Street hockey games in Bryan “Butsy” Erickson’s Roseau neighborhood had an intensity level that went well beyond the typical grade-schooler bickering.

“Competing was really tough,” Erickson said. “You had to keep your head up, or you were going to get knocked right on your can.”

Always one of the smaller kids in the pack, Erickson never was afraid to stick his nose in the fray. He wasn’t going to back down. Not for anyone.

“As small as he was, his attitude was monstrous,” said Gary Hokanson, Roseau’s head coach during Erickson’s senior season. “If you were doing a drill and told him, ‘Don’t stop at the boards, keep going,’ he would go right through them. That’s just what he would do.”

One house separated Erickson’s home from that of Aaron and Neal Broten. Erickson and Neal Broten were in the same grade, but because of the way the birthdates fell, Erickson played all of his youth hockey on teams with Aaron, who was a year behind in school.

Early on it was clear that Erickson and the Broten brothers were prodigal talents well beyond the caliber even hockey-crazed Roseau normally produces. All three were gifted athletes with off-the-grid hockey IQs.

“Bob Johnson was coaching at Wisconsin at the time, and he sent a couple of assistants up,” Hokanson said. “They wanted me to diagram our power play. I said, ‘I can’t even do it for you.’ Sure, we had basic formations we set up in, but those guys would take things and figure out what was going to work best for them.”

The 5-foot-6 Erickson’s quickness and rink savvy were huge assets for the Rams.

“He helped Neal make plays that were the type that not even most college players were making at the time,” Hokanson said about Erickson.

Erickson and Neal Broten were juniors in 1977 when Roseau headed south to the state tournament with a sparkling 23-0 record. The Rams were blanked 2-0 by Edina East in the quarterfinals. Roseau ended up losing the consolation championship game 5-3 to Hill-Murray.

Hokanson took over as Roseau’s head coach before the start of the 1977-78 season. With the Rams returning all of their star players, expectations around town were in the stratosphere. Hokanson’s every move was scrutinized, but none more so than the alignment of Erickson and the Brotens on the same forward line for the first time in their careers.

“I remember when I first threw them together,” Hokanson said. “It was quite controversial in Roseau. People said, ‘You can’t do that. You can’t put all your eggs in one basket. It is not going to work.’ ”

The combination of Erickson and the Brotens was magical. Roseau again went undefeated during a 23-0 regular season that was one of the most dominant in state history. The Rams, perhaps, were too overpowering.

During almost half its games that season Roseau was winning by such wide margins in the second period that Hokanson elected to send his top trio to the showers early. Erickson said he can remember watching the third periods of at least six or seven Rams games in his street clothes from the stands.

Roseau beat East Grand Forks, Warroad and Fergus Falls by a combined score of 23-5 in the Section 8 playoffs as it earned a return trip to the state tournament. The Rams beat Rochester John Marshall 4-2 in the quarterfinals, setting up a rematch with Edina East in the semis.

The Hornets, guided by coach Willard Ikola, again stunned Roseau, winning this time by a 5-3 margin on two third-period goals from Mike Lauen. The Rams went on to take third place.

“The thing I remember the most about the state tournament is the disappointment in not winning it,” Erickson said. “I totally believed we were going down to win it both years.

“We didn’t accomplish what I felt was going to happen, and then it was back on the school bus for six hours. It was a real unpleasant ride home.”

The line of Erickson and the Brotens amassed an estimated 300 points that season, with all three players’ point totals close to 100. The output is believed to be the greatest single-season scoring total ever produced.

“I would have sure rather been a state high school champion than have that record,” Erickson said.

Erickson and the Brotens would be reunited at the University of Minnesota, where their scoring pace never slowed. Erickson proved the too-small scouting evaluations wrong at every level, as he played 351 regular-season NHL games in a career that spanned 10 seasons.

Erickson lives in Roseau, where he owns and operates Bryan Erickson Auto Sales and serves as an assistant coach for the Rams’ varsity program.

-- Loren Nelson, MN Hockey Hub editor