After years of struggles, can Grafton-Park River ever return to the top of North Dakota high school hockey?

GRAFTON, N.D. — The names of Grafton-Park River hockey stars of decades ago flow effortlessly from the mouths of the town’s current hockey leaders.

Campbell. Kalbrener. Brodeur. Demers. Miller. Hills. Markusen.

“There are a lot of towns where they can’t name the high school stars from 30 years before but if anyone asked about Lee Brodeur in my age group, they could all tell you he was an excellent player,” said former Grafton-River player and youth hockey coach Andrew Petersen, a 2006 Grafton High School graduate. “It was almost mythical who was on the state championship teams. Growing up in Grafton, it wasn’t so much about playing college hockey. We were all about Spoiler hockey.”

Brodeur, a 1984 Grafton graduate, was selected No. 65 in the 1984 NHL Draft by the Montreal Canadiens — the highest drafted North Dakota prep until Fargo’s Tyler Kleven in 2020 (No. 44).

Grafton has long been a hockey-crazed town. From 1963 to 1985 playing as just Grafton and 1989 to 2013 as the Grafton-Park River co-op, the Spoilers went to every North Dakota state boys hockey tournament in those spans except one (1999). The Spoilers won five state championships (1978, 1985, 1991, 2002 and 2008).

As Roseau and Warroad have built reputations as hockey-obsessed communities in Minnesota, Grafton once held that distinction in North Dakota. Like Roseau and Warroad, Grafton was a small town punching up against big-city peers.

Until it no longer did.

Since 2013, the Spoilers have been to state once (2018) and have now missed the tournament for seven straight seasons. Grafton-Park River finished 4-18 in 2024-25, with two of those wins against Mayville-Portland.

In the last decade, the Spoilers have been positioned more on the outer edges of the Eastern Dakota Conference tournament than the cusp of the state tournament, let alone knocking on the door of state titles like they once did.

It all begs the question: Can Spoiler hockey ever rise again to be among the state’s elite programs?

Grafton-Park River hockey leaders say there’s reason for optimism.

Eric Hylden / Grand Forks Herald

The resurgence starts with participation numbers.

The North Stars youth hockey program — which pulls from the towns of Grafton, Park River, Minto, Drayton, St. Thomas, Hoople, Lankin, Fordville, Adams and Edinburg — reached 174 kids this year. North Stars director Kylen Kostrzewski said that number is up about 50 from seven years ago.

In addition to the pure numbers, coaches and administrators are just as excited about the local tradition-rich hockey families returning to the sport.

“It was a culture,” Kostrzewski said of what made the Spoilers successful previously. “Now we’re having guys coming back into the program doing some coaching that were part of the program when it was winning. It was that hard-nosed, little-guy-going-against-the-big-guy mentality. It was instilled everywhere. Eventually, we just lost the numbers, and it was already an uphill battle. We pick 13 kids out of 27 and go play Grand Forks and its bantam program has 120. It’s David and Goliath.”

At the high school level, one important indicator of progress is a junior varsity team. For a few years recently, Grafton-Park River only fielded a varsity program.

This past season, the Spoilers had enough for a partial junior varsity squad but coaches foresee a full JV team in 2025-26. The North Stars expect three squirt teams — two teams for any age group of Grafton's size is considered a success — for the next few years and had 44 mites this year.

“We had guys who needed JV minutes,” said Spoilers varsity head coach Joe Demers, a 31-year-old who graduated in 2012 after playing in four straight state hockey tournaments as a Grafton-Park River player. “A lot of guys didn’t see much varsity time. They didn’t get the game experience they needed. That’s challenging in the development process. That’s been our biggest hurdle. We had some small classes come through and that’s the hand you’re dealt.

“Our numbers look good going forward. Our youth numbers are strong. I see us staying junior varsity/varsity for the foreseeable future. Being a small town caught up to us. We were so fortunate for so many years to be a powerhouse in the EDC. You used to see hockey families with long histories in Spoiler hockey and you had a generation come through, and we lost that. The nice thing is a lot of these guys … we’ll get back to that now, and you’ll see some familiar names.”

