Evan Wanner received the puck in the neutral zone and raced across the blue line, with the championship on his stick, the junior forward produced a moment of magic that will last a lifetime.

Wanner’s shot whizzed past Minnetonka goaltender Chase Jerdee, and mayhem ensued as he sprinted the length of the ice to the Spuds student section. He ripped off his helmet and hurled it into the crowd, having just secured Moorhead’s second consecutive state title.

The Spuds withstood an offensive onslaught from the Skippers and prevailed in the Class AA state championship Saturday night at Grand Casino Arena.

Moorhead’s offense came into the night scoring 5.83 goals per game. The Spuds needed that production and then some to recover from a three-goal third-period deficit.

Moorhead entered in search of back-to-back Class AA titles after coming up short in all eight of its trips to the championship game before 2025. Minnetonka arrived as winners of eight straight state tournament games, having won the championship in each of its last two appearances: 2018 and 2023.

The Spuds put themselves behind the eight ball because of a Drew Kortan penalty for cross-checking, which took place after the whistle. It resulted in a Skippers’ power play 1:16 into the title game.

Minnetonka capitalized on the early gift on a Danny Browning cross-ice pass to Jordan Johnson, who placed the puck into a wide-open left side of the net.

The Skippers scored a second midway through the first period via Ethan Sturgis, whose shot a foot above the goal line slid right through the legs of Will Arnold.

Skippers’ sophomore Cash Hardie skated into the zone, gliding left, and whipped a shot toward the far corner that beat the glove of Arnold. Minnetonka, 11 minutes into the championship, had lit the lamp three times on seven shots.

An efficient, clinical start to the night for Minnetonka, while it took until the 8:37 mark in the first period for Moorhead to get its second shot on goal.

The Spuds were handed a lifeline early in the second period as Sturgis went into the box for hooking. On the power play, Joey Cullen fired a quick cross-ice pass to Zac Zimmerman for a Grade-A chance he could not convert, hitting side netting, and the Skippers killed off the penalty.

Undaunted by the deficit, Moorhead’s Max Cullen probed the Skippers’ defense, played a pass back to Tyden Bergeson, who ripped a shot on net. Jerdee was unable to squeeze the shot, saw it sit in the crease, where Michael Herman’s quick stick slapped it home halfway through the second period.

The Spuds’ glimmer of hope was short-lived as the Skippers added to their tally before the frame concluded.

Hardie chipped it into the slot where Max Aronson was wide open and zipped it by Arnold to restore Minnetonka’s three-goal lead with 1:26 to go in the second period.

The Skippers were their own worst enemy in closing out the title game, as Liam Schultz was penalized for roughing with 11:00 to play in the contest.

Moorhead quickly shifted the puck around Minnetonka. It was Bergeson whose backdoor pass cut open the Skippers’ defense as Joey Cullen swept it into an open net for the Spuds’ first power-play goal of the tournament.

Momentum had completely shifted as Moorhead sustained extensive offensive zone pressure as the clock ticked under 7:00 in the championship. It was a shot from the point by Brandon Mickelson that got rerouted out in front by Zimmerman’s stick, giving Jerdee no chance and pulling the Spuds within a goal.

The Skippers handed Moorhead a prime opportunity to complete the comeback with its second penalty of the period, as Cameron Merrick was penalized for hooking.

The Spuds did not score on the power play, but after pulling Arnold with 1:37 to go, Moorhead cashed in via Zimmerman, who slotted home the tying goal with 35.6 seconds left, his second of the game.

Both teams managed three shots on goal in overtime, but did not do enough to beat either goaltender, so a full-intermission and ice resurfacing took place before double overtime.

Jerdee was tested twice in the first three minutes of the second overtime and answered the bell with two crucial saves.

Evan Wanner walked off the Class AA state championship in double overtime with a swift wrister past Jerdee, returning Moorhead to the summit of Minnesota high school hockey.

