Sunday was a good day for the Grand Rapids High School boys hockey team.
The Thunderhawks' Avery Peterson captured the Minnesota Mr. Hockey award, given to the state's outstanding senior player, and Hunter Shepard won the Frank Brimsek Award, given to the top senior goaltender -- marking the first time both winners hail from the same school.
The awards were presented by the Minnesota Minute Men the day after the state tournament concluded in St. Paul.
Peterson, a sixth-round draft pick of the Minnesota Wild last summer, surprised many by returning to Grand Rapids for his senior season. Family concerns -- older brother Evan has a rare cognitive and terminal disease known as Metachromatic Leukodystrophy -- and a desire to go through one last high school campaign spurred the decision, and it's one he never regretted throughout the winter.
"The program has such a special tradition," Peterson, who returned to Sioux City of the United States Hockey League immediately after Grand Rapids bowed out of the Section 7AA playoffs, said last month.
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First-year Thunderhawks coach John Rothstein was optimistic Peterson would be back, but he couldn't be certain until the first day of practice.
"We were never really quite sure until he showed up on November 9," Rothstein said.
The 6-foot-2, 205-pound forward carried the youthful Thunderhawks to an 18-9 record, which included impressive victories over Roseau, Elk River and Hermantown. Along the way, he sparkled on offense, scoring 37 goals and adding 30 assists for 67 points. His remarkable consecutive-games point streak, spanning last this season and this one, reached 38 before he was shut out in a mid-January loss to Duluth East.
He capped his Grand Rapids career with more than 200 points, a program record.
"He has a big-time shot, an NHL shot," Rothstein said.
Peterson is the first Mr. Hockey winner from the Northland since Greenway's Gino Guyer won the award in 2002. And he's the second Grand Rapids player to bring home the honor -- Aaron Miskovich won in 1997.
Shepard, an iron man while playing nearly every minute between the pipes the past two seasons, didn't jump off the page statistically. In front of a revamped and inexperienced defense, though, he was peppered on an almost nightly basis and had a 2.64 goals-against average and a .918 save percentage, both of which were on par with the other Brimsek finalist he edged out -- Elk River's MacLean Berglove (2.46, .908).
Rothstein pointed to a 4-3 December loss to eventual state champ Edina in highlighting Shepard's value. The netminder stopped a whopping 60 shots against the explosive Hornets.
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"There was a reason it was a one-goal game, and that was Hunter Shepard," the coach said. "The bigger the game, the better he played."
Shepard will play for Bismarck of the North American Hockey League next season.
Also in the running for the Mr. Hockey award was East's Phil Beaulieu, like Peterson a Nebraska-Omaha commit. In fact, four of the Mr. Hockey finalists have committed to play for Dean Blais and the Mavericks. Eden Prairie's Luc Snuggerud and Steven Spinner are the others.