Eric Hylden/Grand Forks Herald

After high school, Demers attended Valley City State to play baseball. He later returned to Grafton and was asked to be an assistant hockey coach under head coach Scott Robideaux. Now in his third year as head coach, Demers is set on bringing Spoilers hockey back to state tournaments — a staple of his youth.

“It’s just something you were taught at a young age,” he said. “You’re going up against the bigger towns and you probably can’t out-skill, so you have to out-work. That was always the mentality. We have to play a physical brand of hockey. That was the expectation. You couldn’t wait to get to high school to be a Spoiler. It was your turn to keep that tradition going. You grew up around it, lived it and breathed it. We had such a great run of state appearances and that fed the next group and the next group. That’s what’s missing. We have guys coming through who have never seen the Spoilers at the state tournament, so that’s our challenge — trying to bring that back.”

In 1962, Grafton first formed a high school hockey team of players who had been training on a frozen swamp. The 17 kids were hoping for a new indoor arena to replace the original Grafton Winter Sports Arena that burned Sept. 27, 1946, just eight years after it was built. A new indoor rink was built in 1964.

Eventually, a second indoor rink was built. On Sept. 17, 1986, the Grand Forks Herald reported the Grafton Blue Line Club was working toward a $600,000 drive to complete construction of the Centennial Center, a new 32,500-square-foot multi-purpose building.

The Centennial was a major upgrade. The Grafton Community Arena on Fifth Street downtown had no heating.

"If it's 30-below outside, it's 20-below inside," Lloyd Holy told the Herald’s Kevin Bonham in 1986. "There are people in town who won't go to a hockey game because they'll freeze."

Completing a second rink was a full community effort. In June 1984, Holy called local farmers to donate to fill the site. "There was just a stream of trucks," he said. When it ended, 33 trucks had delivered 340 loads of dirt, gravel and sand.

Grafton broke in the new Centennial Center in February of 1988 with a 3-3 tie against Grand Forks Central, thanks to 51 saves from Troy Mears.

For more than 25 years, Grafton was a two-indoor rink town. In 2014, however, the Winter Sports Arena was deemed unusable. It now serves as storage and office space for an electrical company.

“When I was growing up, we were fortunate to have two sheets of ice and program directors that were willing to get us open ice when available,” Petersen said.

Spoiler hockey leaders hope to address ice availability moving forward.

“It’s a constant battle trying to make time with one sheet of ice in Grafton and one in Park River,” Petersen said. “We don’t have open ice opportunities for kids nearly often enough. The game of hockey isn’t always learned under a structured environment but the opportunity to free play. Right now, between camps and figure skating and hockey, there’s not much time for open ice. It wasn’t a good year to use the outdoor rinks, either. It was either 30-below or it was melting. We have people working hard to make the dream (a second ice sheet) a reality.”

Eric Hylden/Grand Forks Herald

Youth coaches say Demers has strengthened the connection between the North Star program and the high school level, encouraging youth attendance at varsity games and instilling the varsity disciplines for the younger players to know the expectation as they age into his program.

Demers had 32 players this year. Before that, the roster was around 20 to 25. For comparison, Demers said, the two Grand Forks schools often cut more players than the Spoilers have altogether.

Kostrzewski said Demers has been a strong asset for the Spoiler future.

“He’s a Demers; his hockey knowledge is immense,” said Kostrzewski, who graduated in 2010 and played on the 2008 state title team. “He wants to see it from start to finish, with the finish being his team. He’s very involved with helping us develop coaches and teaching the right things. Kids respond to him.

“Being the director now, my thing I’m saying lately is we have numbers now, let’s use them. We’re looking at how we’re practicing and what other towns are doing. Obviously, who you play isn’t apples to apples with Grand Forks and Fargo. But we’re very competitive in the youth levels and the numbers are healthy, and we’re excited to have those numbers again.”

Although the Spoilers won just four games this past season, Grafton-Park River’s best win came late in the year in the East Region quarterfinals against Fargo South-Shanley to set up an opportunity to head to state. The Spoilers nearly pulled off the upset, losing 5-4 to Fargo North in a state qualifier.

Next year, the Spoilers expect to bring back their top six scorers, including 51-point scorer James Larson.

“The wins haven’t been there but our play is much improved,” Demers said. “You can start to see it turning.”