McFeely: Portar of Spuds for a long time, who is fighting with Als, hopes that Moorhead will have different results from Bemidji this time – Inforum

Moorhead – Shawn and Andrea Sarbacker fired in the General Hospital of Boston Massachusetts, while talking to your interesting columnist, an expert noted at Hockey, telephone earlier this week. Mass General is a five-hour road, in a way, from the Suburban Philadelphia House and I travel once a month.

The purpose of this disadvantage is that Shawn meets medical experts and raise their prescription drugs in its continuous fight against amyotrophic lateral sclerosis, better known as ALS. He was diagnosed with fatal neurodegenerative disease five years ago, and the fight continues.

“You could see a slight inclination,” Shawn said, “but besides that, I do well. I have the best ALS document in the world and I am involved with some last -minute experimental treatments. I am in me the fifth year with the disease, when most people were dead. .

Shawn, you’re 57 years old. Maybe it was time …

Shawn’s energetic wife, Andrea, helped to facilitate the phone call, which was to be a journey on the memory band.

Your chronicler was pressed into emergency action on Saturday night to write a story from the Moorhead-Elk River/Zimmerman game in the Hockey Tournament of the Boys Hocate in section 8AA. Spuds won 4-1, advancing on Wednesday at the section of section against Bemidji.

Due to an inspectable curiosity about Puck, a search for the electronic archives of the forum was done to see if Moorhead and Bemidji have previously met for a section championship. The winner, of course, goes to the Minnesota State Hockey Tournament in St. Paul.

It turned out that they had five times. Bemidji won three. But there is a twist.

Your clone thought that Moorhead’s running of Excellence at Hockey began in the early 1990s under coach Terry Cullen. The first trip of the state tournament to the history of SPUDS was in 1992 with a victory over Roseau.

Less known, perhaps, is the fact that Spuds actually played for a coveted state trip six years earlier. They made their first trip to a section of section in 1986, under the legendary coach Terry Sherrcliffe, an architect of all the hockey Moorhead became.

The opponent was Bemidji, just like this time.

Moorhead’s goalkeeper was Shawn Sarbacker.

Shawn was part of the famous Sarbacker family in Moorhead. His father John, a dermatologist for Fargo Clinic and St. Hospital. Dr. John died in 2021. His wife Margaret moved to Arizona a few years ago.

Shawn’s brothers, Steve, Scott and Stuart, were all SPUD.

“I was like all the other children in Minnesota, who grew up playing hockey. You had dreams to go to the state tournament at St. Paul Civic Center with those old Plexiglas panels, but in those days it was largely from the section 8. I didn’t really consider the better teams in the section, “said Shawn Sarbacker. “But over the years I continued better and, when I was senior, I thought we had a pretty good chance.”

Did not look like this in the regular season. Spuds finished 7-10-3, losing a series of close games and were sown eighth in the section. There was only one hockey class in those glorious days, so Moorhead opened with a sub-section game against Little Falls (Victoria 12-0) and a surprise from the second round to Alexandria (3-1) before the mother of all victories in the quarterfinals.

Sarbacker made 44 savings in a 5-4 victory over Warroad, who was undefeated, top seeds and ranked third in the state.

“Bernie Burggraf called Roseau’s games on the radio,” Sherrcliffe said from his Florida winter house. “Along with the other people Roseu, he was quite excited after I defeated Warroad. They thought they would beat us in the next match.”

Not so fast. In the semifinals of the section, the Sarbacker played what he called “the best game of his career”, making 34 savings in a 3-2 victory over Roseau, who won 24 of the previous 30 sections.

“We had a wonderful group of guys who were grieving together and making sure you mention them, but I warmed up at the right time,” Sarbacker said.

Tom Shimabukuro. Tim Meyer. Scott Mannausau. Mark Jensen. Scott Bjerke. Chipper Oie. Jamie Hagness. Jeff Kraft. Many others.

He mentioned them.

Bring to Bemidji.

Or no.

“I played Bemidji hard enough in the regular season. I took them at overtime in moorhead before losing. So we felt pretty good. But they had a child named George Pelawa, which was a selection of The first round in the NHL. It was everywhere, but he was crying pretty quickly. “

It was 3-0 after a period, 6-0 after two. The final was 10-0 for Lumberjacks.

“I was a disinterested, disciplined and well -trained team, which reached the maximum at the right time
Confidence and we were able to go with a deep hot goalkeeper in the Section 8 tournament, “said Shimabuuro, who played college hockey at Yale and had a distinguished career with the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.” I sometimes wondered if this this team from 1985-86 exceeded, but I think the reality is that I was as good as any team in section 8 that year, except for Bemidji, which was a force of nature and stacked. “

Bemidji domination was so that, through Moorhead’s first four power games, SPUDS only managed a weak blow on the net, while the Sarbacker and his defensive colleagues were moving away from Lumberjack.

“Pelawa was good, but they about seven children who played the hockey in Division I. They were good. And I was terrible,” Sherrcliffe said.

The spuds would not return to the title game of the section for six seasons, when they defeated Roseau for that first trip of the state tournament.

Now, Moorhead is looking for the 21st trip to the state.

“I haven’t lived in Moorhead since I graduated from high school and went to college, but obviously I followed the hockey program and it was great to see,” said Sarbacker, who went to Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute in New York to Play College Hochei and become an engineer. “To see what the Moorhead hockey became, in which one of the state powers has really been unbelievable. Now we must stop being the bridesmaids and be the bride.”

This is a reference to Moorhead still without a state championship.

First, Bemidji in the section of the section championship.

“I already hope for a different result from the moment I played them. Vengeance will be mine!” Said Sarbacker, laughing. “My brothers and I try to reach St. Paul for the state tournament anytime to do it. We hope this. We have already booked hotel rooms.”

Be bold.

“I’m hard,” Sarbacker said. – We hope to see each other in Saint Paul.