The boys high school hockey playoffs are well underway. Tuesday the Proctor Rails beat Pine City by a 7-2 score, in the 5A playoffs but there’s more to that score.

It was the first post-season win for rookie Head Coach Steve Rodberg. Yep, that Steve Rodberg.  He played at UMD for three years and another at UWS.

Rodberg understands how special this time of the season is for high school hockey players.

He played on some very talented teams at Proctor High School.  He said, “We didn’t have a lot of guys with a whole lot of varsity experience coming into this year but all in all the guys have put in 100 percent effort this year they work hard, they show-up every day with a smile on their face and they work hard no matter the circumstance.  We are on a little bit of a roll guys are coming together, talking and scoring goals.”

Rodberg said he always wanted to coach and wanted to give back to the community.  He said, “Yeah, I always wanted to give back to the program because so many people helped out in my career as far as I made it. I wanted to come back and give other kids that chance to succeed and play after high school.”

In other playoff games on Tuesday Superior beat New Richmond 4-1 in the section semifinals at

Wessman Arena, it was the final home game of the year for the Spartans.

Superior advances to the section finals on Friday vs. Hudson in Menomonie.

In other games on Tuesday, Duluth East beat St. Michael-Albertville 15-0; C-E-C topped

Forest Lake 6-2 and Grand Rapids topped St. Francis 6-2.  Greenway/N.K. over Ely 14-1 and the Raiders will get Denfeld on Thursday night.

East and C-E-C will play in the Section 7AA semifinals on Saturday.  Elk River and Grand Rapids will be the other match-up.

It's already playoff time in the NCHA mens hockey postseason.

The St. Scholastica Saints men’s hockey team opened the playoffs with a pair of wins over Twin Ports rivals the UWS Yellowjackets to sweep that series, and ending the ‘Jackets season last weekend.

The Saints go on the road this week and have the task of taking on the defending national champs, the St. Norbert Green Knights on their own home ice.

The Saints have been playing well down the stretch by winning 6 of their last 7 games.

It’s also playoff time for the women in the NCHA this weekend.  St. Scholastica at Lake Forest

And UWS will host St. Norbert. Yellowjackets are ranked 8th in the country this week in Division III.

Saints forward Nina Waidacher has named the NCHA women’s player of the week.  She had five points in a sweep over Marian and

won her second straight NCHA scoring title.  Her 1.73 points per game leads the nation as well.

The UMD men’s hockey team goes on the road for the final time this regular season at Minnesota in a Friday and Saturday series.

It also marks the final time the schools will play in the WCHA during the regular season.  They both move into new leagues next year.

The UMD women’s hockey team will be at home to face North Dakota and we will have both of those games on My9.

The UWS men’s basketball team was in the WIAC playoffs Tuesday night and fell to Stout 78-64 to end their season.

The UWS women’s basketball team will play Wednesday night at home and will face River Falls.  The ‘Jackets are 18-7 overall this year the most wins in school history.

College softball Tuesday.  UMD won two games; they beat Moorhead 8-0 and Northern State 9-0.

The games were played at the St. Paul Regional Athletics Center.  The Bulldogs will stay there and play three more games on Wednesday.

Keep Smile’n Northland.

I will.

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