Granite City. "Flyover" country. Beaver Islands, Lake George, hydroelectric power and a one-time trading outpost along the Mississippi River.
State of Hockey hotbed?
Depends who you ask. But it's tough to deny St. Cloud's rich hockey history -- even if the locals feel it's sometimes overlooked.
St. Cloud's proud hockey history takes center stage Saturday
From frozen lakes to Frozen Fours, home of Hockey Day 2018 boasts rich tradition
By
Phil Ervin / Wild.com
"We're kind of in flyover territory," St. Cloud State men's coach Bob Motzko says, "from a hockey standpoint."
Scan Google Maps from the metropolitan hustle and bustle to the lakes and woods that give the Wild's home its identity, and it's easy to pass over Central Minnesota. St. Cloud is the de facto capital of this region, and while it might lack the scenery of a Bemidji or the legendary clout of communities a stone's throw from the Canadian border, Minnesota's fourth-largest metropolitan area has a pucks tradition of its own that'll take center stage Saturday at the 12th annual
Hockey Day Minnesota
presented by Wells Fargo.
"I think people forget about St. Cloud as a hockey town," said Brian Schoenborn, a partner at Stinson Leonard Street law practice and the chairman of St. Cloud's local Hockey Day organizing committee. "If you think about it, people talk about St. Paul, the western suburbs, the Iron Range, Roseau, Warroad, Moorhead, and so on.
"But hockey here goes back to the 1800s."
Relatively speaking, that's prehistory. There wasn't a single indoor sheet of ice in St. Cloud until 1974; residents relied on their local outdoor rinks -- particularly Lake George, the site of Hockey Day and countless wintry hockey skirmishes dating back to the railroad's arrival and the founding of the city's first granite quarry in 1868.
The revered but often-forgotten St. Cloud Teachers College (later renamed St. Cloud State University) Pedagogues called Lake George its home ice. So formidable was the school's 1933-34 roster, led by a group of ringers from Eveleth, that the University of Minnesota refused to play them that season.
Frank Brimsek played goaltender on that team. He'd go on to spend a decade in the NHL, win a pair of Vezina trophies as the league's top netminder and have his name attached to the annual award that goes to Minnesota's top high school senior goalie.
Later, the school's 1962 club, led by coach Jack Wink, went undefeated.
In 1974, the St. Cloud Municipal Athletic Complex (MAC) was constructed, opening new opportunities for all levels of organized competition via the city's first indoor ice -- including the Huskies. "That changed everything," Schoenborn said.
HOCKEY DAY MINNESOTA 2018 GAMES FOR FRIDAY, JAN. 19
Later on, so did a guy named Herb.
The short-lived but hugely impactful Herb Brooks era at St. Cloud State almost didn't happen. The legendary bench boss and longtime friend and assistant Craig Dahl at first turned down the school's offer to vault its program from NCAA Division III to the Division I ranks. But after president Dr. Brendan McDonald and the administration committed additional funds to the team and its infrastructure, the pair reconsidered.
Dahl remembers standing outside the school's offices and staring Brooks directly in the eye. "I said, 'I think they're willing to do what it takes,'" Dahl -- who took over for Brooks and led St. Cloud to a 338-309-52 record from 1987-2005 -- said from his home in Rochester, New York, where he now works as a regional managing director at Principal Financial Group.
After leading the University of Minnesota to three national titles and the 1980 United States Olympic "Miracle on Ice" team to gold in Lake Placid, Brooks went 25-10-1 in his one season as Huskies head coach in 1986-87. But he's credited with laying the administrative and financial groundwork for St. Cloud State's jump to Division I, which became official the following season.
That spurred along the growth of Division I college pucks throughout the state of Minnesota --
which was Brooks' goal all along
.
The Huskies' pristine, 5,159-seat home arena was renamed the Herb Brooks National Hockey Center in 2013. St. Cloud State played in that year's Frozen Four.
Thirty Huskies have gone on to the NHL, and five have taken part in the Olympics. That list includes current Wild center Matt Cullen and former pros Mark Parrish and Bret Hedican, who will
captain teams
at Friday night's Hockey Day alumni game.
Motzko was a student assistant on that first and only Brooks-led team. Today, he oversees Division I's second-ranked squad and just returned from coaching the United States at the World Junior Championships for the second year in a row.
"We're the 'in-between' part of the state, but we have just as much to show as anybody around Minnesota from a standpoint of developing the game of hockey," said Motzko, who has led St. Cloud to seven NCAA tournament berths. "We're also in that location where you get anywhere quick - you can get to the Twin Cities and to Northern Minnesota within a few hours."
That's led to an advantage in recruiting for both Motzko's group and the Eric Rud-led women's team. The latter has been on a steady climb since Rud took over as head coach in 2014.
HOCKEY DAY MINNESOTA 2018 GAMES FOR SATURDAY, JAN. 20
And Division III pucks is still alive and well in the St. Cloud metro area. The St. John's University program has been to the NCAA tournament six times and won five Minnesota Intercollegiate Athletic Conference titles since 1996.
Success at the collegiate level and increased access to playing surfaces have spurred interest across the local amateur landscape. The St. Cloud Youth Hockey Association currently boasts 450 registered players - and that doesn't include nearby Sartell, Sauk Rapids or River Lakes.
The local prep scene's multiple cooperative sponsorships will be on display at Hockey Day when the St. Cloud IceBreakers (made up of players from St. Cloud Cathedral, Apollo and Tech) square off against the Sartell/Sauk Rapids Storm'N Sabres girls and the St. Cloud boys (Apollo and Tech) take on No. 7 Cathedral.
"It's a tremendous opportunity to showcase the great hockey community that we have in St. Cloud," IceBreakers coach Nick Thibault said. "We won't take any of it for granted. It's evolved into a staple of every hockey season."
Central Minnesota has yet to procure a Minnesota State High School League championship but has produced NHLers in Kurt Sauer, Michael Sauer and, most recently, Vegas Golden Knights defenseman Nate Schmidt.
Saturday, then, will offer a visual representation of the game's special place in this blue-collar locale's cultural fabric. Aside from the scene on Lake George's shores, more than 1,500 youngsters are scheduled to take part in St. Cloud's "Youth Hockey Day" on Sunday.
"Our history is incredible and rich and deep," said Schoenborn, whose law firm works with many hockey-related clients on the sport's business side. "We can't wait to show the rest of the state in what will be an amazing celebration of our community, the sport of hockey and the State of Hockey."
