The Rink Live

Mike Sertich grew up playing hockey in Virginia, Minn., played college hockey at Minnesota Duluth and went on to coach at Grand Rapids High School, UMD and Michigan Tech and was an assistant coach with the Team USA sled hockey team. Sertich was recently named the 2021 Hobey Baker Legend of College Hockey and he talks about how it affected him when he got the news. Sertich also tells some great stories from his life, including Iron Range high school games when he was growing up, coaching Mark Pavelich, the Bulldogs in the 1980s and a lot more with The Rink Live's Mick Hatten and Jess Myers.

Katie Emmer was able to return to FOX Sports North on Saturday to help with its Hockey Day Minnesota broadcast. Emmer began her professional broadcasting career at FSN before working on Philadelphia Flyers broadcasts last season for NBC Philadelphia. Because of the pandemic, she and Chris Therien were laid off before this season started.

But Emmer is staying busy as a freelancer and she talks about some projects she has been working on. She talks about her experiences in Philadelphia, this year's Minnesota Wild team, her unique path that took her to St. Cloud State and what it is like to grow up with six brothers

NCAA Division I Men's Ice Hockey Committee chair Mike Kemp joined The Rink Live's Mick Hatten and Jess Myers on Feb. 22, 2021, to discuss the unique situation of picking a field of 16 this season. He ended up sharing that Albany, N.Y., will be the fourth regional site for the tournament. The other regional sites are Loveland, Colo.; Fargo, N.D.; and Bridgeport, Conn. Originally, Manchester, N.H., was the fourth site, but pulled out because the facility is not being used.

Kemp also discusses being the first head coach at Nebraska Omaha, growing up in Duluth, being an assistant for Don Roberts at Gustavus, Bob Johnson and Jeff Sauer at Wisconsin and for Val Belmonte at Illinois-Chicago.

A bit of a turn-back-the-clock episode of The Rink Live podcast with Mick Hatten and Jess Myers. Hatten and Myers discuss the weekends for the University of Minnesota and St. Cloud State men's hockey teams, take a look at the conference races for the Big Ten and NCHC, take a look at the NCAA Division I tournament picture and throw in some Minnesota boys hockey talk in this episode.

The 2020-21 season has been an odd one because of the coronavirus pandemic with men's hockey teams being forced to play virtually no nonconference games and unbalanced conference schedules about. How the NCAA Division I committee is going to pick the 16-team field for the national tournament has not yet been determined. There are no PairWise Rankings this season to take a lot of the guesswork out of the equation.

With that in mind, The Rink Live reporters Jess Myers, Mick Hatten, Matt Wellens, Austin Monteith and Brad Schlossman pick a field if the tournament was to start tomorrow. There were 11 teams that made all five of the ballots. Find out which teams would be in and possible regional seeds for the teams in this episode of The Rink Live podcast.

This is the director's cut.

Kyle Oen discusses how his website (www.vintagemnhockey.com) came about, how he goes about making vintage jerseys, shows off some of his hockey jersey collection, reminisces about the Minnesota North Stars, discusses the Minnesota Wild's reverse retro jerseys, the state hockey history available on his website and more with The Rink Live's Mick Hatten and Jess Myers.

Anthony LaPanta took over as FSN's play-by-play announcer for Minnesota Wild telecasts in 2012. He joins The Rink Live's Jess Myers and Mick Hatten to discuss this season's Wild team, memories of Hockey Day Minnesota and his love of cooking. LaPanta also has worked some recent Minnesota Gophers men's hockey games for FSN and he talks about this season's Gophers. LaPanta shares memories of how Hockey Day Minnesota got started and how he and Kevin Gorg got into an accident driving back from one of the early events.

Judd Zulgad of skornorth.com discusses the much-awaited (and enjoyed) debut of Minnesota Wild rookie Kirill Kaprizov. Zulgad also gives some perspective as to what his talent appears to be and where he could end up ranking among the Wild's players all time.

Zulgad also gets nostalgic with The Rink Live's Jess Myers and Mick Hatten about the Minnesota North Stars, Met Center, the one-class Minnesota state boys hockey tournament and the best parts of the St. Paul Civic Center.

Dave Starman has been one of the voices of the IIHF World Junior Championships for more than a decade and has been a color analyst for college hockey games for CBS Sports Network since 2003. He had quite a month of December with working the majority of games in the NCHC Pod and then providing analysis for Team USA games on NHL Network.

Starman is a former college and pro goalie, has been a coach at the junior and pro level, a pro scout and is currently a youth hockey coach in New York. He discusses this year's world juniors, past world juniors, the NCHC Pod, calling games from a studio, the recent dismissal of play-by-play announcer Ben Holden and more.

Minnesota Hockey, the governing body for amateur hockey in the state, has been hard at work to get players and teams back on the ice. The organization's executive director, Glen Andresen, joins The Rink Live's Mick Hatten and Jess Myers to discuss how teams are getting back on the ice on Jan. 4. He discusses some of the key rules that have been implemented to try to ensure the sport will not be shut down again this season and gives an update on mouth guard requirements, what masks players will be permitted to wear and more.

If people have more questions about the return to play protocol, visit www.minnesotahockey.org or contact Mike Terwilliger of Minnesota Hockey https://www.minnesotahockey.org/page/show/86521-board-of-directors.