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When Marshall stunned Duluth East 4-0 in a long-awaited high school hockey match the week before Christmas, it was a monumental achievement for the Hilltoppers. In fact, you could make the case that it was the biggest victory in Marshall’s hockey history.
True, there have been major victories here and there, but this game had been brewing for  years. Make that decades.
In the middle of the 1966-67 season, the landscape was entirely different in Minnesota hockey. The North Stars hadn’t started yet. Met Center hadn’t been built in Bloomington, but the Duluth Arena had been built and christened properly by Keith (Huffer) Christiansen and the UMD Bulldogs.
But while college hockey was just blossoming as a popular fan entity, high school hockey was ahead of it by a few years. International Falls had won the state championship in 1964, 1965, and 1966, with a powerhouse that went undefeated through two of those seasons. The entire Iron Range was also burgeoning with players. Hibbing, Virginia, Greenway of Coleraine, Eveleth, and Grand Rapids were rising to challenge International Falls.
In Duluth, Duluth East prevailed among the public schools, although Morgan Park, Denfeld and Central had their moments. And then there was Duluth Cathedral. There were no accusations of recruiting, or trying to lure players from the city’s other youth programs. Most of the kids, such as the Hoene family, and the Trachsel family, attended Catholic grade schools, and quite naturally migrated to Cathedral.
A real estate salesman from Canada named Del Genereau coached the Hilltoppers, whose “hill” was Fourth Street. Genereau was a brilliant coach, commanding total respect and always providing strong evidence for how his style would succeed. The group of players at Cathedral in 1966-67 were unexcelled. The first line was centered by Phil Hoene,   a senior, the second line was centered by his brother, Kevin Hoene, a junior. The third line was centered by a quick, wiry little freshman named Mike Randolph. Skilled players were everywhere on the roster, with sophomore Pokey Trachsel on defense, his senior brother, Larry, flanking Phil Hoene on one side, and a slick junior named Tom Paul on Kevin Hoene’s wing.
When they scored, it was generally while arranging a triangle around the visiting goal and then tic-tac-toeing a series of one-touch passes until somebody had a tap-in.
East, coached by Glenn Rolle, had its usual supply of talent, led by senior center Bruce Jordet, Jim Maertz on defense and possibly a brother or two also in the lineup, and a goaltender named Dennis Erickson who would lead the University of Minnesota to the NCAA tournament championship game under Glen Sonmor in the spring of 1971.
But every team had exciting, skilled players, and people turned out to watch them. The Duluth Arena was barely one year old, but the timing was perfect for a showdown between East and Cathedral. Both were potent, and it was a regularly scheduled Wednesday night game. KDAL Channel 3 decided to televise the game, live. The Duluth Arena -- later known as the DECC – was new enough that nobody had ever even considered what might happen if a huge crowd showed up sometime.
That night, 6,122 fans crammed their way into the place, which had a capacity of 5,700 at best. People sat in the aisles, and crowded every imaginable vantage point. The huge crowd startled the fire marshall, and rules were swiftly put in place to restrict future crowds, meaning that 6,122 stood for a long time.
When it was game time, Randolph recalled:  “Both teams came on the ice at the same time. I was a freshman, and I’d never seen anything like it. The atmosphere was electric.”
So was the game. East had the upper hand for much of the first period, and built a 4-2 lead by midway through the second. Then, Phil Hoene scored a goal for the Hilltoppers. On the ensuing faceoff, the puck dropped, Phil Hoene poked it ahead and split the defense – zooming in alone to score again, with only 0:07 having ticked off the clock. After the next faceoff, Phil Hoene got in after the puck and retrieved it, then scored again, 20 seconds after his second goal.
Three goals – a pure hat trick – in 27 seconds. I know it’s been done quicker, but I’ve never seen it. I know it might have been done at a higher level, but there was no higher level than that game, on that night, in that place. Cathedral went on to win the game 6-4, and the guy in the Duluth News-Tribune nicknamed him “Phantom Phil” Hoene.
