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Sports Memories by Tom Jones

15 years

• Winger Marion Gaborik of the Minnesota Wild was scheduled to miss a minimum of 10 weeks after having surgery on his left hip.
• The Albert Lea boys’ basketball team was defeated by Austin 66-31. The Tigers were led by Alik Smed who scored nine points. Colby Strilaeff and Sean Templeman each added seven.
• Minnesota Twins owner Carl Pohlad passed away at the age of 93. He had owned the Twins since 1984 when he purchased them from Calvin Griffith.
• The Alden-Conger girls’ basketball team made the short trip to Glenville and came home with 66-40 win. Megan Miller led the Knights with 20 points and Kenzie Martin added 12.
• The Albert Lea girls’ basketball team lost 54-42 to Owatonna at the high school gym. Abbey Arends and Morgan Stadheim each scored 13 points for the Tigers.

20 years

• The Albert Lea wrestling team traveled to Apple Valley and defeated Eastview 49-12. Taylor Ignaszewski, Brandon Klukow, Dustin Eggum, Ben Berhow, Randy Larson and Chris Hable all had pins for the Tigers.
• The Glenville-Emmons boys’ basketball team lost to Blooming Prairie 54-44 at the Glenville gym. Tyler Ziebell scored 16 points in the loss with Dustin Rayman adding 13.
• The Albert Lea boys’ basketball team set a single game record with 38 field goals in a 91-53 win over Waseca. Ben Woodside led the Tigers with 31 points with Connor Keyeski adding a career high 13 points.
• The Albert Lea boys’ hockey team improved to 4-0 in the Big Nine with a 3-2 win over Rochester Mayo at the City Arena. Tyler Hegwood scored twice in the win with Peter Bracker getting the game winning goal in the third period.

50 years

• Linemates Ed Beers and Tom Baas each recorded a hat trick as the Endres Rangers men’s hockey defeated Mankato 10-1 at the fairgrounds arena.
• Brian Swanson scored an unassisted goal with 30 seconds left in the game to give the Great Northern Traveling Squirt team a 3-2 win over Austin. Darris Porter had two goals in the win.
• Jerry Stanek scored both goals as Coach Bill Intihar’s Albert Lea High School b-squad hockey team defeated Austin 2-0.
• As the Vikings were preparing for their Super Bowl game with the Miami Dolphins, coach Bud Grant was disappointed the Vikings were preparing for the game at a local public high school while the Dolphins were using the Houston Oilers team headquarters.
• Behind Jeff Jemenez’s hat trick, Quik Stop defeated the Skyline Canaries 5-3 in A-Squirt league hockey play.
• It was reported that Charles O. Finley, owner of the Oakland A’s was putting the team up for sale with a price tag of $15 million. He was also planning on selling the California Golden Seals of the National Hockey League and the Memphis Tams of the American Basketball Association.
• Sophomore goaltender Tom Anderson stopped 23 shots as the Albert Lea Tigers hockey team defeated Austin 8-5 at the fairgrounds arena. Kelly Brandt, Kent Hansen and Ross Dahl each scored two goals in the win.

North of the border

Adler Johnston, son of Alex and Angie Johnston of Albert Lea, was recently traded from the Austin Bruins, where he has played hockey the past two seasons to the Portage Terriers, who are based in Portage la Prairie Manitoba and play in the Manitoba Junior Hockey League.