It’s spring—it’s tournament time!

Hockey, wrestling, March Madness and a host of high school and college sports are bombarding all of us.

Over the weekend, Kasson-Mantorville, Hayfield and Byron wresters took their place on center stage.

Tuesday night the Dodge County Wildcats (a team made up of K-M, Byron, Dover-Eyota, Hayfield, Pine Island and Triton schools) took to the ice against the Hermantown Hawks in a match up of hockey juggernauts. (See story on page B1.)

However, over the weekend college hockey fans were on the edge of their collective seats as they watch three Minnesota universities make to the Frozen Four. Two-time defending NCAA champions University of Minnesota-Duluth (going for a three-peat), St. Cloud State University and Minnesota State University-Mankato will be in Pittsburgh to represent the state of hockey in the FROZEN FOUR!

Saturday evening UMD had the University of North Dakota on the ropes in the third period with the score 2-0. However, a tenacious North Dakota team tied the game in the waning minutes of the period and sent the game into overtime. Not one and done overtime, not two, not three, but five overtimes. It lasted until the wee hours of Sunday morning. It was, in fact, the longest game in NCAA history – five overtime periods, before UMD freshman winger Lucke Mylymok put puck in the net giving the Bulldogs for a 3-2 win.

This is the Dogs’ fourth consecutive season to appear in the Frozen Four, with a record of 2-1 going into the 2021 playoffs.

Mistakenly, I had turned the channel to watch the University of Minnesota versus Minnesota State because I though the Bulldogs had put it away in the third period with a goal. However, officials waved off the goal.

During an intermission break, I flipped back to the UMD/UND game and was surprised to see them still on the ice. As the game headed into the second overtime, I decided it was more important to get some sleep than to wait for the game to end. (I made the right choice.)

UMD will face-off against Massachusetts on April 8 at 8 p.m. Minnesota State and St. Cloud will tangle in the days’ matinee contest at 4p.m. in Pittsburgh. The national championship will be decided on April 10 a 6 p.m. on ESPN.

HOCKEY

“A good hockey player plays where the puck is. A great hockey player plays where the puck is going to be.” 

Wayne Gretzky