Elk River shifted out of 7AA hockey logjam
There will be a new hockey champion in Section 7AA next season. That certainty evolved from the Minnesota State High School League’s decision to move Elk River out of 7AA and into 4AA, its natural geographic location.
“You’re kidding!” said Duluth East coach Mike Randolph, when informed Thursday of the move. “You just made my day. It’s great news. Actually, they don’t belong in 7AA, and Tony Sarsland [Elks coach] knows it and said it over and over.
“In fact, it was unfortunate for Elk River last year, because they were good enough to make it to state but we played what was probably our best game of the season and beat ’em 7-1 in the 7AA final. That gave us the boost to go on and win the state.”
This year, however, East lost to Elk River in the 7AA semifinal, then the Elks went on and beat Hibbing in a spectacular 2-1, triple-overtime final in Hibbing, to make it to the state tournament. It was the first time in tournament history that no team from the actual Section 7 geographic area reached the tournament since it was one class or Class AA.
“In a way, after they beat us, I’d like to have the chance to beat them,” said Hibbing coach Mark DeCenzo. “But that’s just the stubborn side of me.
“Elk River is not a northern team, and I hate to see a representative from the northern region not be from the north. This year it was particularly frustrating, because our sixth seed in 7AA would have been a good representative at the state tournament, but none of our teams made it.”
Randolph agreed. “At our banquet, I said that I thought Section 7AA was deeper than the state tournament this year,” Randolph said.
East, Hibbing, Greenway of Coleraine, Cloquet and Grand Rapids were all left behind when Elk River won the sectional, and Sarsland came right out at the time and said it wasn’t right. “The teams from Duluth and the Iron Range deserve to be in the tournament because they are the reason the tournament has reached the level it’s at,” Sarsland said.
The high school league initially left Elk River in 7AA at its Wednesday meeting, but acted later to move the Elks as an amendment. To assure 7AA has eight Class AA teams, Brainerd was shifted into 7AA. “At least Brainerd is a northern team,” said DeCenzo.
In 4AA, Elk River will become the immediate favorite next season, while playing against natural rivals Anoka, Blaine, Champlin Park, Coon Rapids, Maple Grove, Osseo and Park Center, and the section also includes Armstrong and Cooper from the Robbinsdale school district — two teams that give the section 10 schools, and two teams which would more logically be in Section 6AA, perhaps.
Several years ago, the league moved Elk River into Section 8AA, as its eighth team, and the Elks had some top-five rated teams that ran into powerful Moorhead teams and lost in classic sectional showdowns. Ironically, Section 4AA did not have a strong representative during those years, when Elk River undoubtedly would have been an annual state tournament entry.
Just as ironically, last year, when Moorhead had one of its weakest teams in a decade, Roseau moved up from A to AA, which meant Elk River could be moved back out of Section 8 and into 4AA. But with Duluth Denfeld moving from AA to A, Section 7 was left with seven schools, so the high school league made Elk River the state’s vagabond, and sent them from 8AA to 7AA.
This year, while the Elks were a powerful enough team to be seeded No. 1 in 7AA, the luck of the draw meant they had to play East in Duluth and Hibbing in Hibbing — hardly fair treatment for a top seed.
East will play Elk River next season in a December game at the DECC, but, as Randolph said, the Elks finally and fairly are now back where they belong.
Former brawling puck star turns his life around
The annual Two Harbors Youth Hockey banquet, downstairs at the American Legion Club in Two Harbors last Tuesday night, brought together youngsters from 5 to 15, who played Minimite, Mite, A-Squirt, B-Squirt, Peewee and Bantam. Every hockey association has such post-season get-togethers, to send the kids off with a good feeling for next season.
But this one was different. This one had, as guest speaker, Bill Butters, a former tough, nasty hockey player who battled his way up from White Bear Lake to the University of Minnesota, then to pro hockey with the Minnesota Fighting Saints of the old World Hockey Association, and the Minnesota North Stars.
Butters was legendary, even in high school. One legend was that as captain of the White Bear Lake football team, Butters summoned three teammates, who had been careless about team rules, to join him outside. He lined them up against the wall, told them that if they ran, he’d catch up to them, then he proceeded to punch out each one, one at a time, while the other two waited, terrified. No more violations, and the Bears went undefeated.
