Wisconsin hockey may not have the lineage of the land of 10,000 skating ponds to the West, but they can currently stake claim to represent the pinnacle of women’s college hockey.

Last March, the sons of Bob Johnson and Gary Cranston led their respective programs to NCAA titles. Mark Johnson’s Wisconsin women earned their way to the top of the college hockey mountain when they thrilled us by capturing their national best eighth title with a dramatic 4-3 overtime win over Ohio State in Minneapolis and a week later Joe Cranston’s UW-River Falls Falcons secured their second consecutive national championship on their home ice with a 3-1 win over Amherst. Both NCAA women’s hockey crowns now rest firmly atop the state of Wisconsin. It is just the third time the two women’s crowns have resided in the same state. Plattsburgh State and Clarkson, both in the state of New York, did it in 2014 and 2017.

For Joe Cranston’s River Falls Falcons, the titles come after a two-decade stranglehold by the East which won nineteen straight championships. During that stretch only two western schools even managed a runner up finish; UW-Stevens Point in 2004 and the Falcons in 2016. Over the past five tournaments, the West has now won three straight (Gustavus 2023) and finished runner up twice, Hamline (2019) and Gustavus in (2022). Covid caused the tournament to be cancelled in 2020 and 2021.

Has the power in women’s D3 hockey shifted? “Obviously it is right now,” Cranston replied, “You never know how it’s going to trend in the future, but it’s nice to finally get over the hump.”

On the D1 side, the domination has been the exact opposite with the West winning the first thirteen titles and twenty-one of twenty-four. Clarkson is the only East school to capture a championship, doing it three times, 2014, 2017 and 2018. In the last eight D1 tournaments Wisconsin has won four and finished runner up, twice. Mark Johnson has been at the Badger helm since 2002 and is the architect of the nation’s most successful women’s hockey program. Alongside him, since day one has been assistant coaches Mark Greenhalgh and Dan Koch along with Jackie Crum, a former player, who is in her seventeenth season on the staff.

It is no coincidence that these two championship head coaches are both products of hockey families and fathers who also happened to be legendary hockey coaches. Bob Johnson, who won three national champions at Wisconsin and a Stanley Cup with Pittsburgh and Gary Cranston, a thirty-year coach at Fergus Falls, Minnesota modeled the blueprint that prepared their sons for greatness. It is sadly ironic that neither of these significant fathers got to see their sons coach their way to a national championship.

Both sons turned coaches, took very different paths to the top of that college hockey mountain, but began their journey cutting their teeth as Wisconsin high school coaches. Like any success story they had plenty of help along the way, but the foundation of their character and the culture of their programs were meaningfully influenced by their fathers. As they face challenges of the modern sports culture, each has stayed the “old school” course charted by their fathers.

Been in my Blood for a Long Time

For Mark Johnson the coaching career didn’t start until after he helped deliver the gold medal in the 1980 Olympics and the completion of his eleven-year NHL tenure with Pittsburgh, Minnesota, Hartford, St. Louis and New Jersey. He finished his career with 508 points and was an All-Star in 1984 when he posted a career high 35 goals and 52 assists. Born in Minneapolis, Minnesota, Johnson is often credited as a born and raised Wisconsin product. Following his NHL career, he played four years in Italy and Austria before returning to the states in 1992, the year following the death of his dad. With his playing days in the rearview mirror, he was looking for what was next.

Johnson reminisced about the decision to give coaching a try. “It’s probably been in my blood for a long time,” he said. “If you wanted to hang out with your dad, you went to the rink and watched hockey from the sidelines and watched him go about his business.”

Married with three children at the time, Johnson sat down with his wife Leslie to decide about his future now that his playing days were over. “I had to figure out you know, what path I want to take. I said to myself and talked it over with Leslie, well let's give coaching an opportunity, and maybe one day become a college coach.” Johnson continued, “I could've gone to the NHL and the path of being an assistant coach and maybe a head coach one day. I’d been traded a few times, and I didn't want to get back into that rat race where if you win everything is good, but if you lose then things start to change.  So, we chose to stay in Madison and wait for some opportunities  that would be presented as time went on.”

If you wanted to hang out with your dad you went to the rink and watched hockey from the sidelines and watched him go about his business.

