Hockey

     Head Coach Mike Randolph who led the Northern Lakes Lightning to the State Tournament this season has resigned his position. Minnesota's winningest high school hockey coach in history (currently 727 wins), cited being away from his family as the main reason for his resignation, "The main reason is location to family and grandkids. When I worked at STA my apartment was in Eagan, ten minutes from the rink. Five minutes from there was my daughter and three grandkids. Then my other daughter is 25 minutes from the apartment so, in the end Northern Lakes was not family-friendly for me. The players and parents were awesome. Bill Magnuson the AD, and principal Aaron Nelson were the best. It had nothing to do with anything but location. I'm 73 years old and family is important to me." The Lightning will have their third coach in three years when they drop the puck next s season.

        The 2025 State Boys Hockey Tournament is history but how did some of the Northern Lakes Lightning players feel about playing at the Xcel Energy Center and in front of the big crowd.
        Drew Paulbeck was one of nine seniors on this years team and one of the captains. He had a great career, how would he assess his time with the Lightning. “I started off with an injury but I would say it went up from there.” I would say so, 38 goals this season and 61 points for the year while going over the 100 point mark for his career. What about the State Tournament, “It was fun and I was sad to play my final high school hockey game Saturday but I wouldn’t have wanted to do it with any other group of guys no matter what the game results were.” How about your teammate Wyatt Balmer winning the Herb Brooks Award, “That was awesome and well deserved.”
       Parker Fulton had a nice year as well and the sophomore really contributed with 11 goals and 11 assists. How did he feel about stepping on the ice at the Xcel Center, “I looked around and tried to soak it all in. It was crazy and took a few minutes to get comfortable in warm-ups.” What about the experience as a whole, “It’s something I’ll never forget the rest of my life.It was an unreal experience and we had the best support from all our communities.”
      Kyler Rikala is also a sophomore and although he was just getting his feet wet this season and had just one assist he was an important piece of the puzzle going down the stretch of the season and playoffs. What did he think about being in the State Tournament, “Making it to the State Tournament was a dream come true. Walking into the “X” and the locker rooms was unreal and then stepping on the ice and seeing all the fans and just knowing we were on the big stage was amazing.”
      Hunter Moreland is a junior and was the back-up goalie most of the season. He got to play over eight minutes in the final Saturday but he wanted to go back to the first night at the Xcel Energy Center and describe his feelings at that time, “I was absolutely in shock in the locker room. Everybody was yelling and focused on kicking some butt. When my skates hit the ice it was crazy, my eyes went black and I couldn’t feel my legs for at least two laps. All I could see was the first two rows of fans and the rest was black.”
     Wyatt Balmer won the Herb Brooks Award for 2025. He finished the season with 4goals and a whopping 32 assists. He talked about the award and his career, “It’s an honor to win the Herb Brooks Award and to be recognized at the State Hockey Tournament. There are so many other players, including many of my teammates that could have won this award too. I’m proud to have played for the Northern Lakes Lightning for the last 14 years. The State Tournament appearance and the Herb brooks Award are a great way to finish my Lightning career.”
     It has been a wonderful year for the Lightning with so many great moments and outstanding performances. They lose some great seniors including Finn Fogarty, Easton Anderson, Anthony Noyes, Jerome Martin, Preston Verness, Drew Paulbeck and Wyatt Balmer. Coach Mike Randolph had the final words for the 24-25 season, “Very proud of this team! They were a joy to go to the rink with every day. To play on the final day of the season is your goal every season. Can’t thank them enough for the ride!”

      The Northern Lakes Lightning season came to a close Saturday at Mariucci in a 4-0 loss to Northfield in the Consolation Championship game of the State Hockey Tournament. The Raiders scored pair of power play goals in the second period and although the Lightning mustered up 28 shots on goal, they couldn't rip the net and finished the season with a record of 20-10-1. Penalties again hurt the Lightning as they did in the tourneys opening loss to East Grand Forks. After a scoreless first period the Raiders scored at 1:34 of the second, a goal by Griffen Kennelly. That came with Wyatt Balmer and Bodie Nybakken both in the penalty box. Before the second penalty was over Ben Geiger scored to put the Raiders ahead 2-0. That was the score into the third period when Miles Kennelly scored, and then the final goal was scored at 6:40 with Oliver Benjamin lighting the lamp. Sam Suja stopped 19 of 23 shots and Hunter Moreland stopped all three shots he faced. The Lightning were called for six penalties for 12 minutes and the Raiders had three infractions for six minutes. 