Did it really happen, or is it just legend? You could ask Forrest Johnson, the editor of the Up North Newspaper Network’s Lake County Chronicle in Two Harbors, because he was a White Bear Lake freshman when Butters was a senior. Johnson got a chance to play hockey as a sophomore, the year after Butters graduated, and was given Butters’ jersey. Butters came into the locker room once, walked right up to Johnson and told him that he’d better give everything he had, just to live up to the effort that had previously gone into that jersey.
In college, Butters was captain of the Gopher hockey team. In one game against Colorado College at the old Williams Arena, the refs hustled Butters off toward the penalty box after a scrap in the corner. They left him at center ice, though, because another scrap had broken out. Standing there all alone, facing the Colorado College bench, Butters stared as all the CC players were standing on the bench, shouting taunts at him.
The newspaper story said: “Butters sized up the odds. Fifteen to one. Pretty even.” Sure enough, Butters ran full speed on his skates, directly at the CC bench, and hurtled over it onto the bench to take on the entire CC team.
Admittedly not a good fighter, he was definitely willing. Butters brawled his way to the top in pro hockey, relentlessly and without compromise. He paused to engage in assorted bits of bizarre behavior, and he earned a reputation for being pretty crazy. He also encountered the three Carlson Brothers from Virginia, and became best friends with the middle one — Jack Carlson, his teammate with the Fighting Saints and with the North Stars. Unlike the stocky Butters, Carlson was 6-3 and 215 pounds, and became “probably the best fighter who ever played pro hockey,” Butters said.
Jack Carlson was with Butters on Tuesday night at the Two Harbors Legion Club. It was interesting, because the approxmately 100 youthful hockey players weren’t even born when those two last played, although their parents knew their accomplishments well.
After every player had eaten well, and been called up front by their respective coaches, it was time for Butters to speak. He opened by saying Carlson used to jump in to back him up whenever he got in trouble on the ice. Carlson, after hockey, turned to Butters for help to get his life straightened out after his career was over.
“Jack and I have both had some problems in our lives,” Butters said. “My mom and dad divorced when I was 4. My mom went on to get married and divorced six times. I lived in 32 different houses, growing up.”
Sports was an escape for Butters. He loved baseball best, and then football, where he was fullback, linebacker, kicker, and never on the bench. “I loved the game, because I loved running people over, smashing them,” said Butters. “Then a friend said I should try hockey. I enjoyed it, right away, even though I could hardly skate. Forwards would come in, look down at the puck, and I’d blast them off their feet. All the way through high school, I could barely skate, but I could hit, and all of a sudden, the University of Minnesota offered me a scholarship.”
Butters explained how Herb Brooks taught him to skate as freshman coach at Minnesota, but he kept hitting, urged on by the roar of the crowds and the fame. When the time came, he signed a pro contract.
“Jack and I played with Gordie Howe, and in 1980, when Howe was 48 years old, he scored 101 points in the WHA,” Butters said. “I figured I’d play that long, too, but I’m 48 right now. My hockey career ended in 1980, when I was 30.”
Another ex-North Star, Tom Reid, asked Butters to come and coach as a volunteer at a Christian hockey school. “I told him I was the farthest thing from a Christian,” said Butters, “and that I didn’t know anything about God and didn’t want to. But he kept calling, and I finally agreed. I still don’t know why.”
At the camp, Butters found 222 young boys, being coached by various pros. But while Butters thought that cussing and rowdy behavior was simply a part of hockey, he found that nobody swore at the camp, and everybody seemed so straight as they gathered for little prayer sessions. He went to an evening session, and was embarrassed when a singer singled him out for an anticipated exchange of phrases from a song about his faith. “I didn’t know what to say,” recalled Butters. “All these kids were waiting to hear this big, tough hockey player respond to the song, and I didn’t know what to do. For some reason, tears started running down my face.”
A bit shaken, Butters attended another group session, and at the end of it, all the youngsters and Butters were asked to stand and hold hands for random prayers. Butters said he noted how many 11-year-olds there would be before he would be forced to offer a prayer, and he was terrified.