Back in Madison, Johnson pursued his degree (he left for the NHL following the 1980 Olympics foregoing his senior year at Wisconsin) and at the same time stepped into the coaching arena as an assistant at Madison Memorial, where he had led the Spartans to their first of eight state championships in 1976. A senior on that team, he amassed 121 points, including 65 goals as the Spartans completed a perfect 22-0 season. In the championship game they erased a 3-0 Superior lead to win in double overtime. Vic Levine, who later became a Wisconsin high school coaching legend at Memorial was an assistant coach on that team. 

A year later, Johnson took the head coaching job at Verona High School. He worked as a delivery guy for area printing companies at the same time. “They weren't paying me, but they gave me health insurance,” Johnson noted. “I enjoyed those two years, and then it was like ok, let’s see where this goes.” By now Johnson’s family had grown to five with sons Douglas, Christopher and Patrick and daughters Mikayla and Megan. Madison remains his home as he continues to build his legacy.

From the high school coaching ranks Johnson made the jump to the Madison Monsters of the United Hockey League and after one season took a job as an assistant coach for the Badger men’s team under head coach Jeff Sauer, who ironically had replaced his dad. Mark served six seasons on the men’s side until Sauer retired in 2002, after thirty-one years, twenty of those at Wisconsin.

Many believed Johnson would be the automatic choice to succeed Sauer, but Athletic Director Pat Richter stunned Badger nation with the selection of Mike Eaves, a teammate of Mark’s on the Badgers 1977 National Championship team. Five months later, Johnson was named the new head coach of the Badger women. Eaves won a National Championship in 2006, but was fired after fourteen seasons in 2016. With fifteen wins this season Johnson will become the winningest coach in women’s hockey surpassing Bill Mandigo’s 681 victories.

Making Lemonade

While Johnson’s prelude to his coaching achievements was a playing career that included several championship seasons, including the most famous Olympic gold medal victory in history, Joe Cranston’s playing career did not last long after he graduated from Fergus Falls in 1983. He was captain of the Otters his senior year and moved on to play for the North Iowa Huskies of the USHL the next year. It was there at a game in Dubuque that Cranston’s playing career effectively ended.

“I broke my leg in the USHL and that was kind of the end of my playing, and I just started coaching almost immediately after that,” he said. “Life throws the lemons and there is my lemonade.”

Cranston returned to playing for a year and a half at Minnesota State Community College in Fergus Falls. While there he also helped coach the Fergus Falls High School team. In 1986 he transferred to UW-River Falls and in 1987 began coaching the Somerset boy’s high school team. His eight seasons behind the Spartan’s bench produced a 86-81-5 record. Dan Gilkerson, who played for Joe at Somerset and has been the head coach there since 2006 said, “Joe put Somerset hockey on the map.”

Life throws the lemons and there is my lemonade.

Cranston is the first and only head coach the Lady Falcons have ever had. “There was an ad in the back of Let’s Play Hockey, that River Falls was starting a women’s program, my dad told me why don’t you at least apply for it,” recalled Cranston. “So, I just applied to see how it goes. It wasn’t a highly sought after position.”

Cranston admits that it was a definitely a step down at first from the different world of the successful boy’s teams he had been coaching for nearly a decade. “The Somerset boys really gave me a hard time,” he said. After three wins that first year, the team won nineteen games in year two. As Cranston looks back at where the women’s game was when he started compared to his back-to-back championship teams, “It’s not even the same sport,” he declared. He quickly discovered that like his dad, he really enjoyed coaching girls. “Obviously I love it or I wouldn’t be doing it twenty-six years later.”

Like every successful coach Cranston has surrounded himself with a great supporting cast. He and his wife Sue have been married for thirty years and have three grown children, Roy, Walter and Irene. No coach survives without support from the home front, “She’s (Sue) just always been 100% supportive of all my coaching and recruiting,” said Joe. The Falcon staff of assistant coaches have been alongside Cranston for more than a decade. Jim Walsh, his head recruiter, has been there for eighteen years. “Walsh does 95% of our recruiting,” admitted Cranston, “I was never very good at it before we hired him.” Assistants Amanda Ryder-eleven years and goalie coach Jeremy Weiss-twenty years round out the staff. All three bleed red and black as UW-River Falls graduates.  

