In the 2009-2010 season, Faribault’s boys high school team had a great season posting a 20-7 record finishing second in the Big 9.  Since then, the Falcons have gone 43-60-3 and have not made it past the Section 1A quarterfinals.  This season, the Falcons have started to win posting a 13-4-1 record including Tuesday night’s 6-5 overtime win over Rochester Century.  Fairbault is now in second place in the Big 9 three points behind Mankato West with six Big 9 games yet to play including a key game with West in Mankato February 7th.  At YHH, it was interesting to see that Faribault’s boys hockey team was suddenly contending in Section 1A for a high seed.  It was not expected.

In 2009-2010, the Faribault Association’s peewee A team had a good season posting a 24-14-5 record, but could not beat the Bulldogs or Mankato in the District 4 playoffs at Lesueur.  Five players from that peewee A team (Christan VonRuden, Austin Dickey, Tyler Becker, Jack Donkers, and Chase Batchelder) took the ice as seniors for Faribault Tuesday night.  VonRuden was noted as a peewee A player to watch in 2010; he was a goal scorer.  In Tuesday’s game against Century, VonRuden had a hat trick and assisted on two goals.

Mankato won the D4 peewee A playoffs in 2010 and with the Bulldogs and New Prague played in the West Regional at Maple Grove that year.  The Mavericks were beaten by Orono, STMA, and Osseo/Maple Grove.  The Bulldog, Mankato, New Prague, and Faribault peewee players are seniors this year, but this time, in the Section 1A tourney played at Rochester, it maybe a different story.

Last year’s reigning Section 1A champions, New Prague, is still the odds on favorite to advance from Section 1A this year, but the Trojans are struggling playing in their new conference, Wright County.  Mankato West, last year’s Section 1A runner-ups, is leading the Big 9, but has struggled against Section 1A foes.  That leaves the door open for Faribault, but just a crack, for also contending is the Bulldogs (providing the seeding committee does not elevate Rochester Lourdes to a #3 seed as they did last year-Lourdes is having their second straight season playing well under .500 currently 3-13-2).  The Falcons are certainly in line for a top seed (#1, #2, or #3) in 1A this year and with that seed goes a first round bye, a quarterfinal game played on home ice, and a good shot at playing a semifinal game at the Rochester Rec Center.  Once in the semifinals, who knows what will happen?

Certainly the 1A semifinals will look different this year and yet the same.  New Prague and Mankato West are likely to return, but may face two different teams; Faribault and the Bulldogs (or as the Bulldogs are officially called, LSHSTPTCUC).  That will be different, but it is the same four teams that competed for the D4 peewee A title in 2010.  

Period 1-The Falcons fly

Faribault started slow, struggling to beat the Century defense.  The Falcon wings were driven wide on their rushes and often had their pass attempts in neutral ice picked up the Century defense.  Once in possession of the puck, Century skaters would immediately turn the puck and rush the net using their size and strength to turn the corner and attack the Falcons goalie senior Chase Batcheider.  The Panthers scored first off a rush early in the first period to put Century up 1-0.  Rochester held that lead and controlled play in the Falcon’s zone for much of the opening period.  Their defense played three across at the Faribault blue line daring the Falcons on the breakout to make a center ice pass.  The defense would often intercept the pass and immediately attack the Falcon’s net.

Faribault’s wings have speed and the Falcons constantly looked to beat the Century defense carrying the puck wide.  With four minutes left in the opening period, Faribault’s Christan VonRuden beat the Century defenders swinging wide and cutting to the net along the end line from the left.  He sniped a shot that beat Rochester’s goalie on the outside barely catching the upper right corner.  VonRuden had tied the score 1-1.  Two minutes later, VonRuden scored again.  He beat the Century defense on the left side, but instead of going low, took a hard shot from the left faceoff circle beating the Panthers’ goalie again on the right side with the puck going into the upper right corner.  Thirty seconds later, with Faribault leading 2-1, penalties broke loose.

With 70 seconds left in the period, an altercation between a Century player and Faribault player resulted in one player being ejected, two Century penalties (one a five minute major), and a Faribault penalty.  It was not a fight, more verbal after an extended grappling along the boards.  It resulted in a Falcon power play with the face off to the left of Century’s goal.  Ten seconds later, Tyler Becker ended up with the puck off a weak side pass and scored before the Rochester goalie could recover.  Faribault led 3-1 and the teams skated 4-on-4 for the rest of the period.

Period 2-Penalties, penalties, and more penalties

The teams opened the period skating 4-on-4.  For the first minute of play, Century pressured the Faribault net, holding the puck in the Faribault zone and trying to beat Falcons’ goalie Batcheider with longer screened shots.  Century drew a minor penalty just as the Falcons’ penalty ended and found themselves on a 5-on-3 penalty kill.  Faribault’s power play worked the puck well especially with defenseman Koy Payne at the right point, but still couldn't score.  Using three skaters across at the blue line and two camped at either side of the Rochester crease, the Falcons moved the puck quickly looking to get an open shot and if missed they would chase the rebound down and get the puck back to the blue line.  Century kept their three man triangle packed low and blocked the Falcons penalty until Faribaults' Koy Payne snapped a quick shot to score as the first penalty was ending.  Payne one-timed a shot at the Panther net.  The puck deflected twice and ended up going into the right upper corner.  Faribault led 4-1 and seconds later got another break when Century drew another minor.

