Tag Archives: 2023-2024

Keeping Hope on Ice

This was a hard season of Duluth East hockey to assess, and I deliberately took my time in penning this annual postmortem. Let’s not pretend otherwise: it was a tough year. In a season that began with high hopes after the last one’s rise from the ashes, the Hounds’ 10-16-1 record was not pretty. While the schedule was one of the toughest out there, not all the frustrating results could be chalked up to superior opponents. It was the sort of season that made it very easy to lapse into frustration or resignation that whatever could go wrong probably would, and staying positive took serious effort. 

Nonetheless, there were some regular season achievements: these Hounds opened well, playing very competitive hockey against quality teams like White Bear Lake and Shakopee, and it seemed like they could contend. Those early good results against the state’s best dried up as the season went along, with the possible exception of a surprisingly competitive showing against superpower Minnetonka. They did, however, play reasonably good hockey within the section and secured a 3-seed with some tight wins against many 7AA rivals, to say nothing of some very close calls with their great rival who went on to become a State Tourney semifinalist. A different break in overtime in the first meeting with Grand Rapids or a held 3-0 third period lead in the second and East might have had a bit more swagger come sections. But what-ifs remain just that.  

This team also deserves some credit for not completely going to pieces. They saved perhaps their best game for the playoffs, when they took apart Duluth Denfeld in the quarterfinals. Thanks to Kole Kronstedt’s acrobatics in goal they stuck around with Andover in the section semis, and if they had ever stopped parading to the box, they might have had a few more chances to bust through that Husky defense and make things interesting. (While this season was a far cry from the debacle of 2021-2022, it never seemed like this group was fully in control, either.) As it was, they seemed to find a level, better than the chase pack but not quite in with the contenders in 7AA, to say nothing of the state powers who left them licking wounds ever so often.  

Thank you to our seniors: Jude Edgerton, Oscar Lundell, Garrett Olek, Stratton Maas, Drew Raukar (whose goalie assist may have been the most entertaining moment of the season); Christian Houser, stepping into a role on defense; Luke Rose, working hard defensively every game. Luke Anderson, who helped shore up a defense that needed it. Kole Kronstedt, the goaltender who found a home at East and stole a few games in two years as a starter. Wyatt Peterson, a four-year reliable workhorse; Noah Teng, a sparkplug and a leader; and Thomas Gunderson, a flashy scorer throughout his time at East who now has a chance to build a strong post-high school career. This class was a major contributor to the thrilling season of East hockey in their junior years, and they carried the bulk of the load this season, salvaging some quality results and offering the occasional glimmer of something more. And thank you to these parents, many of whom have become friends over beers at the bar and over late-night road trips across Minnesota, my fellows in celebration and commiseration and making the most of this wild, all-consuming ride. 

This offseason marks an uncertain place for Duluth East hockey, perhaps even more uncertain than after the last coaching change or the weirdness of 2021-2022; in those cases, it was at least clear who would need to step up to be a contender again. There are useful pieces at hand, of course: Caden Cole and Ian Christian could, with enough development, be very productive seniors, and some younger defensemen showed some promise. There are some other interesting parts making their way toward varsity hockey. One hopes the schedule will be right-sized for the current talent level next season, not to avoid all top-end comers, but simply to give the team a fighting chance in most of the games it plays. Confidence is a valuable thing, and it can’t be willed out of nothing. 

Some things need to change. I do not expect the impossible from what is on hand; all I ask is that a team works hard, adapts to its strengths and weaknesses, and shows improvement over the course of a season. It is not fun to observe that most of a team’s best games were its first few of the season. There are kids on this team who clearly need help, to be put in situations where they can succeed instead of thrown to the wolves for failure, again and again. There are others who need some other method of communication to keep them from the same mistakes over and over; as someone who is not in the locker room and does not know what has been tried, I cannot claim to know what those can be, but there have to be other ways. In general, the community around East hockey felt much more frayed, less in it all together, scattered into small clumps here and there instead of the unified force we saw last winter. 

There needs to be accountability at all levels. From players to parents to coaches to the school itself, actions must match words to show there is an institutional belief that this program can return to greatness, and a willingness to work at it since it won’t happen overnight. It begins this offseason, in those little steps that put in the extra effort, lift kids to better development opportunities, build stronger bonds, and show this team comes first even as some explore what comes next. As any parting senior family will tell you, it is gone all too soon. What do we do with this time we have? 

