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Grand Rapids Hockey Offseason News

-Sam Rendle, Tony Palkki, and John Skrbec have been named captains for the 2008-2009 season.

-J.R. Mackey has been awarded the 2007-2008 Grand Rapids Hobey Baker Award.

-Corey Kosak was named Player's Choice team MVP for the 2007-2008 season.

-Sam Sparen was named Player's Choice team Most Determined Player for the 2007-2008 season.

-Pat Rendle has been named Grand Rapids High School Athletic Director as Wayne Pender is set to resign at the end of the school year.

The 2008-2009 Schedule has been released with the opener at Cloquet/Esko/Carlton, and Grand Rapids first game at the new Duluth Heritage Sports Center vs. Duluth East on Jan. 15. Click on "Schedule" above.

Team MVP of 2007-2008
Presented by GRHS Hockey on 2/25/2008

GRHS Hockey is proud to announce that Sam Rendle has been named the 2007-2008 team MVP. Rendle, a junior defenseman, tallied 6 goals and 21 assists for 27 points. His point total placed him third on the team. It was Rendle's defensive presence that helped Grand Rapids all season long. In a two year career with the team, Rendle has 9 goals and 32 assists for 41 points. He scored the game winning goal in overtime in the state semi-finals in 2007. Rendle played in 25 of 26 games for the Thunderhawks in 2007-2008. He missed the final game due to an injured shoulder. Sam will be looked upon to carry the load again during his senior campaign. Congrats to Sam Rendle!

Hardest worker of 2007-2008
Presented by GRHS Hockey on 2/24/2008

GRHS Hockey is proud to announce that Corey Kosak has been named the hardest worker of the 2007-2008 season. Kosak, a senior defenseman, had 6 goals and 11 assists for 17 points in his senior campaign. In a three year career, Kosak tallied 9 goals and 19 assists for 28 career points. He scored the lone Grand Rapids goal in the 2007 state championship game vs. Roseau. This season, Corey played in the playoffs with a torn apart knee. Not only did he play with injuries, he worked very hard to come back from the injury and to help his team. Congrats to Corey Kosak!

Moment #1-Grand Rapids vs. Cloquet
11/27/2007

Opening night brought us the #1 moment of the 2007-2008 season. Cloquet led Grand Rapids 1-0 after one but Tony Palkki tied it at one in the second period. Cloquet's eventual Mr. Hockey finalist, Justin Jokinen gave Cloquet the lead just over a minute into the third. With just under thirty seconds remaining in the game, the score was still 2-1. Grand Rapids head coach Bruce LaRoque elected to use his timeout with the puck in the neutral zone, setting up the dramatics. The Thunderhawks flurried briefly in the Cloquet end and the puck came onto Tony Palkki's stick in the waning seconds of the game. Tony Palkki buried his second goal of the game with just one second left on the clock. Grand Rapids would go onto tie Cloquet and beat then in Cloquet later in the year. Apparently that didn't phase the Lumberjacks as they went on to win the section 7AA title.

Moment #2-Grand Rapids @ Edina
12/19/2007

Grand Rapids made the trip down to Edina for the Edina Holiday Classic. Their first matchup was with the then undefeated Edina Hornets. The Hornets were also tied for the #1 ranking in the state. Edina took a penalty late in the period to set up moment #2. With just ten seconds left in the first period Corey Kosak and Matt Jerulle assisted on Robb Roy's power play goal. That goal gave Grand Rapids a 1-0 lead on the road. The Hornets would go on to beat Grand Rapids 3-2 and eventually become the state runner-up.

Moment #3-Grand Rapids vs. Forest Lake
2/19/2008

The Grand Rapids Thunderhawks opened the playoffs with a section 7AA quarterfinal win over Forest Lake for the second straight season. The top line of Robb Roy (Sr.), Sam Sparen (Sr.), and John Skrbec (So.) tallied ten of the teams eleven points in the game. Robb Roy had a goal and two assists. Sam Sparen had a goal and three assists. John Skrbec had a goal and two assists. Sam Rendle scored the first goal of the game and that was the only point that the top line did not have. Grand Rapids went on to win the game, 4-2.

Moment #4-Grand Rapids @ Cloquet
1/15/2008

Jack Moore scored twice and J.R. Mackey and Tony Palkki added one each as Grand Rapids picked up their biggest win of the season, 4-2 over Cloquet. A.J. Underwood made 21 stops in the game for the Thunderhawks. The win for Grand Rapids made their season record 1-0-1 vs. Cloquet on the season and 6-1-1 over the last three season. Cloquet would go on to be seeded below Grand Rapids but still went on to win section 7AA.