While Cranston’s playing career was relatively short, the list of coaches he played for is quite long and impressive. In high school he was coached by Tim Cullen, the twin brother of Terry Cullen who went on to fame in Moorhead, Minnesota. All three of his sons were drafted into the NHL with Matt going on to a twenty-one-year career that included three Stanley Cups. Tim’s son John played at Mankato State. Terry also developed the wildly popular Moorhead Stickhandling Circuit. I personally spent many hours slicing up tennis balls and stuffing them into a wiffle ball and still use his training today. Charlie Burggraf, who went on to coach at Bethel University and the Gophers, was also on that staff at Fergus Falls. In addition, he played for current Gopher’s coach Bob Motzko at North Iowa. And there is more, he also played one year for Mike Carroll at Fergus Falls Community College. Carroll, the legendary head coach at Gustavus Adolphus College is one of the Falcons most fierce rivalries.

“I think I got really lucky in high school and college to have that kind of coaching,” said Cranston.

 It’s A Great Day for Hockey

For Mark Johnson it was growing up under the wing of perhaps the most influential hockey figure in Wisconsin history—his dad, Bob Johnson. The man who became affectionately known as “Badger Bob” led Wisconsin to three national championships in 1973, ’77 and ’81. He also laid the foundation for a title under his predecessor Jeff Sauer in 1983. Since Johnson’s reign, the Badgers have won just two championships in forty-four years, 1990 and 2006. After Johnson left Wisconsin, he would lead the Pittsburgh Penguins to their first Stanley Cup in 1991. Johnson passed away the following November from a brain tumor.

Bob Johnson was the ultimate optimist and his success with the Badgers spurred the growth of a young hockey culture in the state. His 1977 championship team, with the best record in school history at 37-7-1, is considered one of the greatest college hockey teams of all time. Mark Johnson was a phenomenal freshman on that team, with thirty-six goals and forty-four assists. The team also included Mike Eaves, most recently a scout with the Columbus Blue Jackets and Bob Suter who would join Mark on the 1980 Olympic team. Near the bottom of that team’s statistics was senior George Gwozdecky, who went on to win 592 games, including a NAIA Championship with UW-River Falls in 1983 and back-to-back NCAA titles with Denver in 2006 and ’07.

Badger Bob made famous the saying “It’s A Great Day for Hockey” emphasizing his contagious enthusiasm and authenticity. Mark has since made famous “Monday always comes”, replicating the optimism his dad always presented.

In 1982 Bob Johnson took the leap into the NHL with the Calgary Flames. Critics claimed that Johnson’s moxie would not fly with the NHL veterans and his well of positivity would run dry. Mark recalls the Flames struggling through a winless streak early in the season.

“So, Calgary, Canadian city, you know hires an American college coach, you can imagine how that went over. A lot of people weren't too happy and so he gets to Calgary and everybody's trying to figure him out and nobody can figure him out because he has all this energy, he’s positive, he's upbeat, he’s excited. I remember that first month they're all saying he can't last 80 games doing this I mean he's gonna melt down and break down and be totally exhausted by the time we get to Christmas. And you know that year they ended up going eleven games without a win and only him and his unique way, had all the reporters convinced that they should've won nine of those games.”

Can my players enjoy the next three or four days because all the things that are coming at them, they’ve earned, they’ve worked hard to put themselves in this position, and shame on us if we don’t enjoy it.

The influence of Bob Johnson is visible daily as you watch Mark guide his Badger women. As the team prepared for the Frozen Four last March Mark took a page from his dad’s playbook. Talking about his team’s preparation, Mark explained “Whether that experience was a positive one or a negative one, it’s still an experience and you can rely on that and you can learn from it.” And with all the pressure of a national title right in front of them, he reminded everyone, “They got to enjoy it. Can my players enjoy the next three or four days because all the things that are coming at them, they’ve earned, they’ve worked hard to put themselves in this position, and shame on us if we don’t enjoy it.”

Badger Bob enjoyed hockey perhaps more than anyone who has ever stepped into the arena and his son has adopted that same optimism and ability to see adversity as a positive and an opportunity to learn. When you watch Mark work behind the bench during games, his mannerisms and calm demeanor are reminiscent of “Badger Bob.”

As his dad began his professional coaching career, Mark was playing for the Hartford Whalers. From a distance he watched and learned from the man who proved all the critics wrong with his silver lining philosophy. Regardless of the circumstances, Mark saw his father stay on the same positive course.

