The editors note: Starting at 7pm on Wednesday and until around 10pm on Friday, 16 Minnesota boys’ hockey teams will win their section tournaments and win seats in state class 2A and 1A tournaments. Here’s where you can keep up with all the action. Go back for updates as the anticipation before the game grows and the results come from all over Minnesota.
Results from sections and schedules | Preparatory hockey center
Thursday, 6 a.m. – Morning titles from Wednesday’s game
“We endured the noise.” Minneapolis will announce for the first time in 28 years
Edina defeated the Red Knights 4-0 in the final of Section 2A
For the first time in history: Prior Lake will become
№ 1 in 1A? Hermantown crushed Denfeld 11-0 for the Section 7A title
Moorhead beat Elk River 8-4 for the fourth straight tournament
Wednesday, noon – preliminary game, class 1A, section 2
Delano’s boys’ hockey coach Gerrit van Bergen does not allow it.
Not at all.
He “1000 percent” wants the Tigers to beat Minneapolis in Wednesday’s Class 1A Division 2 championship game at the St. Louis Recreation Center and qualify for the state tournament for the fifth time in six seasons.
He also knows what is at stake in the Minneapolis program, last presented at the state tournament 28 years ago. And van Bergen understands what it means for a program to succeed after many disappointing endings.
“As a fan, it’s good to see new teams in the tournament,” said van Bergen. “You may be unhappy that it’s not you, but you can appreciate what the other team has achieved.
Recently, van Bergen’s already stable program has been on the brink. Five times in six seasons from 2011-16, Delano lost to Breck in the playoffs. With growing domestic expectations for a talented team to finally break through in 2017, the Tigers killed their enemy in the section championship match and reached their first state tournament.
There are parallels to Minneapolis. The team without a nickname, which attracts players from several of the state’s largest cities in the state, won No. 1 in the playoffs of Section 2. In the last eight seasons, the team has never equalized better than ranked No. 4 and has never won a semifinal match.
Legitimacy came in six days in January, when Minneapolis defeated opponents in the Orono and Delano sections of the road. This newspaper and several local television news stations paid attention.
“Attention is fun,” van Bergen said, recalling the spotlight of his Tigers in 2016-17. And the kids deserved it. They worked to change the history of our program and this created a lot of excitement. But this is where it should stop. The children must be separated. You still have to work hard, improve and play for each other. “
The Delano players in the list for 2016-17 put each other first. No one joined in early to pursue a youth hockey opportunity. Fortunately, van Bergen said, they were rewarded with participation in the state tournament.
Minneapolis, which tolerates a handful of players from youth associations each year choosing private schools, is backed this season by a critical mass of first-hockey players against good kids who play hockey. The team is creating the most impressive season of the decade under coach Joe Djidjic behind the bench.
“I think the kids who play for them see how the university team succeeds and realize that they don’t have to take off or transfer to have experience of what high school hockey can be,” van Bergen said.
When Delano, about 30 miles west of Minneapolis, finally demolished Breck’s private subway school, state tournament observers welcomed the arrival of a new team from a small town.
Meeting Minneapolis in a very important rematch does not mean that Delano becomes the villain. But tigers are no longer the sentimental choice.
“It’s new to us,” said van Bergen, a former Delano player. “I told our children, ‘We’re number two and we’ve already lost to them. In many ways, you’re an outsider. “It’s certainly a little different.”
One of the last scenes in the Donnie Brasco movie about mobsters reveals Al Pacino as the gangster Benjamin “The Left” Ruggiero, who receives a phone call to attend a meeting he knows will end in his death. Lefty has vouched for the protagonist, played by Johnny Depp, an undercover FBI agent.
Before leaving the apartment, Lefty says to his girlfriend: “And listen to me, if Donnie calls …, tell him …, tell him, uh …, if it was someone, I’m glad it was him. “
The scene came to mind when van Bergen said, “If it weren’t for us, it would be great to see Minneapolis leave.”