As the cold weather of February comes to an end one of the most highly anticipated State Tournaments in the state of Minnesota is coming into sight. The Minnesota boy’s High School Hockey Tournament. What makes this tournament stand out more than others? “It’s because our state is the state of hockey. There are so many young kids that are D-1 bound and a handful of those kids who will someday play in the NHL. Hockey is the sport to play in this state.” That’s Ron Ritacco’s explanation. There are twenty current Minnesotan’s playing in the NHL today including Olympian David Backes who has tallied 37 points this season. Growing up participating in this tournament is a dream for die hard hockey players. The atmosphere of the tournament is “unreal”, says Jon Cobb who moved from North Carolina to Minnesota to follow is dreams of someday playing in the NHL but now his dream has changed. As this tournament approaches some experts say it’s the most competitive High School tournaments in the nation while others like Jon say there are some flaws in the tournament. “Some sections have some tough competition and others have to weak of competition, which results in some teams that are sent home when really they should be in the tournament.” As the 65th tournament approaches the top teams to beat this year include Minnetonka Skippers and the Edina Hornets. Both teams won both of their section finals game the other night at Target Center securing the top two spots in the tournament this year. In addition to the tournament there are also others events to look for as well. Right next door to The Xcel Energy Center is the River Center where the Hockey Expo is held. The Hockey expo attracts hockey players of all ages. The Expo is where the entire hockey named brands show off their new lineup of equipment for the next season. Not only is there new gear to check out but also shooting galleries and Warrior’s world famous “The Barber Shop”. The barber shop is where you can get your hair cut into different designs that promote Warrior Hockey. Hockey Equipment competitors find this is the best time to promote their new gear at one of the biggest tournaments of the season. Also there is a ceremony for the announcement of Mr. Hockey which is awarded to the top senior hockey player in the state each year. “I think hockey is big in Minnesota because of the long winter we have. In addition to that Minnesota has a reputation of having the fiercest competition in the entire nation”, Ryan O’shea claims. What football is to Texas is what hockey is to Minnesota times two. That’s how big hockey is to Minnesota. There are over 70 High School’s that put together a hockey team each year. Some schools have established themselves as the top teams to ever play including Edina, Eden Prarie, Duluth East, Roseau, South St. Paul, St. Paul Johnson, and now St. Thomas. Roseau tops the list with 32 state tournament appearances. Ron says the greatest game he as seen was the championship game in 1989 between Bloomington Jefferson (his high school) vs. Rochester John Marshall, they went into an overtime period it was a fun game to watch it was back and forth all game long and kept everyone on their heels until almost midnight when the game finally ended. As the weather starts to warm up in the month of March, make sure to come and check out the Minnesota Boys High School state tournament starting on the eleventh of March to truly know why the game of hockey is so important to the state of Minnesota.