Moment #5-Grand Rapids @ Bemidji
1/22/2008

It was a night of firsts for Grand Rapids at John Glas Fieldhouse. Trevor Tabaka made 27 saves for Grand Rapids to record his first career shutout and Grand Rapids' first shutout of the season. Nate Dumm contributed to the offense for the first time in his career in the 4-0 win. Dumm scored a shorthanded breakaway goal for the first goal of his career. Dumm's goal was also the Thunderhawk's first shorthanded goal on the season. Dumm added the second goal of his career later on in the game. Grand Rapids improved to 9-7-1 with the win.

Moment #6-Grand Rapids vs. Hibbing
2/4/2008

The Thunderhawks beat Hibbing 4-1 on their only Monday night game of the year. The win was huge for multiple reasons. The Thunderhawks were still in the Iron Range Conference Race and they had already been beaten by Hibbing during the season. A.J. Underwood made 18 stops in goal to pick up the win, but none bigger than his second period save on Hibbing standout Anthony DeCenzo. DeCenzo was in free on Underwood when the game was just 2-1 in favor of Grand Rapids. DeCenzo made his move and Underwood slammed the door shut with his biggest save of the season.

Moment #7-Grand Rapids vs. Greenway
1/24/2008

Grand Rapids kicked off the second game with Greenway in scoring fashion. Senior Jack Moore tallied just 48 seconds into the game to give Grand Rapids the 1-0 lead. Grant Prokop and John Skrbec assisted on the goal. The Thunderhawks would score three in the first and two in each of the last two period while allowing just one goal in each period. The 7-3 win was the second win over archrival Greenway in the season.

Moment #8-Grand Rapids @ Greenway
12/7/2007

The rivalry game was tied at three about ten minutes into the second period when Sam Rendle gave the Thunderhawks the lead. Rendle stepped up and picked off a long cross ice pass in the neutral zone in front of the Grand Rapids bench. Rendle flew into the zone looking for room to go to the net. He never found it. Rendle decided to loop behind the net and he came up on the other side and cut right to the bottom of the circle. He proceeded to turn and shoot. Rendle's shot beat Greenway goaltender Trevor Guyer upstairs and the water bottle popped into the air. Grand Rapids needed that goal and every other one they got as they slipped by Greenway, 6-5.

Moment #9-Grand Rapids vs. Anoka
1/26/2008

Junior defenseman Sam Rendle laid the hit of the year on Anoka's #20 Dustin Olson. The punishing hit along the bench side boards in the far end at the IRA Civic Center in Grand Rapids. The hit did result in a penalty and Grand Rapids did lose the game 3-0 but Rendle's hit is still the #9 moment of the year.

Moment #10-Grand Rapids vs. Forest Lake
11/30/2007

In his first varsity game with the Grand Rapids Thunderhawks, sophomore defenseman Kyle Kleinendorst scored twice. Kleinendorst's second goal of the game tied the score at three with just 3:35 remaining in the contest. Although Grand Rapids would go onto lose 4-3 in overtime, Kyle Kleinendorst made a big splash in his varsity debut.

Duluth All-Stars 13, Iron Range All-Stars 2
3/12/2008-DECC

The Iron Range team really struggled defensively in game two of the all-star series sponsored by Kernz. Sam Sparen of Grand Rapids did pick up an assist on Ladd Corrin's goal for the Iron Range.

Duluth All-Stars 6, Iron Range All-Stars 2
3/11/2008-Eveleth

Grand Rapids ended up only sending two players to the Iron Range team for the CCM All-Star game series this year. Both Sam Rendle and Corey Kosak were forced to miss the games due to injury. The two players Grand Rapids did send made a difference. Both Sam Sparen and Robb Roy scored, accounting for the only two goals scored by the Iron Range team in the 6-2 loss. The two teams will play again at 8:00 p.m. on 3/12/2008 at the DECC in Duluth.

GRHS Hockey Post Season Schedule:
Top 10 Moments of 2007-2008 March 10-14 (Moments 10-6), March 17-21 (Moments 5-1)
Hardest worker of 2007-2008 will be named March 24
Team MVP of 2007-2008 will be named March 25