Part of the Minnesota State High School Hockey Tournament experience is the creation of a cheesy music video highlighting the school and the team. The Hunters did not disappoint with this clip. Yes, there are all the mullets and protruding bangs you would expect, along with plenty of guitar air-jamming.
Denfeld earned the trip to the tournament with a victory over Roseville at the Duluth Arena. Below are highlights and interviews from that game, compiled by the three Duluth TV stations at the time — WDIO, KBJR and KDLH.
Denfeld lost to Warroad in the opening game of the state tourney and ultimately took home the fourth-place trophy. Below is the introductions from the Warroad game, so you can meet the boys and maybe speculate who would have made the All Hockey Hair Team if there had been one back then.
6 thoughts on “Video Archive: 1988 Denfeld Hockey”
Wow this brings back memories.
It is amazing how little changed from 88-98 and how much changed from 98-08.
Everything from the weightroom equipment, wood shop, drafting room, hallways… just the overall look of the school before they went with the fluorescent lighting and white paint on the hallways.
I can’t tell you how many times I almost fell down that flight of stairs just before the cafeteria when coming in the 6th st entrance on a sunny day. It was so damned dark it was awesome.
The weird thing is that none of the people in the video look like high school kids to me. They all look a good 5 years older than high school kids should look.
Maybe it’s the hair.
The Roseville Raiders were apparently coached by Vince Lombardi in 1988.
I was thinking Tom Landry (left), but yeah, Gordy Genz (right) was one dapper dude.
Wow, brings back wonderful memories of when Denfeld was good in hockey and when the state hockey tourney actually meant something, as a one class tournament. Thank you so much for posting.
Anybody have any video of Denfeld’s other trips in 1986 and ’89? I’ll never forget Denfeld being completely overmatched against eventual champion Burnsville in the ’86 semifinal, but Robb Stauber single-handedly kept the Hunters in the game. I’ll also never forget the ’89 semifinal against Rochester John Marshall where the Rockets appeared to score to go ahead of the Hunters by two goals late in the third period, but Coach Vukonich challenged the curve on the goal scores stick. Turned out he was right and a dime could be rolled all the way under the curve of the stick. Instead of a two goal lead late in the game, the goal was disallowed and RJM was assessed a two-minute penalty. Denfeld had chances during the power play, but couldn’t manage the game-tying goal. That’s still the only time I have seen a successful challenge, and at such a key time.
Those 1986 and ’89 videos will make their way to the web soon enough. As an addendum to this post, here is the 1988 Tournament Preview Show, with a warning that Denfeld doesn’t get a lot of mention, and at the 0:40 mark is actually referred to as the “pride of Duluth’s east side.”
The main Denfeld part is from 7:49 to 8:17; other than that there are just a few brief clips throughout.
And here is Marsh Nelson with the highlights of the first-round Warroad game that knocked Denfeld out of contention for the championship.