The only other time in state tournament history both state title games went into overtime was in 2011. In Class AA, Eden Prairie defeated Duluth East, 3-2, in triple overtime, and in Class A, St. Thomas Academy bested Hermantown, 5-4, in overtime.

Related Articles

Girls hockey: St. Croix Valley runs out of time in state title game

Boys hockey Class A championship: Warroad beats Hibbing in OT

Wisconsin boys hockey: Amery falls in Division 2 final

Boys hockey: Moorhead takes down Edina, heads to Class AA title game

Boys hockey: Minnetonka rallies in Class AA semis, defeats Rosemount in OT

For senior night festivities, Gophers guard Langston Reynolds was joined on the Williams Arena court pregame Saturday by his mother, Shaunta Reynolds, his diminutive “auntie,” his kid brother, older brother and his brother’s fiancé.

“It’s going to be a very emotional moment,” Reynolds told the Pioneer Press on Friday.

Reynolds, a one-year transfer from Northern Colorado, channeled those feelings in the second half against Northwestern, scoring nine straight points to open up a 48-34 lead and made a crucial go-ahead lay-up with 11 seconds left for a 67-66 win at The Barn.

Minnesota (15-16, 8-12 Big Ten) continued to battle with a rotation of only six players and swept the Wildcats (13-18, 5-15).

Minnesota will have a seed between 11 and 13 at the Big Ten tournament in Chicago next week; they will play on Wednesday. Northwestern  was playing to avoid a spot the bottom four seeds and a Tuesday game.

Bobby Durkin, who was playing hurt, hit a 3-pointer to extend Minnesota’s lead to 58-48 with nine minutes left.

But Wildcats all-Big Ten wing Nick Martinelli scored eight of the next 10 for Northwestern to cut it to 61-58 with four minutes to go.

Reynolds made two free throws, Martinelli hit a jumper and Jordan Clayton hit a go-ahead 3-pointer to make it 64-63 with 1:34 remaining.

Angelo Caaravino made two free throws and Martinelli missed a free throw. Reynolds grabbed the defensive rebound and went coast to coast and laid it in for a 67-66 lead with 11 seconds.

Martinelli missed a three on the final possession and the Wildcats couldn’t get off another shot.

In the first half, the Gophers led by as many as 16  and 10 at the half. Minnesota shot 65% from the field in opening 20 minutes to take a 39-29 lead.

Isaac Asuma led the U with 11 points, with Cade Tyson contributing 10 and Durkin nine.

The Gophers beat Northwestern 84-78 in December in Evanston, Ill. Martinelli had a game-high 26 points in the defeat.

Related Articles

Women’s basketball: St. Thomas falls to top-seeded Bison in Summit League semis

Men’s hockey: Tommies avoid upset in CCHA playoffs

Men’s hockey: Gophers upend Spartans in shootout

Women’s basketball: Gophers fall to Ohio State in Big Ten quarterfinals

Women’s basketball: St. Thomas cruises into Summit League semis

The St. Thomas men’s hockey team left Game 2 of their CCHA playoff quarterfinal in doubt until late before exploding for three goals in the final three minutes of the third period to defeat Lake Superior State 5-2 Saturday night at the Lee & Penny Anderson Arena in St. Paul.

It was a 2-2 tie game at 15:48 of the final frame before the second-seeded Tommies decided they’d had enough of the pesky Lakers by launching a blitzkrieg to eliminate the seventh-seeded visitors from the postseason and advance to the Mason Cup semifinals.

St. Thomas never trailed in the game, scoring first on a Colton Jameson tally just two minutes into the game before LSSU knotted the game at 1-all into the first intermission. After an earlier goal was waived off, Lucas Wahlin scored one that counted at 10:41 of the second as the Tommies took a 2-1 edge into the third.

The Lakers were not about to go quietly into the capital city night, drawing even after nearly 16 minutes of scoreless third-period play and sending a cold shudder though the home crowd.

