Eli Johnson Memorial Hockey Tournament

The Eli Johnson Memorial Hockey Tournament began in 2021. It is a squirt hockey tournament held in Moorhead, MN at the Cullen Hockey Center during the first weekend of December. The purpose of this tournament is to honor Eli Johnson, a former Spud, who lost his life to suicide in 2017. Eli was a former captain of the Boys high school hockey team, two-time captain for the Moorhead boys baseball team, played baseball for Concordia, and was a well loved guy by everyone he met. He lost a battle that no one knew he was fighting. Our goal is to introduce the concept of mental health to each team that participates in our tournament. We have incorporated locker room talks, where a member of our board goes into each locker room either before or after a game, and talks about the importance of mental wellness, what signs to look for, and how to be the best teammate you can be. We have also partnered with Solutions Behavioral Health to have an on-site staff member for anyone who could potentially be in an immediate crisis or looking for professional support.

Eli was charismatic, funny, athletic, and inclusive. He was a good student, coachable player, and kind teammate. We honor a player on each team, who is nominated by their coaches, that represents who Eli was. Those players are on the “All Eli team” for the tournament. These players embody what it means to be a leader, both on and off the ice.

We are working to ‘Break the Ice’ on mental health.