MOORHEAD — Shawn and Andrea Sarbacker were pulling into Massachusetts General Hospital in Boston while talking to your intrepid columnist, a noted hockey expert, by phone early this week. Mass General is a five-hour drive, one way, from the Sarbacker's home in suburban Philadelphia and they make the trip once a month.

The purpose of this inconvenience is so that Shawn can meet with medical experts and pick up his prescription drugs in his ongoing battle against amyotrophic lateral sclerosis, more commonly known as ALS. He was diagnosed with the fatal neurodegenerative disease five years ago and the fight goes on.

"You might notice some slight slurring," Shawn said, "but other than that I'm doing well. I have the best ALS doc in the world and I'm involved with some real cutting edge experimental treatments. I'm in my fifth year with the disease, when most people would be dead. I'm still walking, still talking, still traveling. I had to quit playing hockey, but that didn't have anything to do with the disease. It was my bad hip."

Shawn, you're 57. Maybe it was time anyway ...

Shawn's energetic wife Andrea helped facilitate the phone call, which was meant to be a trip down memory lane.

Your columnist was pressed into emergency action Saturday night to write a story from the Moorhead-Elk River/Zimmerman game in the Section 8AA boys high school hockey tournament. The Spuds won 4-1, advancing to the section championship game Wednesday against Bemidji.

Because of an insatiable curiosity about puck stuff, a search was done of The Forum's electronic archives to see if Moorhead and Bemidji had met previously for a section championship. The winner, of course, moves on to the storied Minnesota state hockey tournament in St. Paul.

Turns out they had, five times. Bemidji's won three. But there's a twist.

Your columnist believed Moorhead's run of hockey excellence began in the early 1990s under coach Terry Cullen. The first state tournament trip in Spuds history was in 1992 with a victory over Roseau.

Lesser known, perhaps, is that the Spuds actually played for a coveted trip to state six years earlier. They made their first trip to a section title game in 1986 under legendary coach Terry Shercliffe, an architect of everything Moorhead hockey has become.

The opponent was Bemidji, just like this time.

Moorhead's goalie was Shawn Sarbacker.

Shawn was part of the famed Sarbacker family of Moorhead. His dad John, a beloved dermatologist for the Fargo Clinic and St. Luke's Hospital before they eventually became Sanford, helped build the city's youth hockey program and also coached little guys in football and baseball. Dr. John died in 2021. His wife Margaret moved to Arizona a couple of years ago.

Shawn's brothers Steve, Scott and Stuart were all Spuds.

"We were like all the other kids in Minnesota who grew up playing hockey. You had dreams of going to the state tournament at the St. Paul Civic Center with those old plexiglass boards, but back in those days it was mostly Roseau out of Section 8. We didn't really factor in with the better teams in the section," Shawn Sarbacker said. "But over the years we kept getting better and better and by the time I was a senior I thought we had a pretty good chance."

It didn't look that way during the regular season. The Spuds finished 7-10-3, losing a number of close games, and were seeded eighth in the section. There was only one class of hockey in those glorious days, so Moorhead opened with a sub-section game against Little Falls (12-0 victory) and a second-round surprise over Alexandria (3-1) before the Mother Of All Victories in the quarterfinals.

Sarbacker made 44 saves in a 5-4 victory over Warroad, which was unbeaten, top-seeded and ranked third in the state.

"Bernie Burggraf was calling Roseau's games on the radio," Shercliffe said from his winter home in Florida. "Along with the other Roseau people, he was pretty excited after we beat Warroad. They figured they were going to beat us in the next game."

Not so fast. In the section semifinals, Sarbacker played what he called his "best game of his career," making 34 saves in a 3-2 victory over Roseau, which had won 24 of the previous 30 section championships.

"We had a great group of guys that rallied together, and make sure you mention them, but I got hot at just the right time," Sarbacker said.

Tom Shimabukuro. Tim Meyer. Scott Mannausau. Mark Jensen. Scott Bjerke. Chipper Oie. Jamie Hagness. Jeff Kraft. Many others.

Mentioned 'em.

Bring on Bemidji.

Or not.

"We had played Bemidji pretty tough in the regular season. We took them to overtime in Moorhead before losing. So we were feeling pretty good. But they had a kid named George Pelawa, who was a first-round draft pick in the NHL. Just a huge kid. A beast. And they had a bunch of other really good players," Sarbacker said. "They put it on us early in that one. It was all over but the crying pretty quickly."

It was 3-0 after one period, 6-0 after two. The final was 10-0 for the Lumberjacks.

"We were an unselfish, disciplined, and well-coached team that peaked at just the right time, brimming with confidence, and we were able to ride a hot goaltender deep into the Section 8 tournament," said Shimabukuro, who played college hockey at Princeton and has had a distinguished career with the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. "I have sometimes wondered if that 1985-86 team overachieved, but I think the reality is that we were as good as any team in Section 8 that year, except Bemidji, which was a force of nature and stacked."

The Bemidji domination was such that through Moorhead's first four power plays, the Spuds managed just one weak shot on net while Sarbacker and his defensive mates were fending off Lumberjack rushes.

"Pelawa was good, but they about seven kids who played Division I hockey. They were good. And we were awful (in that game)," Shercliffe said.

The Spuds wouldn't return to the section title game for six seasons, when they beat Roseau for that first state tournament trip.

Now, Moorhead is seeking its 21st trip to state.

"I haven't lived in Moorhead since I graduated high school and left for college, but I've obviously followed the hockey program and it's been awesome to see," said Sarbacker, who went to Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute in New York to play college hockey and become an engineer. "To see what Moorhead hockey has become, really one of the powers in the state, has been unbelievable. Now we have to stop being the bridesmaid and be the bride."

That's a reference to Moorhead still being without a state championship.

First, Bemidji in the section championship game.

"I'm already hoping for a different outcome from the time we played them. Vengeance will be mine!" Sarbacker said, laughing. "My brothers and I try to make it to St. Paul for the state tournament anytime the Spuds make it. We're hoping for that. I already have the hotel rooms booked."

ALS be darned.

"I'm hanging tough," Sarbacker said. "Hopefully see you in St. Paul."