Five years later, updated ‘Tourney Time’ is worth a second reading

Area programs feature prominently updated book

The stories never get old. They always seem to have a sense of hope woven through them in the last eight decades of the state hockey tournament.

Five years after “Tourney Time: Stories from the Minnesota Boys State Hockey Tournament’ was released, authors David La Vaque and L.R. Nelson return with the revised and updated version of the book.

According to a press release from Minnesota Historical Society Press: “La Vaque and Nelson take readers year by year through the tournament, highlighting the key games, the backstories and the players that made each one shine. Interviews with players, coaches and fans bring firsthand perspectives and insights to the game and tournaments while in-depth statistics reveal the numbers behind the memories.”

In addition to reflecting on those last five state tournaments, they included sidebars to add color and character to each season. It includes a piece on Virginia advancing to its first-ever state tourney in 2005 after playing in the shadows of longtime Iron Range rivals like Eveleth for so many decades. Now, the two rivals combined forces to form Rock Ridge.

The update began in 2020 when Hill-Murray defeated Eden Prairie 4-1 in Class AA and Mahtomedi captured its first Class A crown in a 3-2 overtime win against Hermantown. La Vaque said the decision on which story angle to explore came down to Mahtomedi’s first feature or Hill-Murray’s fourth section.

The Zephyrs were 0-for-5 in title games until the dramatic goal by senior Colin Hagstrom, who was the program’s scoring leader as a junior with 20 goals. A fractured fibula threatened his senior season, but he returned in time to help his squad lift the state title trophy. Their goaltender, sophomore Ben Dardis, was red-hot stopping 87-of-92 shots during the tournament, for a .946 save percentage.

The 2021 tournament was the culmination of an unprecedented season with the ongoing pandemic limiting attendance from over 110,000 fans to just 8,265 over the four days of games at Xcel Energy Center. Just six days after Hill-Murray beat Eden Prairie 4-1 for the 2021 state title. The high school hockey season started in January instead of the historical time after Thanksgiving.

Eden Prairie beat Lakeville South 2-1 in overtime while new charter school Gentry Academy beat Dodge County 8-1 in Class A. A loaded Eden Prairie team already played an extra session five times over the final 11 games. What’s one more for the state title?

The story goes Mason Langenbrunner, son of Cloquet hockey legend Jamie Langenbrunner, was a vocal leader on the team since transferring in ahead of the 2019-20 season. He answered coach Lee Smith’s challenge, recalling Kyle Rau’s rallying cry before winning the 2011 state title, “We are going home with the [expletive] trophy.”

Smith’s concerns heading into the second overtime against Lakeville South subsided as Langenbrunner said: “Boys, we’re not leaving without the [expletive] trophy.” It was teammate Jackson Blake, son of NHL standout Jason Blake, who scored the winning goal on that March night.

A sidebar in the 2002 recap takes a look at former Holy Angels defenseman Joe Cure who went on to portray Mike Ramsey in the 2004 film “Miracle.” He was on the blue line for Holy Angels’ run to the Class AA state title that season under coach Greg Trebil, a 4-2 win over Hill-Murray. The section about the tournament is titled Angels and Demons for good reason as the subtitle put it “Boo birds serenaded Holy Angels’ All-Stars to the big-school crown.”

Cure, a Bloomington native, was the guy who kept the team together as a leader more than his actions on the skates with a team filled with standouts. Being in the movie left a lasting impression on Cure. “The story of Miracle is truly a love story about 20 young boys coming together and taking on the world ... being a part of Miracle forever changed the way I view the Olympics.”

In November 2011, Cure, who was 31, died in a car accident in Montana when his car hit an icy patch and rolled, according to the book.

Hillen was quoted in the book: “He didn’t wear a [captain’s] letter, but he was great as a leader, a team guy. Boy, that hurt when he died.”

As part of the update, Tourney Time changed a top-10 list to “Best of the Best” because over eight decades of state, tournaments make it tough to reduce to only a handful of memories when some categories easily have a dozen items qualify or sometimes only six to eight items complete the list.

The Greatest Games stretched to 11 with Mahtomedi’s 6-5 win over Warroad for the 2023 Class A state title at No. 11. “For the first time, opponents each tallied a hat trick – Warroad’s Carson Pilgrim and Mahtomedi’s Charlie Drage. There was no quit in these Zephyrs. They trailed by two goals twice and stayed in pursuit. Jonny Grove’s goal in double overtime completed the 6-5 victory.”

A pair of Jaguars made the Championship Game Performances: No. 4 Chris Tucker’s hat trick in 1989 and No. 9 Joe Bianchi’s three second-period goals in a 6-3 win for the 1992 title. Forward Lines reached 11 as Andover’s Gavyn Thoreson, Cooper Conway and Cayden Casey (2022 state title and third place in 2023) settled into a tie with Jefferson’s Nick Checco, Matt Jones, and Tim McDonald top line in 1992-93.

Kennedy’s 1987 state championship top-line of Joe Decker, Jason Miller and Chat Pittelkow made the list at No. 10. The lists offer a fun perspective at the characters, combinations and coaches that color the tournament including a literal list of characters, nicknames, coaches, notable streaks, biggest upsets, big men, small men, a team that never made it, players who never played in the tournament and celebrity sightings (No. 1 is Tom Hanks who caught Edina defeating Jefferson in overtime of a semifinal in 1982).