Dick Kresal lives in Grand Rapids, but he grew up playing hockey in Duluth’s East End, and he was a winger on East’s big line, with Jordet at center and Keith Gilbertson on the other wing.
“It really was unbelievable that night,” said Kresal. “Wherever you looked, you couldn’t see anything but people. I’m not sure you’ll ever see something like that again. High school hockey was at a peak.”
I asked Kresal if he recalled Phil Hoene’s 27-second hat trick. “You had to bring that up, didn’t you?” he said. “Of course I remember it; it was like the movie, Groundhog Day. He’d score and no matter what we did, he’d score again. We’d change lines, and he scored again – over and over.”
The rivalry between East and Cathedral stayed on the front burner of Duluth high school sports, even though Cathedral, in those days, couldn’t play in the state tournament, relegated along with the other Catholic and private schools to a separate independent tournament. There were years when Cathedral and Hill – later Hill-Murray – proved to be the best two teams in the state by having beaten top public schools, but nobody knew it unless they went up to Aldrich Arena to watch the independent tournament. Blake, Breck, St. Agnes, Rochester Lourdes, Grand Forks Cathedral, St. Paul Academy, and Cretin were other very capable teams excluded from the big tournament.
But exciting as their own tournament was, there was no way it could live up to the incredible drama and explosive excitement of that January night in the Duluth Arena, when Phantom Phil Hoene led Cathedral to victory over East.
In later years, the rivalry continued, but when the two-class system came about, Mike Randolph, the former Cathedral centerman and now long-term coach at East, had to make a decision for the best interests of his team. Cathedral moved up to a new home atop the hill, and was renamed Marshall while retaining the now-more-appropriate nickname Hilltoppers. With all but East, Cloquet and Grand Rapids dropping down from Class AA to Class A, the Greyhounds would play all the Class AA teams in Section 7, for seeding purposes, and he sought the toughest AA opponents, year after year. East continued to play Denfeld, just because of the long-term rivalry, but no longer scheduled Marshall or Hermantown as they rose to prominence in Class A.
A year ago, Marshall made the decision to move up to Class AA. Immediately, that meant East and Marshall would renew their old rivalry. Those who remember the old days couldn’t wait, although East’s status as one of the state’s perennial AA powers made the Greyhounds prohibitive favorites. Especially with Marshall coming in with several players injured, and with only a 1-6 record.  
The game was set for last Wednesday night, at AMSOIL Arena to house what was anticipated as a huge crowd. It was decidedly less than huge. The game was, in a word, stunning. To put it all into proper perspective, Marshall got a first-period goal from Peter Lenz at 5:46, then Lane Krenzen cruised across the slot and scored with a backhander at 11:32 for a 2-0 Topper lead.
Those goals stood up to repeated East rushes and almost constant pressure by the Greyhounds, who outshot Marshall 13-2 in the second period, and 30-17 for the game. When East coach Mike Randolph pulled goalie Kirk Meierhoff for a sixth attacker with 2:30 remaining, Lenz slid a 110-footer into the open net. Down 3-0, Meierhoff stayed on the bench, and Carter Sullivan got a chance from outside the blueline and swatted a shot into the still-open net.
To appreciate how frustrating a night it was for East, the Greyhounds were called for too many men on the ice with 24 seconds to go. A fitting final frustration. But even if you go back and say it was really a 2-0 game, nobody expected the proud Hounds to be defused so totally by the hustling, scrapping Toppers. An intriguing aside to the big night is that East and Marshall could very well have a rematch, along about Section 7AA tournament time.
Randolph doesn’t spend a lot of time dwelling on last week, let alone that classic game scene 48 years ago. “Channel 3 broadcast the game,” Randolph said, “and I’d love to find somebody who has a videotape of it.”

Beware the Seahawks in Dramatic NFL Finish

There was a time when this looked like a write-off of a season for the Seattle Seahawks. And now, I will pick the Seahawks to go all the way and win the Super Bowl. Seattle struggled at the start of the season, then Russell Wilson caught fire at quarterback and has been setting a torrid pace.
