State Tournament March Madness

 

Aiden and John at Aiden's State hockey banquet

Luke and I up in Baudette, MN at his State banquet

Liam went skiing with some buddies

Willie the Walleye in Baudette, MN.  Just behind Luke is the where you cross the border to head into Canada

Aiden's team won in Regions to move to State

Only in Baudette would you see something like this

Luke's team won in Regions to move to the State tournament

The Maple Grove High School team advanced to the State Tournament and finished as Runner Up in a double overtime battle with Andover

Finn's end of season Jamboree

Aiden's team trophy for Regions

First year boys on the Bantam AA team with Luke

Luke and his hockey buddy and carpool friend, Lane

Luke and John at Luke's end of season banquet

Luke and I in Baudette with his Consolation champs trophy

Luke's team and coaching staff at the end of season banquet

Finn's cheering section for his jamboree

"On the Bench" celebrities at the State high school hockey tournament 

Aiden and his buddy, Anders 

Finn and Aiden at the Timberwolves basketball game with John

The theme of March for us was State Tournaments!  Both Luke and Aiden's hockey teams made it through their region and had the opportunity to play in State.  Just making it to State is a huge accomplishment.   The teams that make it out of their district are assigned to a Region tournament.  In each of the four region tournaments, there are TWO teams that advance to State.  This means that of the 100+ hockey teams at their respective levels in Minnesota, their teams were each 1 of 8 teams to advance to their State Tournament.  Quite an accomplishment just to be there.  

Both Aiden and Luke's team had tough first round draws in their games.  Aiden's team played an Edina team that was one of the three teams he lost to this season.  And Luke's team played the only team (Moorhead) that we couldn't find a way to beat all season long.  Not exactly a good way to start the tournament.  They both lost their first round games, but battled back and fought hard.  Luke's team came out with State Consolation Champs!

We also attended the high school State Hockey tournament in March and were able to watch Maple Grove advance to the Class AA State Championship.  It was an amazing game and one of the best championship games in recent history according to several of the people we were sitting with who were just there to watch.  There were 19,000 people there to watch the game and Maple Grove lost 6-5 in double overtime.  It was a heartbreaking loss, but such a fun environment like none other.  

In other news, Finn finished out his season with a jamboree.  His nickname was "Finn Crash the Net Carrithers."  He had a cheering section of middle school girls and boys to watch.  Finn is well loved by the middle school boys and girls that his brothers hang out with.  

We have officially ended our hockey seasons and we are preparing for spring sports even if the weather is exactly spring like yet?!  All four boys plan to play lacrosse this spring and summer.  Liam is running track on the junior varsity high school track team for the first time this spring.  They just started practicing last week, but he is really enjoying it so far and has several buddies doing it as well.  He is planning to try mid distance running first.