There are two sides to every story. There are always different points of view, whether it's an exciting story, a boring story, or a tragic story.
What happened to Jack Jablonski was tragic, but his story isn't tragic. It's inspiring. His story inspired a nation to rally behind him and to support him, and his situation inspired his team to fight harder and to win the state championship.
Fifty years from now, people will still be talking about that final game between Benilde-St. Margaret's and Hill-Murray at the state hockey tournament. They'll be talking about the journey those players made to get to that last game, the emotional struggles they went through all season and overcame to claim that championship trophy.
Then there's the untold story behind Benilde's win, the one that no one will bother to recall fifty years from now. It's the story about the team that lost the game.
Zach LaValle was on the ice that day. He witnessed the perfect ending to the imperfect story. He was a part of history, but it isn't his name that people will remember when they tell this story. A junior at Hill-Murray, Zach saw it all happen from the other side of the rink.
"It's a little tough for me to admit, but I'm a very competitive guy and I don't like losing," Zach said. "But it was a cool way (for Benilde to) end their story. We would have liked to win that game, but to look back on that, it will be pretty cool for them."
Despite his own competitive nature and drive to win, Zach admitted that Benilde's title was well deserved.
"I think that Benilde played great," Zach said. "They had a great game, and they had a great season. I think that even without the Jablonski emotional motivation, that team would have performed just as well."
It was a tough game. At the end of the night, Hill-Murray lost the championship 5-1. Hill-Murray played hard, but Benilde played harder.
"I think that our power play got a little sloppy," Zach said. "Props to their penalty kill. I mean, they scored three goals shorthanded on us. Or I should say Grant (Besse) scored three goals shorthanded on us."
Grant Besse, a junior at Benilde, was a huge asset to his team in that last game. He scored all five of the goals that won his team the championship. It wasn't the first time that Zach has seen Grant on the ice, but usually when he does, they're playing on the same side.
"We've been buddies for a while," Zach said. "Every summer we used to play on the Minnesota 94 Blades together. I think we played from third or fourth grade up to seventh or eighth grade."
This time they played on opposing teams, and it was a tough game. If things had been done differently, Zach said, this game could have ended more in his team's favor.
"Our power play really killed us," Zach said. "They were collapsing down well, so that's usually where we key our power play off of. When they key the puck off the goal line I usually have the option of finding Charlie (Sampair) or Blake (Heinrich), either back door or in the slot, but they were crashing down low which made us bring the puck up top and so that was bad. We had to take shots from the side. It just wasn't clicking for us. So I think that if we would have had a better power play, I think that it could have been a different game."
It's been an emotional season for every Minnesota hockey player. Teenagers often feel invincible, and with an injury like Jack Jablonski's to remind them of their own mortality, a lot of athletes skated with more caution after Jack's incident.
"Right when (Jack got hurt), I know a lot of the guys, myself included, got really careful," Zach said. "When we were on the ice and we were going for the corner, you would think about it right away. After a while that started to die down and you just keep playing the game. But you know that if you do something stupid or if you're going after a guy and he turns on you, stuff like that can happen. So it creates a smarter game and people are thinking more about what they're doing and not just running around."
When the Hill-Murray players heard about Jack's injury, they understood the situation more than a lot of other hockey players did.
"It's sad. I felt terrible for Jack," Zach said. "We deal with something like that over at Hill, too. We kind of know what Benilde is going through."
An assistant coach at Hill-Murray, Pat Shafhauser, understands Jablonski's situation. He played hockey in college and later played professionally in Switzerland, but he was checked in the back during a game and broke his neck. He was paralyzed from the chest down.
"He wheels around with us and he's been our assistant coach (for about ten years)," Zach said. "He's the greatest guy. His outlook on life is really cool. Just the way he talks, he's a really inspirational guy. I'm sure Jack is going be that kind of guy, too."
