Minnesota Hockey Journal

March 2019

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three years. A 3-2 triple-over- time victory against Duluth East capped the longest cham- pionship game in state tourna- ment history since Edina East beat Grand Rapids in 1978. "I remember right where I was, I was about to get off the ice and I saw Kyle dive and remember just the pure excitement and joy like you wouldn't believe," recalled Minnesota Wild forward Nick Seeler, who was a senior defenseman at the time. "It was a packed house, triple overtime, our section final game was double overtime so we had a little bit of expe- rience in those big overtime games. It was just amazing." First live broadcast of girls state title game: Three years after the inau- gural Girls State High School Tournament (1995) KMSP-TV added the girls tournament to the TV lineup. The champion- ship game did not disappoint, with Apple Valley topping Hibbing Chisholm 1-0 in over- time at Roseville Arena. Lakeville North com- pletes the perfect season: The Lakeville North Panthers became just the 17th team in tournament history to go undefeated from start to postseason finish (31-0), and the first to do so since the 1992-93 Bloomington Jefferson Jaguars. Propelled behind the Poehling broth- ers, Nick, Jack and Ryan, the Panthers beat Duluth East 4-1 in the title game. Richfield upsets Edina and Minnetonka for 1986 title: Behind goalten- der Damian Rhodes, who played four years at Michigan Tech and 309 NHL games, Richfield captured the elu- sive championship with an unprecedented run. Krissy Wendell sets goals and points record: In 2000, Wendell led Park Center to a state banner with a 6-0 victory against Anoka, tallying 12 goals and 16 points—the most ever marked in a single tournament. With the goals, she broke her own scoring record, completing her senior year with 110 goals— still a record to this day. Dave Spehar scores big: You've likely heard the name Dave Spehar come up each March. Spehar propelled the Duluth East Greyhounds to the 1995 AA title in grand fashion, scoring hattricks against powerhous- es of the time Bloomington Jefferson, Edina and Moorhead to clinch the title. Night after night Spehar made hats rain at the Civic Center and cemented his place in Minnesota's high school hockey history finish- ing the 1995 season with 102 points. Note: While he is best known for his hat tricks in '95, Spehar scored a hat trick in five out of six state tourna- ment games, with the Hounds making a second state appear- ance in 1996 (the year Spehar was named Mr. Hockey). His 20 goals and 29 points in the state tournament are second on the all-time record list behind John Mayasich. Apple Valley and Duluth East go the distance: It was 1:39 a.m. on Saturday by the time the 1996 semifinal game between Apple Valley and Duluth East came to an end. An exhausting and record-setting five overtimes spanning 93 minutes and 12 seconds, it's been heralded as one of the greatest state tour- nament games ever played with the Eagles besting the defending state champion Greyhounds, 5-4. "I've been fortunate enough to accomplish a lot of things in my hockey career, but that's still up there in my top three moments," said Erik Westrum, who played four years at the University of Minnesota and played parts of three seasons in the NHL. "The impact it had on so many people, people still telling me where they were when that game hap- pened, it's pretty neat. It was a pretty unbelievable experi- ence that every kid dreams of." Westrum and the Eagles completed the dream with a 3-2 victory over Edina to cap- ture the program's first and only championship title. 19 Photos / Vintage Minnesota Hockey; MHJ archives M A R C H 2 0 1 9 | M H J ON L I N E . C O M Tourney Moments 3 4 5 2 Krissy Wendell Park Center Kyle Rau and Eden Prairie DID WE MISS ONE? TWEET @MNHOCKEYJOURNAL USING #MHJTOURNEYMOMENTS WITH YOUR OWN FAVORITES 1 6 Lakeville North Erik Westrum and Apple Valley

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