a pass for the conversion missed, and the Jacks were left behind, 32-30. Having come back from 24-8 to tie the game on the first of two touchdowns by both Marshall Hayes and Sheldon, no lead looked safe.

Andrew Theunwald, who scored the Vikings’ first touchdown, also scored the final one to make it 38-30, and when Labelle did his thing on the conversion, it was 40-36. But Cloquet came back again, with Alex Turnbull connecting with Hayes for the final touchdown, and while the conversion failed, the Lumberjacks got one more crack at it, but a final series went unfulfilled and North Branch escaped with the 40-36 triumph.

It was a perfect finale, because both teams got caught up in a slugfest, matching touchdowns and conversions.

Cloquet's comeback was sparked by Reese Sheldon, who caught this pass from Alec Turnbull (13) and went in for a 13-yard touchdown.

Consider that Turnbull was 12-20 for 140 yards and the two touchdowns, while North Branch never attempted a pass. Someone on the sideline wondered if the Vikings had any kind of a passing game, and I ventured that they may well have, but they decide to wait until they needed it – and they never did.

Greenway/Nashwauk-Keetwatin had revenge in mind when they took on a classy Two Harbors outfit that had beaten the Titans in Coleraine during the abbreviated regular season. They gained it, without question. They led 8-0 after a quarter on a pass from Aldan Rajala to Geige Waldvogel, and then they sent a 1-2 punch at the Agates with Ty Donahue carrying 24 times for 159 yards and Dacoda Thoennes following up the body blows with three haymakers – consecutive touchdown runs of 3 and 16 yards to make it 22-0 by halftime, and then a third straight touchdown run of 12 yards to make it 28-0 early in the third quarter. It grew to 34-0 by the end of three quarters.

The Agates were clearly shocked out of their game plan and had their motivation scattered all over the chilled but snow-free turf at Proctor’s field. But to their credit, they battled back and never quit fighting, and it resulted in two hard-working touchdowns, on Sebastian Brak’s 13-yard run, and Matson Grand’s 11-yard run. That didn’t change the outcome, but losing 34-13 was a lot easier to take than 34-0.

When I got home Friday night, there was still time to catch up on the Gophers game against Purdue. Minnesota was leading 34-31 and had 6 minutes remaining with a third and 2 on their own 31. The Boilermakers stuffed them. Made it fourth down and 1, and PJ Fleck decided to go for it.

Now, I tend to give accolades whenever a coach makes a bold move like that, but in this case, I couldn’t believe it. Any kind of a punt would at least put Purdue back in its own end and not hand them a juicy chance to win the game.

Purdue’s defense stuffed the Gophers again, and the Boilermakers took over on downs. In a remarkable stroke of good luck, the Gophers stopped Purdue, and an attempt at a tying field goal sailed just wide right.

There followed a questionable call on an interception that was changed to an incompletion, and as the final minute ticked away, backup quarterback Jack Plummer – who was 35-42 for 367 yards and three touchdowns for the day – sent tight end Payne Durham up the right side for the end zone. He had a step on the last defensive back, and as the two crossed the 5 yard line, the Gopher DB pawed at Durham’s right arm, and he swept the contact away for an instant, and continued running. By then he was two steps ahead, and easily caught Plummer’s perfect pass for what surely would be the winning touchdown for Purdue.

That’s when the flag fluttered to the turf. My first thought was it was a weak call, but pass interference on the beaten Gopher defender would be meaningless. Instead, the ref called Payne Durham for offensive pass interference.

In a game decided by 2-point conversions, Cloquet's Jack Sorenson plunged to tie North Branch 24-24 in the wild 7AAAA playoff.

Replays confirmed what I had seen live, but the ruling nullified the touchdown, and when Plummer’s final pass was intercepted, Minnesota had its 34-31 victory.

There is no way that ruling can go unchallenged by the Big Ten, who could send the official, who was right on top of the play, back to call high school games, because high school games are better officiated than that.

On Sunday, the Vikings and Dallas played one of the more entertaining contests of the season, and the Vikings showed up in new, all-purple uniforms with the dark purple jerseys accented by bright yellow numbers. Nice touch for the home fans, had there been any.

Kirk Cousins had an amazingly good game, going 22-30 for 314 yards and three touchdowns without an interception. Mostly he threw to Aam Thielen, who caught eight passes for 123 yards and two touchdowns, including a going-away leaping one-handed grab as he fell to the turf at the end line.
Cousins later threw a 39-yard missile caught by Justin Jefferson, the precocious rookie who made an equally superb catch to finally lift the Vikings to the lead, at 28-24.

That meant the Cowboys, who were getting the maximum from backup quarterback Andy Dalton, in place of the injured Day Prescott, would have to have a touchdown in the final two minutes to reclaim the lead. Amazingly, Dalton pulled it off, directing a 66-yard drive. Dalton connected with Amari Cooper on a fourth-and-8 to gain a first down at the 19, and when it got to be fourth and goal at the 2, the Cowboys ran a slick play, with Dalton Schultz lined up at right side tight end, and while everything indicated the play was going right, Schultz trotted to the left side and Dalton hit him with a pass with no Viking defender within 10 yards of him.

Dacoda Thoemes crossed the goal line for his third touchdown to lead Greenway/Nashwauk-Keewatin to a 34-13 playoff victory.

The extra point made the final 31-28, snapped a Vikings winning streak, and raised Dallas to a contending spot in the mediocre Eastern Conference.

Still, among the Cowboys highlights was a Dalton pass into the left edge of the end zone that Dallas rookie CeeDee Lamb, heavily covered by Viking cornerback Jeff Gladney, leaped high, then shifted to his right by doing an airborne barrel roll and catching the ball left-handed. I love the Thielen catch giving him the first two Vikings touchdowns, but CeeDee Lamb’s catch is my nomination for the catch of the year.

The ultimate embarrassment came when Kris Boyd lined up wide right for the Vikings to run downfield on punt coverage, but the play was a fake punt, and Boyd raced up the right sideline and caught a pass for a key first down. Then the flag came out: Illegal motion on the Vikings, and sure enough, the replay showed Boyd jumping around in excitement at seeing he was in the clear. You can’t do that when you’re supposed to be set.

Green Bay, meanwhile, led Indianapolis 28-14 at halftime, but gave up 21 points in the third quarter, and it took a Mason Crosby field goal with 0:07 left to tie it and force overtime. The Packers received to start overtime, when both sides get a chance with the ball, unless the first team can march all the way down the field for a touchdown.

But the Colts – who had been called for several holding penalties, some of them legit, late in the game – forced a Packer fumble and marched themselves within range for a 29-yard game-winning field goal. Can’t really blame that one on the refs. They were up to high school standards in that one.