“But then, a calming came over me,” Butters said. “I think it was the Holy Spirit. I started listening to what these 11-year-olds were saying. One prayed that I’d find a job, another that I might find peace…They all were praying for me.”
Butters was moved to tears, and he went home after the camp and had a memorable session with his wife, Debbie. “I confessed everything I had ever done, and told her if she wanted to leave me, I’d understand,” said Butters. “But she stayed, and we just celebrated our 25th anniversary.”
The changeover in Butters’ life is complete. He now blends coaching White Bear Lake High School and speaking for Hockey Ministries. The young players may get wide-eyed at the talk of his rough and tumble antics in hockey, but the change in his life underscores his point.
“I got 244 stitches in my face when I played,” he said. “My nose was broken five times, and I lost five teeth. My shoulder has been operated on two times, and I have trauma-induced epilepsy because of all the blows to the head I’ve taken in hockey, and I have to take medication every day for the rest of my life to control the seizures.
“But the Lord has changed my life. Hockey is a wonderful, beautiful, fun, aggressive game, and you can play it to the fullest. But you don’t have to swear, fight, drink, chase around and do the things I did. That’s the message. Celebrate your hockey season because you had fun, you learned and improved and did some things you didn’t know you could do. And next year, you can do more.
“And thanks to all you parents for your participation in your kid’s life.”
This was not heavy-duty preaching, and it was not some pro jock, posing on television to praise the lord for helping him score a touchdown, or win a game. This was a good and humble man — an exceptional coach — who figures he owes something to his new-found faith as well as to the game he loves, and to youthful players who might follow a different path at a more formative time. After all, it was a group of 11-year-old hockey players who made him realize there was another way to live.
Style change may have led to Woog’s demise
Mike Sertich almost left the hockey coaching job at UMD once, back when the University of Minnesota fired Brad Buetow and sought Sertich as its first choice to replace him 14 years ago. Sertich interviewed for the Gopher job, thought about it long and hard, and then decided to stay at UMD.
He observed the Gophers as a rival coach since Doug Woog got the job he had passed up. With Woog’s dismissal last week, which we are agreeing to call his own decision, he was replaced by Don Lucia of Colorado College.
“You have to be sorry to see one guy leave, whether he chose to or not,” said Sertich. “They needed to right their ship, and they chose a guy that they thought could take the helm.
“I would have to say that I noticed a distinctive style change in the Gophers under Woog a few years ago, about the time they moved into the new Mariucci Arena,” Sertich added. “When they were across the street in the old building, they played a formidible style of regrouping, puck-control, transition hockey. It was really difficult to play against.
“When they moved into the new arena with its bigger ice sheet, which was made to order for that style of play, they were playing a more conservative, ‘locking’ defensive scheme. It was more like what I call ‘Vulcan hockey,’ which is the way the Vulcans used to play when Doug coached them. I thought their program started to fall off after that, because he kept recruiting the high-profile offensive stars, and then made them play that conservative style.”
The media in the Twin Cities, which does such a thorough and in-depth job on baseball, football and basketball, does an incredibly superficial job on hockey. When Woog came under fire the past two years for taking a talented crop of Gopher players and finishing with his two worst records — 17-22, and 15-19-9 — the reporters never investigated the players views of what happened, and simply wrote it off as the players under-achieved, the talent wasn’t there, and that the remedy is to seek players from outside the state, preferably outside the country.
Nobody looked at the big picture, and how it had changed during 14 years of the Woog formerly known as artist. Woog coached a solid and basic style at South St. Paul and with the St. Paul Vulcans. He was a good fundamental coach who could adjust with seat-of-the-pants accuracy to what was happening in the game.
Then, in the 1983-84 season, Woog got the chance to assist Lou Vairo with the U.S. Olympic team. The team didn’t do well, trying to follow Herb Brooks’ Miracle on Ice gang, but where he had scoffed at such stylish tricks before he went, Woog came back flushed with enthusiasm for the style and flair he watched used by the European teams. The Russians, Czechs, Swedes and Finns all would circle back patiently if no play was available, passing the puck and skating figure-8s until something better opened up, instead of simply getting it out of the defensive zone and dumping it into the offensive end for a race to the end boards.
