A Blast from the Past with Frank Krahn & Henry Boucha

Videoscout · Post by **Videoscout** » Tue Mar 16, 2004 2:02 am

The year was 1969. I remember it as if it was yesterday. For its 25th anniversary, the Minnesota State High School Hockey Tournament changed venues. Because the new Civic Center was being constructed alongside of the old Auditorium, the tourney temporarily moved to Bloomington, where it resumed play in the newly constructed Met Center. St. Paul Harding took on Roseau in Game One, with Mike Broten opening the scoring for the Rams at 4:51 of the first period. The teams pounded each other back and forth until Dennis Trooien scored a power-play goal with just 16 seconds to go in the second. At 6:06 of the third, Roseau got what would prove to be the game-winner from a young centerman by the name of John Harris. (Harris, in addition to winning a NCAA hockey championship with the Gophers in 1974, went on to become Minnesota's most prolific amateur golfer, winning several U.S. Amateur titles, including the 'biggie' just before Tiger Woods rattled off three in a row.) Earl Anderson and Dale Smedsmo each added goals later in the third as Roseau cruised to a 4-1 victory. The second game of the afternoon pitted Minneapolis Southwest against a young Warroad Warrior team which was led by a kid named Henry Boucha. While Southwest jumped out to a quick 2-0 lead on a pair of goals from Dixon Shelstad, it was Boucha who led the rally back and ultimately beat Southwest goalie Brad Shelstad for what would prove to be the 4-3 game winner. Mounds View and Edina played the first evening game, with Edina blasting some 40 shots at Mustangs goalie Terry Moores. Five of them found the back of the net for the Hornets, with budding superstar Bobby Krieger getting the first on only a minute into the game. Mark Fretland added a pair of goals, as did his freshman brother Rick Fretland, as Bruce Carlson added another to make the final 5-0. Hornet's keeper Doug Hastings stopped only 14 shots in the shutout. The best was saved for last though when it came to the final quarterfinal contest of the day. That's because South St. Paul and Greenway played a thrilling back and forth game that came right down to the wire. Junior center Paul Hanson put the Packers up first, when he beat Greenway goalie Mike Rantala at 2:15 of the first. Greenway answered back in the second by scoring three straight goals in a span of less than two minutes apart. Mike Antonovich got the first one, followed by Jim Hoey and Tom Peluso. Then, at 1:22 of the third, the Packers Gene Mortel got one, followed by Mike Neska's just five minutes later to tie it up. Both teams played a furious final few minutes, but with just 19 seconds left in the game, Packers winger Scott Sandison beat Rantala through the five hole to give his team a dramatic 4-3 come-from-behind win. Region Eight rivals Roseau and Warroad then got together for an all-northern semifinal shoot-out. Henry Boucha put Warroad up 3-1 at 7:01 in the third, only to see Mike Broten tally his second of the game just two minutes later. Roseau pressed hard to get the equalizer in the final minutes, but couldn't get the puck past Warroad tender Jeff Hallett, who's 14 saves were enough for the 3-2 win. The last semi was a blow-out as Edina came out and scored the first six goals of the game against South St. Paul, en route to a 7-1 victory. Bruce Carlson and Bobby Krieger each had three points, while Tim Carlson, Mark Fretland, and Jim Knutson also tallied for Willard Ikola's Hornets. Edina's Doug Hastings registered 25 saves in the win. The stage was now set for one of the most emotionally-charged championship games of all-time, Edina vs. Warroad. The sentimental favorite Warriors were led by Henry Boucha, who had been playing nearly every minute of his team's games up to that point. Edina, on the other hand, was the "cake-eating" team that everybody loved to hate. They were pompous, but they were very good, having come into the game with an impressive 25-1-0 record. The Hornets had outscored their opponents that year by an insane margin of 142-19, while goalie Jim Hastings (Doug?) posted a whopping 13 shutouts. The game got underway with Edina setting the tempo early. Just 22 seconds after the opening face-off, Rick Fretland buried a long-range wrist-shot over Jeff Hallett's outstretched glove. The Warriors cam back to tie it up on a power-play goal at 7:32, when Alan Hangsleben and Kvarnlov set up Leo Marshall out front for the equalizer. But, just two minutes later, Eddie Huerd whacked in a rebound that bounced past Hastings to give Warroad a 2-1 advantage. Threatening to blow the game wide open, John Taylor came down on a three-on-one and let a blast loose that rang the pipe. Edina rallied thanks to a couple of pairs of brothers. First the Carlson brothers, Tim and Bruce, hooked up to tie the game only 47 seconds into the second. Then, Rick Fretland added his second of the game just a minute later, on a nice back-hander from his brother Mark from behind the net to give Edina a 3-2 lead. Then something happened that will forever be remembered in the annals of tournament history. Henry Boucha came down the ice and fired the puck into the Edina net. He followed his own rebound towards the back-boards, and just as he got behind the goal, he got checked head first into the boards by Jimmy Knutson. Boucha went down in a heap and didn't get up. The record crowd stood in shock as Warroad coach Dick Roberts rushed onto the ice to check on his star player. Boucha was eventually helped off the ice from the controversial play and taken to the hospital where it was determined that he had ruptured his eardrum. With their leader now out of the game, Warroad tried to get it together. But, when Edina's Tim McGlynn scored on a 20-footer only minutes later to go up 4-2, things started to look pretty grim. Then, after an inspirational pep-talk from their coach, the courageous Warriors came back behind a pair of Frank Krahn goals to tie it back up in the second. The first came on a 20-foot blast from Bobby Storey, while the second came on an Al Hangsleben shot that Krahn tipped-in at 10:41. The third period was fast and furious, but both keepers kept their teams in it to force a sudden-death overtime. The Warriors got the early break, but couldn't capitalize. Then Edina took over, as defenseman Skip Thomas fired a prayer of a slapshot through traffic that somehow found the back of the Warroad goal just over two minutes into the extra session. The Hornets had done it. The first suburban high school team ever to win a title, Edina had beaten Warroad 5-4 in overtime, in one of the greatest title matches in tournament history. <img src=http://www.ezboard.com/intl/aenglish/im ... s/pimp.gif ALT=":hat"> Thanks for the research provided by Ross Bernstein, who authored the book Frozen Memories. <img src="http://images.amazon.com/images/P/09317 ... ZZZZZZ.jpg" style="border:0;"/>

joe lulic · Post by **joe lulic** » Tue Mar 16, 2004 9:09 am

Hey VS, I think the scoring on the game winner in the SSP vs Coleraine - Greenway game in the quarterfinals is wrong. Is that straight out of the book?

Videoscout · Post by **Videoscout** » Tue Mar 16, 2004 10:54 am

Yes it is Joe. Say it ain't so Joe. Don't tell me Ross got it wrong. You were at the game I take it? <img src=http://www.ezboard.com/intl/aenglish/im ... s/pimp.gif ALT=":hat"> - "Earth bears no balsam for mistakes; Men crown the knave, and scourge the tool That did his will: but thou, O Lord, Be merciful to me, a fool." - E.R. Sill, The Fool's Prayer

joe lulic · Post by **joe lulic** » Tue Mar 16, 2004 11:10 am

I was there. It was my senior year and I remember Ken Madden got the goal. But......it was a long time ago and a few brain cells have been lost in the process. I am going to check it out..... to be continued.

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A Blast from the Past with Frank Krahn & Henry Boucha

A Blast from the Past with Frank Krahn & Henry Boucha

Re: A Blast from the Past with Frank Krahn & Henry Bouch

Frozen Memories (literally)

Re: Frozen Memories (literally)