My annual State Tournament essay is available here on Youth Hockey Hub.

Is There More?

A Duluth East hockey season plods along. It has not been one of joy and great excitement like last season or the decade of the 2010s, but it has also lacked the can’t-turn-away chaos and palace intrigue of 2020-2022. A few wins appear when the schedule eases up, but a signature victory remains elusive, a steady string of more-or-less competitive games that nonetheless result in losses, the offense outgunned and the back end unable to hold up against steady assaults from opponents. Losing games is one thing, but I look for signs of progress, signs of young players stepping up or improved chemistry or lower lines coming together to at least keep opponents off the board even if they are not scoring much themselves. And I find myself frustrated, trying to escape resignation that this is just what this team is. 

It’s not that this team lacks assets. Thomas Gunderson, Noah Teng, and Wyatt Peterson are probably the best line on offer in 7AA. Caden Cole at his best is a second line anchor and a real offensive force. The power play has started to show some real potential. The depth, while a far cry from East teams of previous decades, still features some perfectly capable hockey players who have some strengths in certain roles. If East played the same schedule as Duluth Marshall or Duluth Denfeld or Rock Ridge, the narrative would be very different, a 20-win season probably within reach, and I would rather be associated with a program that reaches for more than that, even if it results in more disappointment. In theory a tough schedule should build resilience, give opportunities for growth, cure bad habits and make those subsequent games with lesser opponents feel easier. There are occasional glimmers, encouraging signs of some heart in overtime wins against the second tier of section opponents, a few pretty goals and solid clears, flashes of steady discipline instead of teetering on the edge. But this team has yet to take that next step into serious contention. 

The glaring culprit to date has been the inexperienced defense. With the noble exception of Luke Anderson, so often running about cleaning up others’ messes, shoddy breakouts and blown coverage have been the norm, too many initial saves left lying there, juicy and ripe for the picking. There is promise in some of the youth here, with Landon Pearce and Henrik Spenningsby playing more and more, but the rebuild has proven a monumental task, and there has been no great adjustment to cover for those shortcomings, which does no one’s confidence any good. If a team cannot break out crisply, it will never be able to hold up in a back-and-forth track meet; they are quite fortunate that 7AA doesn’t include any teams like Champlin Park and Coon Rapids, even if those squads aren’t all that different ranking-wise from 7AA’s crowded middle tier. 

The Hounds have certainly been unlucky at times; an early break against White Bear Lake or Shakopee or in one of the two Grand Rapids games and my tone would lighter. A serious injury to Ian Christian saps the depth and robs them of a second real scorer on a depth line. But luck can also be a byproduct of design. At the risk of hurting some feelings, this program simply does not have the depth to run four lines, even with some double-shifting involved. Either it can continue to play 11 forwards and six D and make everyone happy with playing time, or it can shorten the bench down the stretch and aim to win. This doesn’t mean abusing the top line—I remain a loyal adherent to short shifts and quick changes—but it does mean locking everyone into a very clear role and recognizing those roles will not be equal, and holding the top players accountable if they fail to backcheck or repeatedly try to dangle through four defenders. 

It is of course easy to sit in the stands and gripe and hope a team can add up to more than the sum of its parts; doing it is hard, takes real leadership from players and coaches alike. But it is doable. An example isn’t too far off: two games with Grand Rapids have shown the Thunderhawks are hardly on some different talent level from Duluth East. If this team got a third crack at the presumptive top seed in 7AA, I wouldn’t hate the Hounds’ chances. But the boys in orange are clearly building toward something, playing intense, physical hockey, their belief growing as they play off their strengths and start to collect top-10 wins no one would expect from their talent level. Everyone seems to be rowing in the same direction on Grant Clafton’s very tight ship, but at East I just do not sense that total buy-in at all times. 

For all the lumps, this team is in position to be the 3-seed in 7AA. They will face a hungry opponent in the 7AA quarters, likely either Marshall or Denfeld, and they will need to keep their heads about them. After that, there is a window of opportunity in a down year for the section, and it would be a shame to waste it. We’ve already covered Rapids, whom the Hounds led 3-0 in the third period on the road before the roof caved in. Andover, while deep and a proven winner, has hit some road bumps lately, and is hardly invincible. Neither of those teams has game-breaking scorers, and an East team that can just hold up in its own zone would be well-positioned to poach a couple of goals and steal a playoff win or two at Amsoil. Enough pieces of the formula seem to be there. Is the belief necessary to pull it all together there also? 

