By Jim Bastian

sports@nujournal.com

NEW ULM — During the Minnesota State Bantam AA Hockey Tournament this past weekend, the New Ulm Civic Center saw some very good teams and some great young talent playing on the ice.

But perhaps even more impressive is the talent that came to coach and watch off of the ice.

Former National Hockey League player Matt Cullen is the head coach of the Moorhead AA Bantams.

Cullen, who spent 21 seasons in the NHL and was on three Stanley Cup champions, said that coming back to his hometown of Moorhead to coach hockey was something that he wanted to to.

“My wife and I are both from Moorhead and we have a lot of family in Moorhead. My kids had a lot of good friends so when I retired [in 2019] we ended up coming home. It is a good place to raise a family,” Cullen said.

Cullen, who was inducted into the United States Hockey Hall of Fame in 2024 and had two stints with the Minnesota Wild (2010-13 and 2017), said that making the transition from an NHL player to coaching youth hockey is hard.

“It is but it has been a lot of fun and I enjoy it,” he said. “You try and take the things that you have learned in your NHL career and translate it to the Bantam level. And I have learned a lot about the game because I am trying to see if from different angles from a younger players perspective — it has been a fun experience for me as I am learning new ways to look at the game being around the kids on the team — it reminds you how much you love the game and what brought you to it in the first place.”

Cullen said he pushes his kids as far as teaching them the skills and have high expectations for their effort level.

“But yet you understand that they are kids,” he said. “They want to make plays and they see things differently than an older person does. So you adjust your view of the game and expectations, but it is still the same game and the kids now are so skilled nowadays that it is amazing at this age. It is just fun sharing with the kids how much you love the game of hockey.”

BASKETBALL TO HOCKEY

Trent Tucker was a standout with the Minnesota Gophers basketball team and also played 11 years in the National Basketball Association.

He was in New Ulm this weekend, not watching basketball but watching his two sons, James Patrick Tucker and William Jesse Tucker, playing for the Eden Praire AA Bantam team.

“When they first were able to stand, they had a hockey stick in their hands,” Tucker said. “My nephew played high school hockey in Maple Grove and then played college hockey at Gustavus. So when my sons were old enough to go watch games, I was driving back and forth each week to watch the Gusties play hockey and they both just fell in love with hockey from day one.”

Tucker said that basketball was something that they did not want to do.

“They did not like the game — I took them to a couple of Gophers basketball — and after the first five minutes they wanted to leave,” he said. “And then I took them to a Gophers hockey game and the Gophers were up 10-1 and they wanted to stay until the end.”

Tucker said that he is not disappointment in their love for hockey.

“I am happy that they found their own path, so I had to get up to speed about what hockey is all about so that I can enjoy the game too. And now I love hockey.”

Also in attendance for Friday game between Edina and Rogers was Jared Spurgeon, who came to watch his son Zach play for Edina.