Last weekend, Seattle beat Cleveland 30-13, and Wilson threw three touchdown passes and ran for a fourth – making him the first quarterback in history to throw for three TDs with nary an interception in five consecutive games. Amazingly, Wilson has relied on Seattle’s brilliant defense and protective offensive line to overcome the losses of Marshawn Lynch and his top backup. If Lynch comes back healthy, there may be no stopping the Seahawks.
In my ranking of the entire National Football League, and how they’re playing right now, I would pick Seattle (9-5), Carolina (14-0), and Arizona (12-2) as the best three teams. All three are in the NFC, meaning only one of them can make it to the Super Bowl, and to do that, they’d have to beat contenders as strong as the Green Bay Packers (10-4) and Minnesota Vikings (9-5).
The Packers had to struggle before putting away Oakland last weekend, while the Vikings played their best game of the year to thrash Chicago 38-17, and Teddy Bridgewater broke some major ground at quarterback. He was the first Vikings quarterback to throw four touchdown passes and run for a fifth since – get this – 1961, when Fran Tarkenton did it in the first-ever Vikings game. He also was the first Vikings quarterback to throw four touchdown passes since Brett Favre did it in 2010.
Both the Vikings and the Packers could get hot and make a true run at playoff glory. The Vikings should beat the New York Giants this weekend, while the Packers have a major showdown in Arizona and are underdogs against the Cardinals. If the Vikings win and the Packers lose, they come back to face each other in Green Bay the following week, in the season finale. For good measure, after the Cardinals play Green Bay and Seattle plays the St. Louis Rams in Seattle, the Seahawks and Cardinals square off in their season finale.
That could hardly be better scripted for a dramatic finish. On the AFC side, New England (12-2), Cincinnati (11-3), and Denver (10-4) look like the top three, but I would warn those three that they all should watch out for the Pittsburgh Steelers. Big Ben Roethlisberger is healthy, and leading the Steelers back into contention at 9-5. The Steelers just beat Denver and should beat Baltimore this weekend, while the Patriots have a tough game at the New York Jets, and Cincinnati is at Denver next Monday night. But Cam Newton has become the clear front-runner as league MVP after leading Carolina to a 14-0 record so far.
Almost as if to serve warning to the Vikings to not look too far ahead, the Panthers were crushing the Giants 35-7 with five and a half minutes to go in the third quarter last Sunday, and suddenly Eli Manning caught fire and riddled the Carolina defense for four straight touchdowns to tie the game 35-all. With overtime looming, Newton, who had thrown five touchdown passes, calmly led Carolina back  on a closing 49-yard march to secure the winning field goal as time expired. So make a note that Carolina is still undefeated, and that the Giants are not about to go down easily.

Short Celebration

Brendan Flaherty, coach of Marshall’s hockey team, couldn’t think of a bigger victory for his team than last Wednesday’s 4-0 triumph over Duluth East. But he also was aware that such a major victory brings on great expectations – something Duluth East has been fighting with for decades.
In Marshall’s case, the high from beating the Greyhounds was followed by a major clash with Breck, the state’s No. 2 Class A team a week ago, and another team that should make the move up to Class AA. Just as Marshall’s great concerted effort prevented East from scoring, the Hilltoppers themselves were stymied by a quick, aggressive Breck outfit up at Mars-Lakeview Arena.
The Mustangs scored twice in the first and twice in the second, and, for good measure, twice more in the third, outshooting Marshall 37-23 and preventing the Hilltoppers from scoring until Keelan Golat scored in the third period. Mitch Machlitt and Tyler Scott scored two goals apiece for Breck. The Mustangs onslaught knocked out starting goaltender Makaio Goods midway through the game, as the hero of the East shutout was relieved by Cullen Muderack.
Best news for the Hilltoppers Saturday was that Jon Hansen, a cocaptain and a strong, solid defenseman, joined the lineup and played well. He had suffered a knee ligament injury in Marshall’s first scrimmage of the season.