|
|
 |
TRIBUNE PHOTO/LARRY BECKNER
Great Falls American Jared Hunt, right, keeps the puck away from Brooks Storm's Colin Hicks during the Casey Cup AA Championship Game at Four Seasons Arena on Saturday night.
American beauty: Great Falls takes title behind Olinger's MVP performance
By LEE VERNOY
Tribunre Sports Writer
The Great Falls Americans took a punch in the face from the Brooks Storm early in Saturday's AA championship game of the Terry Casey Memorial Cup at Four Seasons Arena.
That was all the Americans needed. Tyler Hobbs and Jordan Van Son scored goals, and tournament MVP Dan Olinger was lights-out in the net as the Americans came back to calm the Storm 2-1, capturing the city's first Casey Cup championship since 2004.
The punch in the face was a power-play goal from the Storm's James Watt with 11:29 left in the first, a play that served as a wakeup call for the Americans. It was Olinger's only blemish in 26 shots, and he said it himself: My bad.
"I didn't play that one very well," Olinger admitted after the game. "But the team picked me up and kept the rest of the shots down."
The final two periods reflected that. Great Falls outshot Brooks 21-15 the rest of the way, getting the equalizer at 7:37 of the second when Hobbs took a pass from Jared Baker in front of the crease.
Van Son's game winner, at 6:46 of the third, came off off a Ryan D'Agostino feed.
"There was a battle in front of the net, and we had to shoot as much as possible," Van Son said of his goal.
Van Son would come up big on defense about four minutes later, reaching behind Olinger to clear a shot that got away from the goalie to help preserve the win.
"My only thought on that was, 'Don't let it in,'" Van Son said later. "Gotta save the team."
A boisterous crowd of about 1,500 erupted in jubilation as the final seconds ticked away. Brooks pulled goalie Josh Bartusek in the final minute to put a sixth skater on the ice, but the Americans' defense was equal to the task.
"It's easy to judge a team by its success," Americans head coach Brian Hendrickson said. "We got punched in the face, then came back and outshot Brooks (11-5) in the second period, and we came out in the third knowing in our hearts we were going to put them away."
Hendrickson heaped tons of praise upon Olinger, who received the tournament's Most Valuable Player award.
"He leaves it out there with anything he does," Hendrickson said. "From weight training with (CMR football coach) Jack Johnson, to baseball with (Stallions' Legion baseball coach) Mike Ferradas, to overspeed training on his own at the Peak, then making hockey practice and giving 200 percent. And that's with a 3.0 GPA.
"He works out until 9:30 p.m., then to pull good grades and be a good citizen; I can't speak enough of Dan Olinger."
Americans Ryan D'Agostino of Bozeman and Mike Zook were also named to the tournament All-Star team.
The late A Championship game had the Prairie High Sabres facing the Grimshaw Stars and was not over as of press time.
The Americans will leave Tuesday to fly to Buffalo, N.Y. for the national Tier II championships.
Twenty years later, the Legend of Terry Casey still resonates
By SCOTT MANSCH
Tribune Asst. Sports Editor
The legend of Terry Casey continues to grow in his hometown of Great Falls, where former friends recall an unpretentious superstar athlete whose prowess on ice skates was surpassed perhaps only by his humility.
They remember an easy-going, personable Great Falls High graduate whose modest size masked an intense desire to succeed no matter the sport. And they speak now of a fiercely competitive athlete nicknamed "Moose," who could execute figure skating disciplines and overwhelm hockey goalies with equal ease.
And who once was chased with a broom by the mother of the great John Misha Petkevich.
"These are all true stories," said Jeff Cunniff.
Casey, the namesake of the annual tournament that completed a successful run Saturday night at Four Seasons Arena, would have been 65 this year. It's been more than four decades since he lost his life in an automobile accident.
"When he was killed," said Cunniff, "it affected a lot of people. I mean a lot of people."
Sports history in Montana is fraught with tales of tragedy. The heartbreaking stories include the World War II-bound 1941 Montana State football team, the untimely passing of Montana Grizzly gridiron great Terry Dillon, and the accidental electrocution of Anaconda basketball immortal Wayne Estes.