“So, as I looked out from him,” explained Mark, “You know whether things were going well, whether they weren't going well, one of the things I took away is Monday comes you got the next practice and what are you gonna do?”

Johnson continued, “I looked at some of the experience that he had especially professionally, once the players figured out how genuine he was and that it wasn't a show, it wasn't something that he was trying to trick you into, it's just who he was. He came to the rink every day and you wouldn't know if he won or lost night before. Whether he was working with an eight-year-old out at one of our camps or Mario Lemieux or Jaromir Jagr, it was the same presentation day-in and day-out and I think as people got to know and play for him they enjoyed it, especially the professional setting where it can be a grind. He got the players, especially in Pittsburgh to the point where they enjoyed coming to the rink and I think for any professional coach to get their team in that space is hard to do and unique. If you are able to do that, and you have some horses like they had in Pittsburgh, who hadn’t made the playoffs in eight of the last nine years, and then all of a sudden they end winning the Stanley Cup, that is pretty powerful.”

In my early days of publishing Wisconsin Hockey Report, just out of college, I met Bob Johnson several times including an interview I did with Bob, and sons Mark and Pete. The stories of his enthusiasm are not hyped, and as I met him once prior to his team heading out for practice, he actually invited me out on the ice. “Do you have your skates along,” he asked. I declined, I didn’t have my skates, nor quite honestly the courage to step out there, but I was astonished to be invited. In my discussions with him I took away many lessons, but one I used repeatedly was his advice to “expect adversity and embrace it.” He made the point that adversity will always be just around the corner and that you must find that silver lining optimism that we could have won nine of those games.

Bob Johnson was able to see many of Mark’s most memorable highs as a player including the Gold Medal victory over Finland in Lake Placid. The coaching career of his son was only an idea yet to be explored when he passed away. Mark pondered all that he had missed and the joy it would have brought to him.

“The thing that he missed out on was, obviously I had two daughters, and they got a chance to play hockey at a high level (Mikayla at Wisconsin and Megan at Augsburg University). Now I have got nine grandkids and a tenth one coming, five girls and it's gonna be five boys and so he missed out on all of that. I think when I started on the women's side, you know he would've been smiling and just so excited to watch college hockey and to watch the U-14, 16, 18 and the Spirit on the west side of Madison.”

Johnson continued, “I remember going into the locker room after they won the cup up in Minneapolis against the North Stars and he's hosting the Stanley Cup over his head and it’s a unique vision of people that win championships and have the trophy because they have this special smile on their face that only a championship brings out. I think the way he's seen the game grow, especially on the female side. I think we would see that type of smile on his face.”

Younger brother Peter Johnson, who took part in the stunning upset of Minnesota by the 1981 National Champion, as a member of the “Backdoor Badgers”, echoed Mark’s thoughts on their dad missing out on the grandkids. “I think he looked at more of you being a son and a person and not so much of what you accomplished in hockey. He would love all the grandkids because he loved coaching kids and talking hockey.”

Peter has made his own way through the coaching ranks, now for over thirty years with stints at Wisconsin, Bowling Green, Cornell, Toronto as a scout and now at Shattuck St. Mary’s in Faribault, Minnesota where he was part of the 2023 Tier I 19U Girl’s National Championship team. Peter Johnson was the first coach of the Middleton based Metro Lynx girls team in 2007.  Together with Mark he won a WIAA State Championship at Madison Memorial in 1976 and another without Mark in 1977. As captain at Wisconsin in 1982, the Badgers fell just short of back-to-back NCAA championships when they lost to North Dakota in the title game. Peter tallied 82 goals and 77 assists in his Badger career.

While the Johnson family culture centered around hockey, it was family first. “He would want us to be happy with what we were doing and with helping people out,” said Peter, “and that is what was important to him.”
 

You Give More Than You Take

Gary Cranston’s coaching resume doesn’t match Bob Johnson’s in terms of accolades and prominence, but his influence on his sons, Joe and Matt, was equally significant. The elder Cranston, passed away on New Year’s Day 2009, at age 72, just two months before Matt would win the first of three consecutive WIAA championships with the St. Croix Valley Fusion and long before Joe would conquer the D3 mountain at River Falls.