The Long Road

Good vibes can only carry a team so far. The Duluth East Greyhounds put three rough seasons behind them with a confidence-restoring season in 2022-2023, going on a 19-1-1 run before a section final loss to an elite Andover offense, and there was good reason to think that would carry into the current campaign. Back came Thomas Gunderson, East’s finest pure sniper since Garrett Worth; he and sidekick Noah Teng had strong fall Elite League campaigns. Wyatt Peterson, the four-year varsity rock, rounds out a top line that can score some points; Caden Cole has the raw tools to bust out and be a high school star at some point, and Ian Christian can be a load to contend with. The defense was a total rebuild, yes, but they had a returning transfer in Luke Anderson to help shore things up, and some of the younger additions looked promising in summer action. The goaltending was back, too. This team, if not a top-ten force, was at least a legitimate contender, perhaps a chic pick to emerge from a winnable section.

A lot of that optimism unraveled during a very busy first few weeks of the 2023-2024 season. The Hounds are 2-6, winless against top 25 competition, down an early section game to Grand Rapids, humbled by an elite Wayzata squad. The crowning indignity came in a 6-0 defeat at the hands of Holy Family, a team that is capable but by no means overwhelming in its talent. The margin was bad enough, but the game degenerated into thuggery and post-whistle slop, and while said slop had plenty of instigation from the victors, in my time watching East hockey it is surpassed in ugliness only by the Duluth Denfeld debacle two seasons ago. I was left wondering where the swagger had gone, where the leadership might come from, and if there were any buttons to press that might invite a different outcome.

There are not many ways to sugarcoat a 2-6 start, but I will, at least, offer some cause for calm. Two of the losses were bad, but four were one-goal losses (one with an empty-netter) to top 15 teams, each one of them winnable if they had held a lead or finished on late opportunities. Their talent at forward is still arguably the best in the section, and Kole Kronstedt has shown he has the skills to carry a team in goal. Perhaps most reassuringly, there is very recent precedent for this situation: last season’s 18-6-1 season was only one win better than this team after eight games, sitting at 3-5 before a win over Andover spawned the memorable run.

Those same Andover Huskies await the Hounds in their next game after an ammonia leak at the Centennial Sports Arena postponed East’s visit to Circle Pines this week. (After this aggressive early schedule of road games, I am not sad to see a week off to regroup.) Andover is not the same team it was a section ago either, with its exceptional top line now a happy memory and a sub-.500 record of its own, albeit against first rate competition. The Huskies may not be a front-line superpower this season, but with their program depth and a collection of solid talents, they are the frontrunner in this section until someone beats them. East has the chance to prove it can do that next Tuesday.

Beyond that, 7AA is weak at the top, full of the intrigue built by balance. Grand Rapids is not going to overpower anyone with its offense, but between a few solid defensemen and its embarrassment of riches in goal, the Thunderhawks will be a nasty out. Rock Ridge is starting to emerge as a sleeper in its first 7AA season, with a deep core returning from a team that pushed Hermantown hard in the 7A final a season ago. The Wolverines haven’t been seriously tested yet, but the combined forces of Virginia, Mountain Iron, Buhl, Eveleth, Gilbert, Biwabik, Aurora, and Hoyt Lakes have some momentum as they build their program, at once the state’s youngest and oldest. Forest Lake lacks the talent of the top four here, but beat Rapids in spite of that, and looked plenty pesky in losses to other quality teams like East and White Bear Lake. And even Duluth Marshall, bolstered by a strong sophomore core, may now be on the upswing into relevance again.

What might move the needle for this East team? Consistent play and steady breakouts on the back end headline my list. But I am also looking for better chemistry out of the top two forward lines, a feature that appears in flashes but has yet to find the comfort zone that Gunderson and Peterson had with Cole Christian a season ago. Coolness under pressure is also part of the equation, and the ability to keep things from snowballing after the bad goals and sloppy periods that will inevitably happen this season. Last winter’s well-earned praise guarantees nothing, but it is a roadmap, and it is up to these players to step up and follow it.