North Dakota

Minot High has its last choir concert as a split campus

Published

2 years ago

May 15, 2024

Minot High has its last choir concert as a split campus

MINOT, N.D. (KMOT) – Minot High School students ended the school year on a high note with the annual spring awards concert.

It was also the final concert with Magic City and Central Campus students as the district will add the new Minot North High School next year.

Variations of different choir groups from ninth to twelfth grades performed vocal pieces for each other and family members.

Choir Director Lindsey Kerzmann got a surprise from her students who prepared a song without her direction.

The students gave gifts to the director and the accompanist for the positive experiences over the years, and the impact of having a lively, fun and memorable music class.

Kerzmann said she has seen a lot of growth among the students since they started.

“Seeing that progression from when they were in masks and they wouldn’t make a whole lot of eye contact with me and I didn’t really know like, ‘Wow! How are we going to make this work?’ And we did, and they’re awesome,” said Kerzmann.

After graduation, some of the students will get to perform at Music Fest Orlando in June.

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North Dakota

Broncos won’t repeat as NCHC hockey champs, lose to N. Dakota: ‘We broke down’

Published

2 hours ago

February 28, 2026

Press Room

Broncos won’t repeat as NCHC hockey champs, lose to N. Dakota: ‘We broke down’

Kalamazoo — There’ll be a new champion in the NCHC.

Will Zellers scored the game-winning goal in the third period as No. 3 North Dakota downed No. 4 Western Michigan, 5-3, Friday night at Lawson Arena. The Broncos never led and trailed all of the third period, though a late push nearly tied the game with the net empty.

“Overall in the game, I thought it was a pretty tightly contested effort. I thought they just scored too easy,” Western Michigan coach Pat Ferschweiler said. “You know, for us, we had a couple breakdowns, and they’re so talented, so good, they took advantage when we broke down.”

The teams finish the regular season Saturday night. Western Michigan came into Friday’s game tied with Denver in standings points and five points behind North Dakota, needing that many to get a share of the Penrose Cup it won last season en route to an NCAA championship, too.

As far as regular season results go, the Broncos will play for second seed in the NCHC Tournament, needing to outpace Denver, which plays Arizona State this weekend.

Western Michigan (23-9-1, 15-7-1 NCHC) goaltender Hampton Slukynsky made 16 saves on 20 shots in the loss while North Dakota’s Jan Spunar stopped 22 of 25 shots. It was a battle of two of the NCHC’s top netminders, and each made key stops in a tight-checking, physical game.

Zellers put North Dakota (25-7-1, 17-5-1) up 4-2 4:42 into the third period off an assist from Detroit Red Wings draft choice Dylan James.

“He kind of made a play out of nothing there,” said North Dakota coach Dane Jackson, who is in his first season as head coach after being on the coaching staff since 2006. “And that was a really nice kind of moment where you go OK, we got a little got a little leeway here, and we can just kind of play a little bit more free.”

North Dakota took a 3-2 lead into the third period with goals from defenseman Sam Laurila alongside forwards Ollie Josephson and Josh Zakreski. Defenseman Zach Bookman and forward Liam Valente scored for Western Michigan.

One too many times in the second frame, Western Michigan’s blue line let a North Dakota forward in all alone to face Slukynsky, who stopped a couple of rushes in the opening minutes of the period.

With four minutes until the intermission, the Broncos finally got burned. On a feed from linemate Anthony Menghini, Lakreski cut to the glove side of a sprawling Slukynsky and beat him with the backhand. The goal gave North Dakota the 3-2 lead, after a seeing-eye shot from Bookman along the right wall had tied it up two apiece 8:10 into the period.

“I actually thought the second period was our best period,” Ferschweiler said. “… We started to take over. We got the goal, tied 2-2, and are kind of just humming along. Four minutes left, we just hand them a goal. Blown coverage. That was inexcusable, honestly, with some of our better players on the ice.”

The opening period played out as a back and forth track meet through the neutral zone as each side settled in. Laurila put North Dakota up 1-0 with his first career goal. After Slukynsky denied him on a trio of tries earlier in the shift, he fired a shot to beat the Western Michigan netminder 4:40 into the game.

It took just a minute and 34 seconds after Laurila’s opener for Western Michigan’s top line to get it right back. A blue-collar shift from captain Owen Michaels fed linemate Will Whitelaw along the left boards, and he sprung Valente for a breakaway goal that evened up the score.

“I thought we gave it to them too easy a couple times tonight,” Whitelaw said. “And I think when you’re playing a team like that, obviously they’re gonna put it in your net. But I think it’ll be a big lesson for our group going forward.”

For the better part of the first period, the Lawson Lunatics peppered North Dakota defenseman Jake Livanavage with jeers, but he got his own licks in with 7:48 left in the first period as he fed Josephson right at the net for the 2-1 goal. That score held through the first period.

With 2:02 remaining and Slukynsky pulled, forward Zaccharya Wisdom pulled Western Michigan within one. He nearly had the equalizer with 40 seconds on the clock on a backdoor try, but he mistimed the shot. Mac Swanson scored an empty-netter with 20.7 seconds on the clock to clinch the win, and with it the Penrose Cup, presented to North Dakota in the locker room and then paraded around the ice.

“It’s the hardest regular season championship to win, in my opinion,” North Dakota forward Ben Strinden said. “So it’s awesome. Obviously, it’s not our end goal, but we’re going to enjoy it for sure.”

cearegood@detroitnews.com

@ConnorEaregood

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