Local boys hockey elites to watch this season:
River Freeman, Hermantown senior forward
Henry Peterson, Hermantown senior defenseman
Jackson Strukel, Hibbing-Chisholm sophomore defenseman
Nathan Garski, Grand Rapids junior forward
Tate Swanson, Hibbing-Chisholm junior forward
Bobby Thornton, Cloquet-Esko-Carlton senior forward
John Scott, Duluth Denfeld senior forward
Howie's daily column is sponsored by Lyric Kitchen Bar. University of Minnesota Duluth honored six players with its 2025-26 men’s hockey team awards Wednesday, headlined by sophomore forward Max Plante, who capped a historic season as the Bulldogs’ most valuable player. Plante, a Hermantown native, received the
A group that could have fragmented chose to remain intact, and that continuity alters expectations in a meaningful way. Teams that stay together tend to become harder to play against, not just because of talent, but because of familiarity and shared understanding.
Plante said he plans to return to Minnesota Duluth next season, with the opportunity to play alongside his brothers, Zam and incoming freshman Victor.
If arena football stabilizes, history will trace it back to whether Jerry Kurz succeeds. Kurz understands the league’s past because he lived it. His challenge is preventing nostalgia from becoming policy. Expansion discipline, ownership vetting and media credibility all run through his office.
Howie's daily column is sponsored by Lyric Kitchen Bar. eMail Howie There’s a quiet kind of panic that doesn’t show up in ribbon cuttings or glossy tourism campaigns. It lives at the kitchen table, in the pause before a credit card is swiped, in the slow
District officials said they attempted to keep reductions away from classrooms when possible, instead targeting administrative roles, support services and programs with declining enrollment.
Howie's daily column is sponsored by Lyric Kitchen Bar. University of Minnesota Duluth honored six players with its 2025-26 men’s hockey team awards Wednesday, headlined by sophomore forward Max Plante, who capped a historic season as the Bulldogs’ most valuable player. Plante, a Hermantown native, received the
Inside the camp, conductor Rafael Schächter secretly assembled choirs, staging performances with limited resources and even a single smuggled score. These were not just artistic exercises — but acts of resistance, a way for prisoners to assert identity and dignity in a system designed to erase both.