But there would be little drama left for the favored hosts as Lucas Van Vliet put the home side up for good approximately 90 seconds later. Wahlin added his second of the night 45 seconds after that for a 4-2 lead before LSSU pulled goalie Roke Applebee, who made 38 saves, and Van Vliet took advantage of the empty net to promptly pump in his second of the contest and end matters with a sudden three-goal victory.

Tommies netminder Carsen Musser made 27 saves as his team now moves on to a single-elimination semifinal next Saturday against a yet-to-be determined opponent.

Third-seeded Augustana and No. 4 seed Michigan Tech also won their best-of-three quarterfinal matchups in two-game sweeps. However, Eighth-seeded Ferris State upset top-seeded Minnesota State 2-1 in overtime on Saturday night to force a winner-take-all third game on Sunday. If the Mavericks overcome their upset-minded rivals in Game 3, the Tommies will host Augustana; if the Bulldogs are able to finish off a stunner in Mankato, St. Thomas will inherit the top seed and host Michigan Tech.

Related Articles

Women’s basketball: St. Thomas falls to top-seeded Bison in Summit League semis

Men’s hockey: Tommies avoid upset in CCHA playoffs

Men’s hockey: Gophers upend Spartans in shootout

Women’s basketball: Gophers fall to Ohio State in Big Ten quarterfinals

Women’s basketball: St. Thomas cruises into Summit League semis

 

In St. Paul’s Highland Park, a polluted leftover portion of the former Twin Cities Assembly Plant remains owned by the Ford Motor Co., and state pollution control officials are still pondering with the auto company what to do about the contaminated dump site.

Dubbed “Area C,” the 22-acre land parcel sits capped at the base of the river bluff adjacent to Hidden Falls Regional Park, between Mississippi River Boulevard and the river, and is currently used as a parking lot.

The St. Paul City Council recently came to the unanimous conclusion that the time for pollution monitoring and other containment measures is over, and the state’s preferred alternative — an $8.8 million partial cleanup, mostly along its southern slope — while less costly, won’t go far enough to protect the river.

Council calls for full cleanup

Instead, the council is calling for full cleanup, despite an estimated $71 million price tag, and has raised the possibility of turning the site into an official extension of Hidden Falls Regional Park. The city is leaning on the Minnesota Pollution Control Agency to require Ford to cover the cost of fully excavating and restoring the site itself.

“I think it’s the best option,” said council member Saura Jost, who noted Mayor Kaohly Her, state rep. Dave Pinto and state Sen. Erin Murphy also are supportive of a full cleanup.

Jost, who also submitted comments to the MPCA on her own behalf, noted that major flooding could someday spread hazardous waste that is buried dozens of feet down, and the site could eventually pose a threat to slope stability.

“I also have concerns about the surrounding ecology,” said Jost, addressing the city council in late February. “Having a little more investigation and analysis … is important.”

The site was removed from the federal Superfund list of nationally recognized contaminated properties in 1990, but it still remains part of the state’s voluntary investigation and cleanup program. The land contains several monitoring wells to measure groundwater contamination, Jost said.

In an email Thursday, a spokesperson for Ford Land, Ford Motor Co.’s real estate division, said the MPCA “will determine which cleanup alternative should be implemented” and Ford will “develop a detailed plan for implementing the chosen clean-up option and will execute the plan.” They referred all other questions to the MPCA.

Final cleanup plan may come later this year

State officials believe a less intensive approach is in order. Based in part on 10 years of groundwater monitoring, the MPCA has called for removing industrial waste from Area C’s south slope and stabilizing the site.

“This plan reduces potential risks to people and the Mississippi River from existing contamination, focuses clean-up on the areas of greatest concern, and improves the site’s appearance,” reads a statement issued Wednesday by an MPCA spokesperson.

A final cleanup plan could be chosen later this year. Ford would then be expected to develop an implementation plan, and begin work in 2027.