Century killed the one minute 5-on-3 penalty and attacked the Faribault zone still on the penalty kill.  On the power play, Faribault got defensive.  The Falcons defensive play shifted momentum to Century.  A Panther’s foursome on the penalty kill of forwards Ezra Lentz and Pat Bower and defensemen Ryan Sherden and Riese Zmolek kept the puck inside the Falcon’s zone for the remainder of the penalty kill often attacking the Faribault net.  It resulted in a Falcon charging penalty with 10 minutes to go in the period.  Faribault survived the penalty and immediately drew another penalty followed by a second penalty with eight minutes to go.

It took Century 30 seconds of their power play to score on the second penalty.  That score cut the Falcon’s lead to 4-2.  With seven minutes left in the period, Century drew another set of two penalties and had to kill another 5-on-3.  They did and drew another penalty with five minutes left and killed that penalty.  Faribault had gotten complacent and never took advantage of their power plays.

With both teams back to even strength and just under three minutes left in the period, the Falcons’ defense made a simple mistake and tried to angle a puck off the boards to beat Century's Connor Davies charging down the left boards.  The puck instead rebounded to Davies and he soloed in on the Falcons net beating Batcheider to cut the Falcons lead to 4-3.  Century drew another penalty with 30 seconds left in the period, but after Davies scored, it was “game on”.  

Period 3-Both teams come back

Faribault’s power play remained ineffective in the opening minutes of the third period.  Rochester killed the penalty and then went on the power play when Faribault drew a penalty.  Faribault’s penalty kill was aggressive and that aggressiveness resulted in another Rochester penalty.  Again the Falcon’s power play could not control the puck.  Rochester killed that penalty with eleven minutes left to play.  Ten seconds later, Rochester’s senior defensemen Riese Zmolek rushed the puck into the right faceoff circle and beat Batcheider on a hard shot into the upper right corner to tie the game 4-4.  Faribault drew a penalty two minutes later.

This time Rochester scored the power play goal to take the lead.  The scoring play started when the Faribault penalty kill on the lower left side was trapped along the boards.  Riese Zmolek ended up with the puck in the left faceoff circle low unimpeded.  Zmolek skated to an open spot 15 feet from the net and snipped the puck past Batcheider into the upper left corner to put Century up 5-4.

Century went defensive after getting the lead and over the next six minutes played containment, keeping the puck on Faribault’s half of the ice.  Faribault had not been flying most of the second period and third period.  Trailing 5-4, the Falcon wings started to soar.  With two minutes left in the game and down a goal, Century became more intent on keeping the Falcons’ speed contained at the Century blue line.  And they were succeeding until the Falcon’s VonRuden beat the defense.  VonRuden picked up a rebounding puck on the right side of the Panther goal and quickly backhanded the puck into the open net to tie the game 5-5 and send it into overtime.

In overtime, Faribault managed to get the puck low in the Century zone and pressure the Panthers net halfway through the overtime period.  The puck was jammed and poked at amid players around the Panther net but rebounded eventually to defenseman Koy Payne who had drifted into the slot.  Payne took a quick shot that found its way through a maze of players into the net.  Faribault won 6-5. 

One Note

Christan VonRuden is an athlete.  Playing football last fall, VonRuden led the state in rushing with 1805 yards.  And he plays hockey.  His father, Tom VonRuden, is well liked and involved in Faribault hockey and sports.  A year ago, Tom felt strange at work and drove himself to the Faribault ER and shortly after found himself on the road to the Mayo Clinic.  A week after that day at work when he felt strange, Tom had been diagnosed with a brain tumor and had an operation to have it removed.  Now, after a yearlong treatment that has been hard on the Tom and his family, the prognosis is not good.

The anguish of living with a loved one who is fighting cancer is hard to put into words.  I know, my mother died of cancer when I was in school.  Nothing can explain or describe the pain and hollowness one feels.  The only thing that softens the harshness that the cruel disease imposes is time and family.  At YHH, we go to hockey rinks and watch kids play and try to write stories that reflect the fun of participating.  This past week, we went to two different rinks and found the same story with the same villain, cancer.

In Kasson, we found a number of Dodge County girls who are coping with their grandfathers’ cancer by wearing a ribbon symbolizing the fight against the dreaded decease.  In Faribault, we found the Falcons wearing a green "TV" sticker on their helmets and the motto “Falcons Fly Together” pasted on the wall next to the door leading to the ice.  Like Dodge County, the Falcon’s team is coping with their senior leader’s grief as his father battles the disease.  They cope by banding together behind the concept of Team Faribault.  At the “chuck-a-puck” last Tuesday, about 100 pucks were cast on the ice and the winner was Team Faribault.  YHH bets that all 100 or so pucks would have had the same winner announced, Team Faribault.

Both Team Faribault and the Dodge County team are doing something honorable.  The VonRuden family and the Wildcats’ grandfathers’ families have been touched with a horrible disease and as families do, they rallied together.  Sometimes that is all one can do.  The immediate family members of the VonRuden and Dodge County girls may or may not yet realize the gift that the two teams have given.  It may take sometime for family members to understand how “big” their family has become because of the two teams actions this year.  At YHH, we wish the two teams well in the remainder of their seasons.  To the Dodge County grandfathers, get better, your granddaughters do need an old fogie in their lives.  But most of all YHH wishes Tom, Christan, and the VonRuden family the best.