The 2024/25 MNL season is officially in the books as the mighty North Stars raise their second Stanley Keg in franchise history. Last night the North Stars, led by Conn Smythe Award winner Jack Serda, thoroughly dismantled the Americans 5-0. The North Stars quickly got on the board three minutes into the game as Serda found a streaking Troy Otto who beat Santi on the glove side. “It was very important for my ego to snipe the eventual game winner that early. I mean I built this team to surround myself with great players so I could eventually have all this glory for myself” said a jubilant Troy in a post game interview. Otto was not the only stud on the ice last night… Alex Kruso had a spectacular season which continued through the Keg run. Kruso found himself on a breakaway in the second period where he undressed the American goalie for a beautiful goal. A shocked Santi said after the game that he thought it was “Pavel Datsyuk hanging my jock in the rafters”. The onslaught continued with a pair of goals from reigning MNL MVP Slick Rick Merrit and another from Joe Ellis. 

Sadly, the Americans ran out of steam in the finals. “The defensive play from our squad was solid but you can’t win any beer league games if you can’t score” said a dejected Matt Crnkovich. “They are a hard team to play against. When you face guys like Pistol Pete, Hal, Nick Myers and Pearcy every line there’s just not much room out there” commented a tired Brauny. Not to be left out is the solid play on the defensive end for the North Stars. Back to back Keg winning goaltender Andrew Keila sported a 0.50 goals against average in the finals against guys like Andy Femm and Trent Young. “I had a lot of help from my defenseman” said a humble Keila. “Major Tom Phillips played all year like he was 8 feet tall and oh yeah… SUCK IT PROCTOR!”. 

It has been another successful year for MNL. As some of us look towards the near future at our Diamond Anniversary 10th Season, there may be some changes. First of all I want to announce that Dr. Mike Sikorski will be stepping down from GM’ship of the Whalers. “It was a heck of a run but you can only be around Goose for so long” said Ski via satellite phone while skiing in Zurich. In his place will be Paul Bin Biliti. “I’m excited to team up with Goose and this proud franchise. My goal of finally raising Stanley Keg is now my responsibility” Bin said.  Secondly, there is a grass roots movement to pause the normal team names and uniforms every four years to coincide with international play. 2025/26 is an Olympic year and there is overwhelming support from the rank and file. A special thanks to all of you who have set up golf outings, arranged MNL Give’s Back, hosted events, grilled in the Labbat Blue Party Deck parking lot, volunteered reffed, worked the scorebox, did the stats, authored great articles, brought beer, coordinated the schedule, played accountant, acted as a DJ, put up with Woodsie’s shananigans, produced a quality Twitch stream and anonymously post as ‘not_MNL’.  We all play on different teams with different players each year, but we are just ONE league. It takes all of us to make this something special. “The strength of the team is each individual member. The strength of each member is the team.” – Phil Jackson

Good luck to Brandt, Tom Phillips, Maff and Hartkop for the upcoming It’s Just Spring season. See everyone at the MNL banquet where we will reveal the winners of the annual Dickie Dunn Awards.

Dickie Dunn