Rochester native will be on opposite bench from Century/John Marshall at state tournament
Mar. 6—CHANHASSEN, Minn. — Zack Friedli moved away from Rochester nearly 17 years ago.
His college path, then his professional career, have taken him across the country, from Minnesota to Colorado to Michigan and back to Minnesota.
No matter where Friedli has found himself, though, Rochester is still home.
He still connects regularly with his classmates and Mayo High School hockey teammates. He tracks the progress of Rochester's high school hockey teams. His grandparents and dad still live in Rochester.
So when Friedli takes his spot on the bench, standing behind the Chanhassen boys hockey players late Thursday morning at the Xcel Energy Center in St. Paul, he'll take some pride and some joy in seeing the team that occupies the opposite bench.
"I'm still in a group chat with all the Mayo guys I grew up playing with," said Friedli, now in his third year as associate head coach with the Chanhassen High School boys hockey team. "Over the years we've had a lot of conversations about Rochester hockey. I don't follow it super closely, but we keep tabs when Mayo and Century play. ... We were all really excited that a Rochester team broke through again and got to state. I would have loved to see Mayo do it, of course, but from my perspective, I would love nothing more than to see Rochester hockey become what it used to be, again, to have the numbers and the success we used to have, and to produce the type of players we used to have — and to see them stay in Rochester."
All that said, Friedli will do his best to ensure that No. 2-seeded and No. 5-ranked Chanhassen (23-5-0) doesn't fall victim to unseeded Rochester Century/John Marshall (22-4-2) in the first quarterfinal game of the 2024 Class 2A state tournament, which is set for an 11 a.m. start.
Friedli only has to think back to his senior year of high school to remember that upsets can and do happen at The Tourney. That year, 2007, Century became the first unseeded team to beat a seeded team when Joe Faupel scored his fourth goal of the game to give the Panthers a 6-5 state quarterfinal win against No. 3 seed Hill-Murray.
"I think our mentality going into the game is, whatever is going to happen is going to happen," Friedli said of Chanhassen, which is making its first-ever state tournament appearance. "We can't worry about the what-ifs. We have to trust ourselves, be confident in each other. We talked about the foundational stuff we do every day in practice. All of these kids have played in (youth) state tournaments growing up.
"This will be different, a packed arena, The X. We want them to go out and enjoy the moment."
That's been the Storm's motto through most of this season. Despite having four Division I commits on their roster — and a likely fifth who hasn't committed yet, goalie Kam Hendrickson — the Storm were underdogs in the Section 2, Class 2A title game. Yet, Hendrickson was as cool as could be, stopping 44 shots as Chanhassen beat top-ranked and previously unbeaten Minnetonka — last year's Class 2A state champion — 2-1 to earn a spot in the state tournament.
Chanhassen has been ranked in the top-5 in the state all season thanks to Hendrickson, a Senior Goalie of the Year nominee, forwards Gavin Uhlenkamp (University of Wisconsin), Jack Christ and Caden Lee (both Minnesota State University, Mankato commits), and defenseman Owen Buesgens, a University of St. Thomas commit. Uhlenkamp is a Mr. Hockey finalist, while Buesgens is a finalist for the Reed Larson Award, given to the state's top senior defenseman.
"It's a lot easier to be confident in your team when you have Kam Hendrickson in goal," Friedli said. "He's the most competitive kid I've ever coached.
"Owen, in my opinion, is the most underrated defenseman in the state. He's poised, he manages the game well and plays in all situations. The most creative player I've coached in the last few years.
"And those three forwards, that's the line that makes us go, three D1 kids together. Some of the stuff they do and the way they support each other and create for one another ... we give them a basic structure to play within, but they're out there making plays that you can't teach them."
Friedli is now a financial advisor in the southwestern part of the Twin Cities area. He has coached in the Chanhassen and Chaska programs for seven years, first spending four years as coach of the Chaska/Chanhassen Bantam AA team, then the past three years with the Chanhassen high school varsity.
After graduating from Mayo in 2007, Friedli attended the University of Minnesota Duluth, then was awarded the prestigious two-year Brian Fishman Internship with USA Hockey (granted annually to an outstanding college graduate who is pursuing a career in athletic communications). He first worked with the communications team in Colorado Springs (2013-14), then spent a year with the communications team for the U.S. National Team Development Program, which was based in Ann Arbor, Mich., at the time.
He then spent a year as the Director of New Media for the Michigan Tech athletics department, in 2015-16, before moving back to Minnesota, to the Twin Cities area, in 2016. He worked for the company SportsEngine — which powers, among many other sites, the Minnesota Hockey Hub sites for boys and girls hockey — until 2022. After a six-month stint with Opendorse (a name, image and likeness company that works with college athletes), he became a financial advisor.
Friedli's first love, hockey, has remained a big part of his life. His time with USA Hockey helped him realize his place in the game was in more of a hands-on role, as a coach.
"I was doing all the PR and (communications) stuff," he said. "But I always loved the ... you don't get the feeling of playing by doing that stuff, the camaraderie of being around the team. You're with the team when you're doing the PR/comms work, but I always kept a clear separation between me and the team. I was support staff, not completely with the team and I didn't want to overstep boundaries.
"It was a lot of fun and I had some really great players to work with, a cool experience. When we moved back to Minnesota, I wanted to stay in hockey somehow."
A friend connected him with the Chaska/Chanhassen youth association and Friedli was an instant hit with the Bantam players. Among the players in that program when Friedli joined it: current Gophers star forward and first-round NHL Draft pick Jimmy Snuggerud, Gophers freshman defenseman and first-round Draft pick Sam Rinzel, and current Colorado College freshman defenseman Max Burkholder.
"I had almost no impact on their career trajectory," Friedli said with a laugh, "but it has been so fun to watch them. That group had won a PeeWee AA state championship the year before, so we knew they were good. They're just rink rats. Snuggerud has been obsessed with hockey as long as I've known him. Rinzel was 5-foot-nothing that year, a great skater, great skills. We were just waiting for him to hit a growth spurt (he's now 6-4, 175).
"It was cool to coach them when they're young. They grow up so quickly, but it's great to see them develop as people first, and to see the hockey stuff they're able to do as they get bigger and stronger and more confident."
For now, Friedli is focused heavily on the current group of Chanhassen stars and what they have to do to get past Century/John Marshall in Thursday's tournament opener. It's a big moment for Friedli, but more importantly, he said, for the program he coaches.
Still, he said he will be pulling for Rochester's teams, whenever they're not facing the Storm.
"I know there are a ton of people who volunteer down there and put a lot of time and hours in to help the hockey program," Friedli said. "(Century/JM making it to state) is a testament to them and to those kids who believed in each other when there probably weren't a lot of other people picking them to go to state.
"I'm very happy for them and would love to see hockey there keep growing."
What: Class 2A boys hockey state quarterfinal, Century/John Marshall (22-4-2) vs. No. 2 seed Chanhassen (23-5-0)
When: 11 a.m., Thursday, Xcel Energy Center (St. Paul).
Watch: Stream all championship-round games of the state tournament at
. In southeastern Minnesota, the championship-round games are available over-the-air on KAAL-TV, channel 6.2, or on Spectrum cable channel 192 (This-TV). Consolation round games may be streamed, for a fee, at
NSPN.TV/MSHSL.
Tickets: The ticket allotment provided to Century and John Marshall sold out on Tuesday. If other schools do not sell their full allotment, the remaining tickets will be made available by the Xcel Energy Center after 5 p.m. on Wednesday, March 6, at
.