The Friends of the Mississippi River issued a written memo to the MPCA on Tuesday outlining why they believe the state has the legal authority to require Ford to pursue a complete site restoration under the Minnesota Environmental Response and Liability Act.

“At this time, the MPCA is recommending against a full cleanup for the site,” said Colleen O’Connor Toberman, Land Use and Planning Program director for the Friends of the Mississippi River, in an interview Tuesday. “In my mind, a partial cleanup leaves the risk that Ford won’t be around to pay for future needed cleanup down the road. If Ford doesn’t pay now, the public may end up paying for it later instead.”

“Right now, they can afford to do it,” Toberman added.

Six alternatives, six price tags

The Ford Motor Co. commissioned a 134-page feasibility study for Area C, which was revised last October, and it outlines six options ranging from no cleanup in Alternative 1, and slope stabilization in Alternative 2, to the costliest approach — the $71 million full cleanup described in Alternative 6.

Arcadis, the engineering and consulting firm that assembled the report, recommended the less intensive measures outlined in Alternative 3, which involves some waste excavation, slope stabilization and long-term monitoring, for a total cost of $2.4 million.

The Minnesota Pollution Control Agency is leaning toward Alternative 4, which would cost $8.8 million and involve “excavation and removal of all reasonably accessible industrial waste,” as well as annual inspections and long-term groundwater monitoring.

Critics such as the Friends of the Mississippi River have said Alternative 4’s half-measures would fail to address the hazardous waste in the middle of the pile, focusing instead on removing surface debris along its southern edges while installing erosion controls.

The Arcadis report finds an impenetrable surface cover outlined in the next option, Alternative 5, to be unfeasible due to the site’s topography and other floodplain issues.

The city council voted 7-0 on Feb. 25 to formally ask the MPCA to require Ford to carry out the full $71 million cleanup, as spelled out in Alternative 6.

In its Feb. 25 resolution, the council deemed Area C “an ongoing threat to the groundwater, soil, air, and the local ecological system of our city and region,” and called on the state “to protect human, plant, and animal life,” as opposed to continued monitoring, testing and containment alternatives.

Decades of dumping

The MPCA held a public meeting on its recommendation on Jan. 15 at the Highland Community Center, which drew a rally of concerned residents outside the building.

Ford, which began assembling Model T vehicles from its Highland Park plant in 1925, ceased production there in 2011, and the city has since worked with a master developer, the Ryan Cos., to assemble housing, office buildings, retail spaces, playgrounds and infrastructure in what’s now known as the 122-acre Highland Bridge development.

Despite Ford’s storied history in Highland Park, Area C remains a trouble spot. Ford spent decades dumping hazardous waste, including paints, solvents, heavy metals, construction rubble and contaminated soil on the river floodplain into the 1960s, none of which was addressed when soils at Highland Bridge were cleaned to residential standards.

The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, after reconstruction of Lock and Dam No. 1 in the late 1970s to the early ’80s, added construction debris on site, creating layers of material above the hazardous waste from the plant, which further complicates a full cleanup, Toberman said. The city then dumped its own construction debris after a rebuild of Mississippi River Boulevard in the late ’80s.

The council resolution calls for the removed materials to be placed in a modern disposal facility designed to isolate hazardous waste. The city’s Hidden Falls/Crosby Farm Regional Park Master Plan calls for Area C to be added to Hidden Falls Regional Park if and when contamination is addressed.

Ford earned $6.8 billion last year before interest, taxes and one-time costs, according to industry monitors, but the auto maker still experienced a net loss of more than $8 billion, its largest shortfall in almost 20 years, after subtracting those expenses.

Related Articles

St. Paul City Council approves new rules for drive-throughs

St. Paul City Council weighs extending eviction notice to 60 days

St. Paul City Council: Nelsie Yang replaces HwaJeong Kim as vice president

Letters: What constitutes ‘public outcry’ in St. Paul?

St. Paul City Council expands rent aid program