DULUTH — Cole Koepke, the Hermantown native now playing in the Tampa Bay Lightning system, scored with 54.4 seconds left in 3-on-3 overtime to give Team Fanti a 6-5 victory on Monday night over Team Kaskisuo in the Ray Peterson Heritage Summer Hockey Classic at the Essentia Duluth Heritage Center.
Koepke, a former standout at Minnesota Duluth, was one of 21 professional hockey players from Duluth, Hermantown, Hibbing, Esko, UMD and the NAHL’s Minnesota Wilderness who took part in Monday’s game, which raised funds for the Ray Peterson Heritage Fund. The fund offers financial assistance to kids who can’t afford to participate in organized sports.
For Koepke, it was fun on Monday to once again be teammates with players who are now the opposition in the pro ranks.
“It’s good to get everyone back together and be on the same team with some of them, against some of them,” said Koepke, who started the year in the NHL before finishing 2023-24 with the Syracuse Crunch of the AHL. “We do a little jaw jacking at each other. The best part is this is for a good cause. It’s always fun.”
Esko native Karson Kuhlman, who spent the 2023-24 season in the NHL with the Seattle Kraken and Winnipeg Jets, tied the game with an extra attacker goal with 8.2 seconds left. The captain of UMD’s 2018 NCAA championship team was one of nine current or former NHL players on the ice Monday.
“There where a lot of guys who were motoring,” said Kuhlman, who will be a free agent on July 1. “Some guys, that’s right up their alley, like Scott Perunovich. I think he wishes it would be like that all the time. Koepke was flying around. We had a lot of guys with a lot of skill. It was awesome to see.”
Perunovich, the Hibbing native who just signed a one-year extension with the NHL’s St. Louis Blues, assisted Koepke on the game-winner. Koepke had two goals on Monday for Team Fanti, while Hermantown native Wyatt Aamodt of the American Hockey League’s Colorado Eagles had two goals for Team Kaskisuo.
Former UMD captain Tanner Laderoute (Wheeling Nailers, ECHL), Hermantown native Ryan Sandelin (Colorado Eagles), and former Bulldogs Riley Tufte (Dallas Stars, NHL) and Kobe Roth (Florida Everblades, ECHL) also had goals for Team Fanti, which was named after Ryan Fanti, the former UMD and Wilderness goalie now playing for the Fort Wayne Komets of the ECHL.
Former Bulldog Nick Wolff (Providence Bruins, AHL) — a late addition — and Hermantown native Neal Pionk (Jets, NHL) scored for Team Kaskisuo, named after former UMD and Wilderness goaltender Kaskimir Kaskisuo.
Duluth News Tribune college hockey reporter Matt Wellens and KDAL 610 AM’s Bruce Ciskie helped select the teams, with Wellens serving as general manager for Team Kaskisuo and Ciskie for Team Fanti.
