Roseau, currently fifth in the six team Mariucci Conference, played old school hockey defined by Roseau players playing with each other since mites.  A number of the Rams on the ice Friday were still wearing the same number they had as mites and squirts.  The peewees now in high school beat the Fire by playing strong team hockey.  The Fire missing two of their top scorers, could not find the back of the net.

The Ram defense relentlessly took away center ice in Roseau’s zone, constantly forcing the Fire forwards to the boards or behind the net.  The Roseau forwards were the opportunists, seizing on weaknesses in the Fire defense, and attacking with tremendous pressure.  All three scores came off of moments like that.

Pre-Game

The Fire is a rising team in Minnesota hockey.  In three season’s they have moved from nowhere to the top echelon of Minnesota Hockey beating some of the top teams in the state.  Friday night they were favored to beat Roseau.

Holy Catholic Family players are a team picked and assembled from some the best players in the Twin Cities area.  They started playing together only in high school.  With players in public and private schools moving more than ever today, the Fire approach to hockey is becoming more a norm then ten years ago.

Going into Friday's game the Fire are one victory away (beating Orono) from repeating as Wright County Conference champions this year.  Holy Family will be in the Section 6AA playoffs.  Section 6AA is one of the toughest in the state this year with four teams ranked in the top 15 (Wayzata #4, Eden Prairie #9, Benilde-St. Margaret’s #10, and Holy Family #14) playing Section 6AA this season.  

Roseau got off to a slow start this season, losing three of the first four games (Thief River Falls 3-0, Blaine 8-4, and Grand Rapids 4-3.  Since then, the Rams have gone 10-2-1, but those two losses (6-4 to Warroad and 8-3 to East Grand Forks) hurt.  Class A teams East Grand Forks, Warroad, and Thief River Falls are the top three teams in Section 8A at this point in the season.  They also are the top three teams (in the same order) in the Mariucci Conference that the two top Section 8AA teams, Roseau and Moorhead, play.  Moorhead is currently in fourth and Roseau is fifth.

Last week Roseau tied the Section 8AA defending champions, Moorhead 1-1, but all the power in Northwestern Minnesota this season is in the Class A teams.  Roseau is still top dog in Class AA Section 8AA posting a 5-0-1 record against 8AA foes.  Moorhead and Brainerd are close second.  Before last night, the Section 8AA winner this year seemed destined for a low seed in the state tournament.

The Game

The media was touting a bad snow storm Friday night suggesting everybody stays in and listens or watch the media talk about the bad weather.  There was no doubt the game would be played at Victoria last night.  For one thing, their opponent was Roseau.  The Rams would be there.  No reason to check the postponed games Friday night.  The weather was not a blizzard and, at the end of the game, it had warmed up.  At 10 PM Friday night, it was quite pleasant outside the Victoria Ice Arena.

The Rams had struggled in the five game played in the last two weeks posting a 2-2-1 record with losses to Warroad 6-4 and to East Grand Forks 8-3.  They are 5-0-1 against Section 8AA foes.  Still a loss to the Fire was unlikely to hurt Roseau in the Section 8AA seeding.  The Rams were out to win to improve 8AA seed in the state tourney.

The Fire top scorers this season are John Peterson (41 points/22 goals), Joey Marooney (34 points/12 goals), Ryan Swanson (32 points/26 goals, and Will Garin (26 points/12 goals).  Peterson and Garin did not play last night.  Their goaltending was split between Dayton Rasmussen, a 6’2” ninth grader, and senior Derek LaCombe.  LaCombe started for the Fire last night.

Period One

The first period opened with the Fire pressuring the Rams in the Roseau goal and switched two minutes later to the Rams getting pressure in the Holy Family zone and drawing a penalty.  That set up the power play for the Rams and it took them one minute to score.  On the power play, the Rams worked the puck low left on the Fire goal and put a hard shot on Derek LaCombe’s pads.  The puck rebounded left center to a Ram who one-timed a second shot on LaCombe.  That shot rebounded left again to another Ram.  The third shot was stopped by LaCombe with the puck rebounding right to Alex Halstensgard.  Halstensgard put the puck over a diving LaCombe into the net.  Rams led 1-0.  Zach Yon and Cole Bjudson got the assists.

For the next 10 minutes, the two teams battled.  Two minutes after the Roseau goal, the Rams drew a penalty.  Holy Family set up in the power play and worked the puck well.  They were consistently looking to hit the player in the slot for a one-timer; and consistently the shooter missed getting his stick on the puck.  The Roseau defense by collapsing around the potential shooter kept upsetting the Fire play’s timing.

Roseau drew their second penalty of the period with less than four minutes left to play.  They killed the penalty two minutes later and trapped the Fire defense in the lower right corner of the Holy Family zone just as the penalty expired.  The Fire defense coughed up the puck to Roseau’s Conner Millner.  Millner beat LaCombe with a shot through the lower right crease.  The Rams led 2-0.  Monsrud got the assist.  Holy Family Catholic outshot the Rams 14-12 in the period and still trailed 2-0 after one period.

Period Two

Holy Family drew a hooking penalty one minute into the second period.  Roseau had come out of the locker room storming the Fire net and drew the penalty.  But on the power play, the Ram offense went flat.  For the next six minutes of play, Roseau could not generate any significant offensive threat.  They could not hold on to their passes.  Fortunately for the Rams, the Ram defense continued to frustrate the Fire offense.

