The drive in to school this morning was a little sketchy. Another round of incessant snow fell from the skies, making yet another school commute a white knuckler. It's March 1st. Hardy Minnesotans are outwardly begging for reprieve. We're ready for Spring. All the signs are there... the Warroad girls hockey team has been crowned State Champs; the sun rises earlier and sets even later; Michele has returned from her annual Mexican check in and check out and although the lakes are still covered in multiple feet of ice, it's time to renew our fishing licenses. All signs point to Spring... Muskie Expo, turkey talk, boys State tourney followed by baseball...it's all on the horizon...if only we could see it - through this Incessant SNOW!!
Two weeks ago the Pine City Dragons went down swinging in the second round of section playoffs against the heavily favored Monticello Moose. For three periods, Dragon Sophomore, Aaron Rootkie stood on his head turning away 38 shots on net. All the scoring took place in the second period. Freshman, McCall Leger, sniped our lone goal at the 3:48 minute mark on a dime from #10, Logan Kirby... the team played well - underclassmen carried a heavy load. When the final horn sounded, the scoreboard read 2-1. Thus bringing Logan's sophomore season of hockey to a close.
When football wrapped last Fall, we quickly changed gears and readied our family for the welcomed leap from youth to high school hockey. Ice Fees, balancing crazy schedules and weekend games would be traded in for coach buses, Varsity & JV squads, grade checks and booster clubs. To be honest, we didn't quite know where Logan would fit in. There's always been a bit of uncertainty surrounding tryouts and placements. Turns out, he was one of four kids to play in all 27 games this season. As a matter of fact, he was actually a top 4 defenseman on the Varsity from the drop.
Logan is calm with the puck on his stick and equally deft at passing to initiate the breakout. He is a smooth skating, stay at home defenseman. This season he quickly asserted himself as a top penalty killer and got plenty of practice while elders watched from the box. Guys in the association that I've looked up to over the years started to take notice and sought us out to sing Logan's praises. As a 10th grader, Logan was thrown right in to the mix and showed that he could handle the pace and intensity of big boy hockey. He's the kid that hands the puck to the linesman at every stoppage of play. Logan's the teammate that always checks in with his goalie whether things are going good or not so good. He does what the coaches ask of him and shows his appreciation for their time and efforts with a personable handshake at the end of every match.
The Pine City Civic Center was buzzing on that Friday night in December. Coming off a tough road loss to Cambridge-Isanti, the Dragons were looking to right the ship against their conference opponents, the Princeton Tigers. It was the first home game of the year and the crowd was treated to a back and forth affair. Early in the second period Logan showed up on the stat sheet, notching an assist on Blake Painovich's dirty goal that gave the good guys a 3-1 lead. Princeton punched back and scored the next three goals. The game pressed on. As tensions started to rise, 7 different Dragons marched to the Sin Bin. Thankfully the PK held strong but time was running out.
With just a shade over 5 minutes left in the game, Blake delivered a low to high pass catching Logan in stride as he moved left to right in the high slot. Logan bent over to receive the pass, loaded his stick, looked up and fired across the goaltender's body - hitting paydirt, high blocker side.
Tie Game. The crowd went nuts.
I anticipated the Tiger Woods fist pump or the giant group hug to follow but Logan's celly made this a moment I will never forget. Immediately following his first Varsity goal, #10 enthusiastically skated to the glass and emphatically pointed at his old man in the stands! Every ounce of energy and adrenaline shooting out of his body came directly at his mother and I watching proudly along the blueline. It was a made for TV moment that was totally unscripted but perfectly executed. It wasn't long before he was swarmed by his teammates and then ushered off to celebrate with the others waiting on the bench.
The last 5 minutes of regulation went back and forth although the momentum completely favored the Pine City skaters. Luckily, Logan's game tying heroics weren't for naught as two minutes into overtime, Senior Captain, Isaac Jahnz would score a bizarre game winner on what would ironically be his only goal of the year.
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