Lightning 0 0 0 0

Raiders    0 2 2 4

       Jerome Martin scored a pair of goals, and the Northern Lakes Lightning finally got their first State Hockey Tournament win, a 5-3 victory over Luverne in the Consolation Semi-finals Thursday. The win puts the Lightning into the Consolation title game at 10:00 Saturday morning at Mariucci Arena. The Lightning had gone six complete periods in their two State tourney games, (2021 and 2025), before Finn Fogarty got the first State Tournament goal in Lightning history at 8:27 of the first period with Sutton Sullivan getting the assist. It was Fogarty's 7th goal of the season. The Lightning led into the second period when the Cardinals tied the game on a goal by Landyn Lais at 13:22. The two teams battled into the third period before Lais scored again to give Luverne a 2-1 lead just ten seconds into the final frame. Eleven seconds later Griffen Hannah scored his 5th goal of the year from Easton Anderson to tie it at 2-2. Four minutes later it was Martin with his 18th of the season from Jacob Peterson and Wyatt Balmer to put the Lightning back in front 3-2. Luverne wasn't done though as they scored at 11:11 to tie things at 3-3. Martin tallied at 12:39 for a 4-3 lead, his 19th of the season, again from Peterson and Balmer. Peterson scored at 16:46 to make the final score 5-3. It was Petersons 15th goal of the season. Senior Drew Paulbeck after the win, "It was so much more fun today after the opening game, but it was a quick turnaround though."

      Sam Suja was clutch in goal again stopping 20 of 23 shots while the Lightning had 25 shots on net. Penalties were three for six minutes for the Cardinals and just one penalty for two minutes for the Lightning. 

Lightning  1 0 4 5

Cardinals 0 1 2 3

      The Lightning will meet Northfield Saturday with hardware on the line. The Raiders got goals from Griffin Kennelly, Henry Webber, Ben Geiger and Brody Jensen in their 4-2 win over Mahtomedi. The Raiders are 23-5-2 while the Lightning moved to 20-9-1.

       Sam Suja stopped 23 of 25 shots by the East Grand Forks Green Wave but the Lightning gave up two power play goals and fell in the opening round of the State Class A Tournament 3-0. The loss puts them into the consolation round against Luverne Thursday at noon. Suja was tough all night long but his counterpart at the other end of the rink Noah Schindele was a little bit better as he stopped all 24 shots by the Lightning. The game was physical and scoreless in the first period but in the second a roughing penalty on Josiah Reier gave the Green Wave their first chance and they took advantage. Jace Van Eps scored 35 seconds into the man advantage to make it 1-0. It remained that way into the third period when EGF would strike again. Wyatt Balmer was in the box for cross-checking when Jace Panzer scored to make it 2-0. Shortly after Cooper Hills took a boarding penalty and the Lightning had a five-minute power play, but the Green Wave killed it off and then scored an empty netter by Tucker Lovejoy at 15:24. The Lightning worked hard to get back into the game, but they couldn't dent the net. The Lightning had 3 penalties for 6 minutes while the Green Wave had 3 penalties for 9 minutes.

Lightning       0 0 0 0

Green Wave 0 1  2 3

       The Northern Lakes Lightning, the #5 seed will take on #4 East Grand Forks Wednesday in the opening round of the 2025 State Hockey Tournament at the Xcel Energy Center in St. Paul. These two teams appear to be a pretty good matchup. Here's a look at some of their stats for the season.

Lightning from Section 6A (19-8-1)
Goals for   4.54 goals per game
Goals against 2.21 goals per game
Penalty Kill   83.3%
Leading scorers
Drew Paulbeck    38 goals 23 assists 61 points
Wyatt Balmer        4 goals 30 assists 34 points
Jerome Martin     17 goals 16 assists 33 points
Josiah Reier          11 goals 17 assists 28 points
Jacob Peterson   14 goals 12 assists 26 points
Easton Anderson  9 goals 17 assists 26 points   
Goaltender
Sam Suja    18-7-1
Goals against       2.06 per game
Save percentage .919

East Grand Forks Green Wave from Section 8A (13-13-2)
Goals for           2.86 per game
Goals against   3.07 per game
Penalty kill        81.1%
Leading scorers
Hunter Varnson     8 goals 22 assists  30 points
Tucker Lovejoy      17 goals  9 assists  26 points
Cooper Hills            6 goals 20 assists  26 points
Jace Panzer            8 goals  14 assists  22 points
Jace Van Eps         11 goals  10 assists 21 points
Goaltender
Noah Schindele  12-10-1
Goals against        2.69 per game
Save Percentage   .882

         Lightning Coach Mike Randolph talked about the Green Wave, "They're very well coached! They don't beat themselves, you have to go out and beat them. They played a great schedule so not a surprise they beat Warroad. Very structured and heavy team."

        On paper it looks like a great matchup, what do you think Mike? "You don't beat a team like Warroad without all the elements if the game (goal scoring, goaltending, etc.) At the time they beat Warroad, Warroad was the #1 team in the state. If Warroad makes the tourney, they would have been the #1 seed. EGF has had some tough losses in that game! This time they got it done. What a boost to their confidence!"
      Gametime Wednesday is 8PM on Channel 45