But the death of Casey, who perished along with two other highly regarded local athletes in July, 1967, hits home for many in Great Falls. It's why Cunniff and others started the Casey Cup Memorial Tournament. And why the competition continues to thrive after nearly 20 years.
"This weekend is a meaningful thing for a lot of us who knew him," said John Borgreen.
Casey grew up at 1126 2nd Ave. S., where his mother "Muggins" still lives. She's an active nonagenarian whose daughters, Kathy and Myrna, became outstanding figure skaters.
Terry, though, preferred contact sports.
In those days Great Falls High consisted of grades 10-12, with freshmen still in middle school. At the state wrestling tournament, teams were allowed to bring ninth-graders and the Bison had an outstanding frosh prospect in the 95-pound Casey. But, Cunniff recalls, the GFH administration made a decision to save a few bucks and not bring a 95-pound freshman to the 1959 state meet.
So hockey became Casey's exclusive winter sport.
"Wrestling's loss was hockey's gain," said Cunniff.
Cunniff was a junior-high football player and remembers showing up at the GFH field when practice was over. Casey, the Bison quarterback in the early Sixties, often would stay afterward and throw spirals to the younger kids running pass routes.
"I mean, you've gotta love a guy like that," Cunniff said.
Borgreen has memories that linger of when the only indoor ice rink in Great Falls was at the Civic Center.
"We'd sneak in there," said Borgreen, then a goaltender for the local team and a cousin of Casey's girlfriend. "I had a buddy who was the rink manager and he slipped me a key. We'd sneak in there late at night and turn on only a few lights. We'd get a bucket of pucks and he'd shoot 'em at me for an hour or two.
"Terry, he was just driven to improve."
In those pre-Zamboni days, the Civic Center ice was groomed in the late afternoon so it would be just so when the figure skaters showed up to practice the next morning. But Casey and Borgreen often left the ice far from smooth.
"It'd be all chewed up, and the figure skating club was pretty upset with us," Borgreen said.
John Misha's mother, Delphine, took offense at this. And when she discovered who was messing up the ice, she took up her broom.
"She chased Terry with that broom out on the ice and then outside the rink, him running with skates on," said a laughing Borgreen. "He was something."
Of course, so was Petkevich, who became a national junior champion figure skater and U.S. Olympian. Decades later Scott Davis brought more skating glory to Great Falls with national championships and Olympic berths.
Casey might too have achieved fame among figure skaters. But the dynamo loved to shoot the puck. And pass the football. And fast-pitch the softball.
"Not very big," said Cunniff. "But a great, great all-around athlete."
Casey was but 5-8 and 150 pounds when he graduated from Great Falls High in 1962.
He became national star at the University of North Dakota, where his No. 12 is retired. Casey played 88 games in three seasons for the Fighting Sioux and amassed 118 points (57 goals, 61 assists).
He was an American Hockey Coaches Association All-American in the 1965-66, when in 30 games he had 26 goals and 28 assists. The college All-American team is divided into two regions, East and West. Casey was named to West squad in 1966. The goaltender on that team was Tony Esposito of Michigan Tech, who went on to a Hall-of-Fame career in the NHL.
Heady stuff, to be sure. But 40 years later, friends say Casey was confident but far from cocky.
"He was shy and didn't really like the limelight," Borgreen said.
But he found it all right. Casey made the national U.S. hockey team in 1967 and that February traveled to Vienna, Austra, for the world championships. He would have played hockey on Team USA in the 1968 Winter Olympics in Grenoble, France.
Always true to his roots, Casey never apparently forgot where he came from. In the summer of 1967 he came home to Great Falls, where on many weekends to played fastpitch softball with his pals.
Casey was in a carload of friends headed for a Plentywood tournament that fateful July day when a wreck on the highway changed Great Falls sports history forever.
"It was really a horrible time," said Borgreen.
For more than 40 years, no one playing hockey for Great Falls has worn Casey's No. 12. That's the way it was this weekend as the 19th annual Casey Cup took center stage at Four Seasons Arena.
And that's the way it will be in future years when the brand spanking new ice facility arena opens on Gore Hill. It's one of the highest points in Great Falls and many feel Casey's No. 12 should hang up there in the arena as close to the stars as possible.
"Terry Casey was a superb nice young man," said Borgreen. "I hope the kids today who play in this tournament all realize that."
|
|
|
|