Woog went back to South St. Paul, inserted this system of play, and with minimal talent the Packers rewarded him with a successful, over-achieving season. With that backdrop, Woog was hired at Minnesota. He installed that puck-control, European style, and the Gophers were awesome — fun to watch, entertaining in concept, and tremendously successful in the standings. His first four teams finished second, second, first and first in the WCHA. They won 35 games his first year and 34 each of the next three. Those first four teams all reached the NCAA final four, losing semifinal heart-breakers the first three years, then a memorable 4-3 overtime loss to Harvard in the championship game in 1989 in St. Paul.
They didn’t reach the final four the next three years, but they added to the WCHA hardware with second, second and first-place finishes, winning 28, 30 and 33 games. But that seventh season — the halfway point in Woog’s tenure — a great season had earned Minnesota a bye into that game ended with a thud in an 8-3 blowout at the hands of Lake Superior State in the NCAA quarterfinals.
It was right then, abruptly, that Woog decided on a serious style change. If the swirling, circling, puck-control Gophers were vulnerable against a dump-and-chase, hard-forechecking team without any stylish playmaking, then it was time to change to a similar style, and Woog studied and installed the “left-wing lock” system, and caution replaced the almost always-successful reckless abandon.
For a couple of years, while players who had a year or two, or three, of the earlier puck-control style were still going through toward graduation, the team did OK. But it had slipped a notch.
There is no question that the change to a more junior-hockey style — against opponents who ALL had more junior players than the Gophers — made the chore much more difficult. They never again could rely on surprising or outfoxing foes with style and finesse, and could only hope to win with sheer talent.
After last season’s shocking sixth-place finish and this year’s fifth plac, the record book shows an interesting trend: After only one season under 30 wins in his first seven years, when the Gophers averaged 32.5 victories a season, Woog’s Gophers had only one season with as many as 30 victories in his last seven years, when they averaged just a tick over 23 victories a year.
Meanwhile, Lucia at CC and Dean Blais at North Dakota were implementing flashier puck-control, playmaking styles, and just happened to win the last six WCHA titles. Sertich, also, continued to try to play a creative style, but with varying levels of talent.
“I like the big rink, and the creative, puck-possession, European style,” said Lucia. “We’ve got to recruit the speed and skill to incorporate that style.”
Woog, who appeared on Twin Cities Channel 5 sportscast Sunday night, said he thought Don Lucia was a good coach and had done well at CC. “When I watch Donny’s teams at CC play,” Woog said on the interview, “I see some of the things we used to do in what they do.”
The key words are “used to.”
Spehar, Mills reflect awe at Lucia’s arrival
The weight room at Mariucci Arena was loaded with hockey players, which is surprising, considering it’s April, and next season won’t start until October. Included among those who was working out was Duluth East grad Dave Spehar, which is even more surprising.
“I’ve never seen Spee work out in the spring,” said defenseman Dylan Mills, another former Greyhound, whose presence in the weightroom is much less surprising. “He usually doesn’t do anything hockey-related until August.”
That’s the immediate impact of Don Lucia being hired on Friday to replace Doug Woog as hockey coach at the University of Minnesota. Before attending his own press conference, where he said all the right things about honoring the tradition of the past and building for the future, Lucia met with the returning players for a little meeting.
Spehar, a junior winger who just came off a season that ranged somewhere between frustration and exasperation, was asked for his first impression when Lucia first addressed the players.
“Wow!” said Spehar. “Everyone was in absolute awe of him. He came across as a very classy individual, and it was evident when he walked into the locker room. We all knew immediately we were dealing with a class act.”
Spehar, considered by some to be the best pure goal-scorer in Minnesota high school history, had a good freshman season at Minnesota, a fair sophomore year, and never scored an even-strength goal through his junior year until the WCHA Final Five playoffs, when he scored two goals and one assist in a 5-3 victory over St. Cloud State. The Gophers were then thrashed 6-2 by North Dakota, but Spehar assisted on both goals. They lost 7-4 to Colorado College in the third-place game, and Spehar scored his 13th goal, meaning he led the tournament in scoring with three goals and three assists for six points.