Halfway through the period, Roseau’s offense started to roll.  Their offense lit up the ice, passing and moving the puck to create three point blank shots in two minutes, all coming at various angles and all released within two feet of LaCombe.  LaCombe stopped the shots and managed to control each rebound.  The second period wound down with Holy Family Catholic pressuring Roseau in the Ram’s zone.  Neither team scored in the second period.  The Rams still held on to their 2-0 lead.

Period Three

As the end of the first and second periods, the game was tense with both teams on edge and emotionally into the game.  That was gone in the third period.  Roseau drew a slash two minutes into the period.  Goalie Ryan Anderson shut down the Fire’s power play.  For the next five minutes, the Fire tried to get their offense rolling only to be stopped in neutral ice, mostly at the Ram blue line.

The Fire drew a tripping penalty halfway through the third period.  The Rams set up quickly in the Roseau zone and moved the puck to the right and took a shot on LaCombe.  The puck never made to the net, instead bouncing in the high left slot to Monsrud.  Monsrud moved towards the center slot and fired.  The puck deflected off a Holy Family defender in front of the net and slid through the left side for Roseau’s third goal.

The Fire tried to mount a comeback, but their forwards just could not beat the Ram’s defense carrying the puck across the Roseau blue line.  The game ended 3-0.

The Players

The Rams top scorers are Alex Strand (45 points/16 goals) and Zach Yon (45 points/23 goals).  Their starting goalie last night was Ryan Anderson (11-5-1) who has given up an average of 2-2 goals a game while stopping 91% of the shots on net this season.  All three were on the ice at New Hope in March 2009 leading the Roseau Association’s peewee A team to a state title beating Woodbury 6-1 in the championship game after beating Edina 4-3 in overtime in the semifinals.  All three (Anderson-#1, Strand-#9, and Von-#18) wore the same numbers in last night’s game.  Seven other players from that peewee A championship team played last night (Connor Milner, Alex Halstensgard, Isaac Magnusson, Brady Castle, Joe Vatnsdal, Austin Hogenson, and Jack Helgeson).  Most of the seven were wearing the same numbers they wore as peewee champions.

Will Garvin played for the 97 Fire AAA team (note that the 97 Fire were not associated in anyway with Holy Family Catholic) in the 2009-2010 season.  Garvin’s teammates on that 97 Fire team are scattered throughout hockey this year.  The 97 Fire goalie, Evan Roberts, skated two years at Shattuck-St. Mary’s and is now playing for the Wilkes Barre/Scranton Jr. Knights; Andy Carroll now a junior plays defense for Northfield High School; Alex Baer is playing this season for the Vancouver Giants (16 points/7 goals in 39 games) in the Western Hockey League; defenseman Sam Oden is playing on Shattuck’s U16 team this year (19 points/6 goals in 49 games); and Ty Cousineau is a junior defenseman playing for Minnetonka (5 points/2 goals in 19 games).

Holy Family Catholic lost last season’s top scorer, Shane Gersich (Chaska), to the USA Hockey U18 National team.

What’s next?     

In one of the toughest sections in the state this year, Section 6AA, the Fire are in a seeding battle.  Before Friday night’s loss, Holy Family Catholic had a shot at the #2 or #3 seed in the 6AA playoffs.  A #2 or #3 seed means an easier path to the Class AA State Tourney.  Unfortunately, two of the Fire’s top scorers did not suit up for Roseau.  Now the Fire need to beat a hot St. Thomas Academy team ten days from now or fall to the #4 or #5 seed in the 6AA playoffs.  If that happens, the Fire will most likely play Wayzata again at Bloomington or Edina in the 6AA semifinals providing they can beat Minnetonka in a quarterfinal game.

The Fire have posted a 3-1 record against Section 6AA foes losing only to Wayzata, while beating Benilde-St. Margaret’s 7-3, Minnetonka 2-1, and Hopkins 5-1.  Benilde is trying to catch the Holy Family but lost to Eden Prairie earlier this week 6-5 in overtime and loss to the Shattuck Prep team 8-1 Saturday.  The Fire had to beat Roseau to keep on top of Benilde.  

Roseau can still afford to lose.  They beat Holy Angels 5-3 Saturday to conclude a successful road trip this weekend.  They have four tough games left, all against top Class A teams (East Grand Forks twice, Thief River Falls, and Warroad).  The Rams lone Section 8AA game is against Bemidji, a team they have beaten before 8-1.

Friday night’s game between Roseau and Holy Family Catholic matched two teams that poles apart in the hockey world.  The Rams are a traditional hockey power in the state; Holy Family Catholic is a new rising power in hockey.  The Rams players learn their game playing on one three Roseau rinks in the town of approximately 3000; the Fire players learn their game playing on multiple teams in a metropolitan area of 3.2 million people before coming to Holy Family High School. 

In a sense, the two teams reflect a role reversal of the 1980 Olympics.  Then Russia had a team that played together for years.  They used team skills to beat less disciplined teams.  The USA team had a team of disparate players brought together just before the Olympics.  The players tended to use their individual skills to win.  Roseau seniors have played together since leading the Roseau Association’s peewee A team to the state title on 2009 and reflects a style of play similar to the Russians.  Even their jersey numbers are unchanged.  Holy Family Catholic’s team’s style is more freewheeling on the ice reflecting players coming together to play the game.

Neither is wrong and that is what makes Minnesota Hockey great.