Celebrate Minnesota’s hockey lifers while we still have them

You don’t always get what you want in assignments as a newspaper reporter, particularly when you have been at it for 58½ years, such as moi.

There was this change in strategy at the St. Paul Pioneer Press in January 1985 with a decision not to cover that Super Bowl. That event was to be headquartered in San Francisco (and played at Stanford Stadium) for the first time.

Which led to this setup:

Called into the office by the boss, told the next assignment would take me to a city on a hill, with a famous bridge and next to a huge and glorious body of water, leading to a vision of an expenses-paid week feasting in San Francisco, and it in actuality being a weekend in Duluth to help cover a Gophers-Bulldogs hockey series.

Turns out, I got the best of the switcheroo:

Not only did you have both the Chinese Lantern and Sammy’s Pizza going strong in Duluth — Gophers-UMD was outstanding, and the Super Bowl was a 38-16 clunker in favor of the home-area 49ers over the Dolphins.

Mike Sertich was in his third season as coach of the Bulldogs. In Season 2, UMD had lost in four overtimes to Bowling Green in the 1984 national title game. Bulldogs defenseman Tom Kurvers won the Hobey Baker Award as college hockey’s top player.

In mid-January 1985, forward Bill Watson was on his way to winning the Hobey, Brett Hull had arrived as a freshman and the Bulldogs and Brad Buetow’s Gophers were dueling for first place in the eight-team WCHA.

On Friday night, the Gophers had a pair of two-goal leads, then settled for a 6-6 tie as Hull scored twice in the third period.

“It was extremely frustrating to let something slip away like that,” Buetow said postgame. “I don’t feel good about it, but it’s over now and we’ll just have to move ahead.”

The next night, the Bulldogs scored four goals in the first 7½ minutes, led 6-0, and they were the team holding on — 8-6 to move into first place in the WCHA by a point over the Gophers.

UMD would pull away for the title. The Bulldogs also would win a two-game, total-goal series for the WCHA playoff title in Duluth. The Gophers won 6-4 in the opener and lost 6-2 (10-8 in series) in the second.

The NCAA tournament was eight teams: a two-game total series in the first round, then a final four. The Bulldogs dispatched Harvard. The Gophers won 7-5 at Boston College in Game 1, then lost 4-1 (9-8 BC in total goals).

In the semifinals, UMD lost a three-overtime semifinal to No. 1-rated RPI.

Buetow was fired in April. Athletic director Paul Giel tried to hire Sertich. He turned down the Gophers and said this as he sat next to Bulldogs AD Bruce McLeod at a news conference:

“In the end it comes down to how you feel about who you are. I am a Bulldog, I went to school here and I coached here and that’s a big thing.”

Sertich’s turndown sent Giel to his second choice: Doug Woog, a former Gophers standout, a successful coach at South St. Paul High, a hockey man to his soul.

And on Thursday, hearing the news that pancreatic cancer had taken Sertich at 77, five years after complications of Parkinson’s disease had taken Woog at 75, nine years after Glen Sonmor died at 86, and 21 years as of Sunday on Herb Brooks dying at 66 in a one-car crash … it got me thinking:

You know what, pal, you’ve always thought this “State of Hockey” stuff was too cute, being a born-and-raised basketball fanatic from Minnesota’s southwest corner, but you do love hockey. OK, you can have NHL playoff triple-overtimes, but the characters, the conversations … hockey is the best.

I drove to the woods outside of Eveleth to talk with Sertich in late January 2023. His friend Dave Zentner, a noted UMD hockey booster, was there. Almost three hours later, I’m heading back, knowing pancreatic cancer was a heavy favorite as always vs. Serty, but mostly smiling at the stories.

And the Wooger? I could hear the story of Doug’s mom, Wanda, marking his arrival at a postgame gathering in Houghton, Mich., by proclaiming, “Wooger, if you don’t do something about that second line, you’re going to get fired,” a dozen more times.

Tom Reid did several years of WCHA broadcasts before the Wild arrived in 2000 and he took over as radio analyst. But the WCHA in the 1980s and ’90s — he’s still a fan.

“That was such a great league,” Reid said. “Those coaches — Wooger, Serty, all those guys. They had Blue Line Club luncheons at noon on Friday, before the start of a series. The room was always full and everyone would take shots at the coaches, including the other coach.

“Can you imagine that today? No chance.”

No Serty. No Wooger, No Herbie. No Sonmor, the all-timer.

We still have Reid, though; and Louie Nanne, the all-time all-timer; and gentleman John Mayasich, and Michelettis and Serratores, an Antonovich, and now a Darwitz and Wendell heading to the Hall …

Hockey lifers. Cherish them.