But that strong finish was not the springboard for Spehar’s sudden interest in getting in top shape for his senior season. It was Lucia.
“I don’t know him,” Spehar said. “But I know Toby Petersen and Dan Peters, who played for him at CC, and they all loved him. He has, like, an aura about him. When we played CC, he never would yell, but you knew his players all knew what he expected.”
Mills, who just completed his sophomore season on defense, was equally impressed.
“I was very, very impressed,” Mills said. “He set down some rules right away, about how nobody could miss any classes for any reasons. That’s quite a change. But he gave everyone a clean slate.”
Lucia said he told the players he would not watch videotapes of their play this past season, nor would he ask people for their impressions of other players on the team. He said he didn’t want to be influenced by the past.
“I told them they can be any player they want to be, they’d all start with a clean slate,” said Lucia.
John Mayasich, the legendary Gopher superstar who is in the U.S. Hockey Hall of Fame and who recently retired from KSTP, was on the selection committee, which interviewed two candidates — Lucia and current Gopher assistant Mike Guentzel — for a position that, technically, was never posted in accordance with the usual equal opportunities guidelines.
“When the interview with Donny got done, I told [athletic director] Mark Dienhart that I really didn’t have to be there,” said Mayasich. “What I heard in the interview reflected what I’ve seen on the ice the last few years.”
Lucia was a star defenseman at Grand Rapids, then at the University of Notre Dame. He decided to go into coaching, and assisted at both Alaska-Fairbanks and Alaska-Anchorage before getting his first head coaching job at Fairbanks. When he got the chance to take over the faltering Colorado College team after Brad Buetow was fired, Lucia inherited a team that had finished last, at a time that was too late to recruit, and CC was unanimously picked by the coaches to finish last again. Instead, Lucia led CC to the first of three straight WCHA titles, a feat that had never before been accomplished.
When asked how he did it, Lucia said that the main thing he tried to do was to “put a smile on every kid’s face every day, so they’d want to come to practice every day.”
He said he intends to do the same thing with the Gophers. And even though the first day of practice is still over five months away, if you talk to players like Spehar and Mills, he’s already put a smile on their face and the weightroom on their minds.
“I want to be in the best shape I’ve ever been in, and have the best year I can have,” said Spehar. “I cannot wait to play for him.”
Lucia takes over as new Gopher puck coach
Vowing to make it fun again for the players to come to the rink every day, Don Lucia took over as University of Minnesota hockey coach Friday afternoon in a press conference at Mariucci Arena, after an amazingly speedy three-day rush to replace Doug Woog, who resigned Tuesday afternoon after a 14-year run.
Lucia cleverly dodged the question about whether he would continue to recruit only Minnesota players, bowed to the rich tradition of Gopher hockey, paid tribute to his predecessor, spent more than two hours conducting individual interviews with various radio and television crews after the conference, while his wife, Joyce, waited patiently, and generally charmed the horde of media.
“This is a real honor and privilege,” said Lucia, 40, a native of Grand Rapids, who got a six-year agreement that is estimated at around $125,000 a year. “First, I’d like to congratulate Doug Woog and his staff for 14 excellent years. I hope that 14 years from now I can still be coaching here and have as good a record. When I went to Colorado College six years ago, there were only a few places that I could think of that I’d ever consider moving to. Minnesota is one of them.
“For me, it was a dream come true when I had that phone call from Mark Dienhart. To me, this is the best job in college hockey. You get one shot in life, and this is mine. Hockey is king in Minnesota, and coaching hockey at Minnesota is like coaching football at Notre Dame. I’m going to be very proud to be part of the Minnesota tradition.
“Growing up, I was like any other kid. I wanted to play hockey at Minnesota. I remember driving with my dad down from Grand Rapids to watch the Gophers play football in the afternoon at old Memorial Stadium, and then play hockey at night in the old Mariucci Arena. I remember sitting at home listening to the broadcast when Herb Brooks’ team played that epic playoff game at Michigan State in the mid-70s, and Donnie Madson scored the goal that won the game and put Minnesota into the final four.”
