This past weekend, our team, the Bismarck Legacy Sabers, competed in the North Dakota High School State Hockey Tournament, in Fargo. After winning our quarterfinal game, we faced a daunting opponent in the semifinal: the Grand Forks Central Knights (“Central”) — a powerhouse team so strong, so deep, and so capable that they went undefeated in conference play, and even knocked off the Moorhead Spuds, the 2025 Minnesota High School Hockey Class AA State Champion, in non-conference play earlier this season.
Though it would have been a monumental feat to beat Central and advance to the State Championship game, this particular game wasn’t so much about a win or a loss for us…. Instead, this game was about us showing up, and competing with everything we had!
Our team did indeed lose the game (4-0: 1-0 after the 1st; 4-0 after the 2nd; and a scoreless 3rd), and we were brutally outshot (our goalie played the game of his life making 68 saves!)…but, what we witnessed from our players as the game clock ticked down was one of the most fulfilling and satisfying experiences I could ever imagine as a coach.
My co-head coach, Ryan Faragher, and I had been trying to instill the essence of “playing the game the right way”: playing each shift with every ounce of effort, intensity, and focus one could muster. We had repeatedly preached this throughout the season, but we were often let down by the less-than-full-efforts we saw on the ice from our guys. Many times it seemed that our players wanted to take shortcuts and get easy wins without putting in a true, full effort. And though we had seen glimpses of the type of great hockey we envisioned during our regular season and regional tournament games, those moments seemed short and fleeting, and were never truly sustained with consistency. We knew we were falling short of reaching our potential as a team.
But, finally, in that biggest game of the season at the State Tournament, against the most worthy opponent imaginable, our players rose up and displayed that holy grail of effort and intensity that we had been pointing them towards. Every single player who stepped on the ice displayed a relentless desire to play the game the right way, with absolutely everything they had, each and every shift. The desire to win puck battles; the efforts on the forecheck and back-check; the blocked-shots; the taking hits to make plays; the focus and discipline to play within our basic structure; and on…shift after shift. The effort on the ice became contagious, and we seemed to grow stronger with each line change.
As the 3rd period started with us being down by four, we wondered if our guys would just give up entirely. Central commonly forced teams into submission, and their season had several games with scores like 10-1 and 11-1 (or beyond), including in their regional and state tournament quarterfinal wins, after teams folded when a comeback seemed out of reach. But, in that semifinal game, our players simply refused to give up. They played their absolute hearts out, right until the final buzzer. Every fan watching saw the level of effort our players were giving. The entire Bismarck-Legacy Girls team (who won the 2025 State Championship through their own incredible efforts) joined our fan section and began cheering loudly for every single small play being made. Beyond the goals that we weren’t scoring, we were stacking up little wins (won races; won battles; finished hits; stifled chances against; etc.), and our fans showed us incredible love and encouragement as they enthusiastically celebrated those little wins.
As we watched our players relentlessly fight and battle with all their will and determination, especially throughout that scoreless 3rd period, their efforts straight-up brought tears to Ryan and my eyes as we were overcome with pride and emotion. As we stood on the bench and overlooked the ice, we were almost in awe of what we were seeing. I never imagined being so moved and inspired by our play in a losing effort. Our message had finally been recieved.
After the game, as our boys sat solemnly in the dressing room showing sadness from defeat, I fought back tears and a crackling voice filled with emotion as I delivered the post game message. The moment brought me back to a game when I played for the Vernon Vipers in the BCHL, when after our our 1-0 victory against the Surrey Eagles, our coach, Mike Vandekamp, shed tears of pride from all of our blocked shots and efforts to win. I didn’t truly appreciate what Mike was feeling in that moment until I experienced it for myself in that game against Central. My message to our guys: ‘We are so, so incredibly proud of your efforts! This game is not about winning or losing; this game is about showing up. And, tonight, you guys showed up!’
We may have lost the game, but by no means were we losers. Central went on to win the State Championship, defeating the Grand Forks Red River Roughriders 5-2. After going down 3-0 in the 1st, Red River fought back and showed up too….
As coaches, we need to remember, especially in the heat of passion of high stakes games, to prioritize and evaluate the effort of our players, not the result on the scoreboard. Of course we want to win, and we compete to win, but I have found that seeing a full effort from our players is where real coaching satisfaction is found; and to win is just a bonus. Our players need to know: this game is not about winning or losing; this game is about showing up.
Photo credit: Taylor Schmitt Photography