Dienhart, the athletic director, accepted Woog’s decision at 3 p.m. Tuesday, then hustled off with assistants Pat Forciea and Jeff Schemmel to catch a plane to Denver and meet with Lucia, who stayed overnight in Denver so he could meet the trio again Wednesday morning. When they returned to the Twin Cities, a search committee was put together and interviewed only Lucia and current assistant coach Mike Guentzel on Thursday before reaching their decision.
Since the usual protocol demands that such job openings be posted for two weeks, with another two weeks for all interested applicants to respond, Dienhart was asked about the haste in this case.
“It goes fast when the best guy out there says he’s interested,” said Dienhart. “The guy sitting beside me has been my No. 1 choice from the time Doug told me he wouldn’t be back.”
Woog, whose teams had faltered to sub-.500 records the past two seasons, amid complaints of unhappy players and parents, agreed to become a fund-raiser for the same $98,000 salary for the next three years and relinquished the coaching reins. Lucia, while praising Woog’s record, said he anticipated having some of the same objectives as when he went from Alaska-Fairbanks to Colorado College six years ago.
When Lucia went to CC, it was to replace Brad Buetow, after the Tigers had finished dead last and faced some NCAA question marks. It was too late to do any recruiting, and CC was the unanimous choice of the WCHA coaches to finish last again, but Lucia led that team to the WCHA title, and went on to win it the next two seasons as well, becoming the first coach ever to win three consecutive WCHA titles.
“My first year at CC, my objective was to try to get the players to have fun again,” said Lucia. “If you would have said we could finish .500, I would have taken it. I never imagined we could win the title.
“I enjoy what I do, and what I love most about coaching is Monday through Thursday, where you can teach, work with players, and try to make them better. Most people may judge success by wins and losses, but I judge it more by how close you come to reaching your potential.
“I don’t think you can play the game uptight, afraid to make a mistake. If you can put a smile on every kid’s face every day, so they’ll want to come to practice every day, I think we can accomplish a lot.”
While some think the Gophers have enough talent to bounce back immediately under the positive and progressive style of Lucia, some critics blame the recent Gopher demise on a lack of talent because of the history of recruiting strictly Minnesota players. Lucia, who has recruited well from Minnesota and also from Canada and the USHL while at CC, was ready.
“I’m a great believer in the all-Minnesota philosophy,” he said. “Most of our team will be from the state of Minnesota. But if a Paul Kariya calls me and says ‘I want to come to Minnesota,’ I probably would welcome him. It would have to be a special player, a special person. I don’t know if there’ll be many, I don’t know if there’ll be any, but I’m not going to say we’ll recruit only Minnesotans.”
Lucia said his teams will be similar to what he had at Colorado College, where five of his six teams made it to the NCAA tournament, and the sixth was overlooked, drawing enough criticism to cause the NCAA committee to alter its procedure from choosing teams.
“We’ll recruit speed and skill and incorporate a style that will go well on the big rink,” said Lucia. “I like the big rink, and this was my favorite place to bring a team and play. I like a puck-possession style, which you might call a creative, European style.
“The transition will probably be bigger for me than the players. How good will we be next year? I don’t know, but the main objective is to make it so the university, the community, and the whole state can be proud of the team. We want to try to create an environment where this is the place kids will want to come to play college hockey.
“It’s going to take a while for me to develop a good feel for the players. I met with the players, and I told them that I wasn’t going to watch any video tapes. I want them to start fresh, just like I am. It’s a new start, and they can be any player they want to be.”
About the Author
John Gilbert is a lifetime Minnesotan and career journalist, specializing in cars and sports during and since spending 30 years at the Minneapolis Tribune, now the Star Tribune. More recently, he has continued translating the high-tech world of autos and sharing his passionate insights as a freelance writer/photographer/broadcaster. A member of the prestigious North American Car and Truck of the Year jury since 1993. John can be heard Monday-Friday from 9-11am on 610 KDAL(www.kdal610.com) on the "John Gilbert Show," and writes a column in the Duluth Reader.
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