“Yes, bittersweet winning the state tournaments,” said Matt who has a 341-145-15 career record, “sad that he couldn’t be there to see all of that. He watched all three of my daughters play all the way up to the Fusion. He would’ve loved being there.”

Gary Cranston, affectionately called the G-Man, coached hockey for thirty years in Fergus Falls, Minnesota and started the first girl’s program there in the 1970’s. In his obituary, it was noted, in his eyes his two greatest accomplishments were raising four healthy and strong children and quitting the corporate world, after 28 years with the Ottertail Power Company, to start Cranston Concession and growing it into a successful family business. Joe and Matt have carried on the family business, famous for its scotch eggs, to this day.

Cranston admits that the family business, which puts him on the road to fairs across the Midwest, provides him the financial flexibility to coach in the less-than-lucrative world of D3 college hockey. “I make enough money to support my coaching habit,” said Joe. It also allows him and his players, many who work for him in the summer, a chance to strengthen their bond in the off-season.

Like many influential hockey pioneers, Gary did not receive the recognition he deserved, but he was awarded the “Doctor of Hockey” diploma signed by the US Olympic Committee Chairman, Warroad Hockey and the US Hockey Hall of Fame. The award was presented to Gary Cranston, by Bobby Hull, between periods of a Winnipeg Jets game in 1976.

Gary taught his kids about life balance way before trendy online influencers, “we were more of a musical family, than a hockey family,” noted Joe, who with his brother Matt, formed a popular band in college called Burnt Toast. Like Johnson, Cranston spent a lot of time tagging along with his dad to the rink. "I grew up going to the rink with him, helping him coach and move pucks around," he said.

Gary Cranston’s life lessons landed, and his sons carry them today. "Our dad taught us at a very young age, you give more than you take in every aspect of life," said Joe. "I think what he would be most proud of for me, and Matt is how much we have given to the game of hockey and to the kids. He is why we're here, that's why we're successful."

The tremendous success achieved by Cranston and Johnson, over 1,100 combined wins and ten National Championships, has not changed either of them. Johnson has never had a losing season at Wisconsin and only twice has had double digit loses. Cranston, who was hired in 1999, went 3-15 in his first year, but has not had a losing season since. In his 25 years he has had three double digit losing seasons and has a record of 108-9-3 in the past four years including a perfect 31-0 season in 2024. Both remain humble, grateful and grounded to the core beliefs they learned from their fathers. Using the game of hockey to prepare their players for the game of life has always been a priority.

I think what he would be most proud of for me and Matt is how much we have given to the game of hockey and to the kids. He is why we're here, that's why we're successful.

“My dad was obviously the biggest influence on me,” Joe admitted, “he taught me that hockey is an avenue to teach life skills and it’s not about the next level. The trends that are today, he was so ahead of that. Play for today and play for the right reasons.” The landscape of sports is much different today than when Gary Cranston coached. What is in it for me selfishness and the epidemic of player movement have replaced the loyalty that sports once promoted and praised. “I never had a kid leave and play AAA at Somerset,” said Joe, “I like homegrown kids and kids that play the game for the right reason. He taught us to have respect for everything: Your opponents, your coaches, the locker rooms, the arena. That’s my coaching philosophy and my foundation and it came from my dad.” 

While Gary did not author a quote the magnitude of a “Great Day for Hockey”, he did impart some adages that both his boys have held on to. 'If your first line is as bad as your third line, it gives the illusion of depth,' Joe recalled. Matt added, 'A good goalie gives the illusion of a good coach.’

Matt, the older brother, has been the St. Croix Valley Fusion coach since their inception in 2006, and also coached women’s golf at UW-River Falls. Matt who didn’t join the coaching fraternity until his thirties when he started coaching girl’s youth hockey in River Falls, continues to use many of his father’s quotes today.  “I still use his parent expectations and player expectations for my preseason player, parent meetings. Obviously, I have had to change a few things as the times have changed and hockey has changed, but his basic hockey knowledge that he taught me is utilized all the time.”

The Cranston brothers both live in River Falls and workout together several times a week. As you might guess their conversations revolve around their jobs. “We definitely talk hockey,” said Joe. Each brother has directed an undefeated season, and each has won back-to-back championships, with Matt going one step further with his three-peat. “We work out every morning,” according to Matt, “and talk hockey pretty much the whole time. I know everything about his team and what he’s doing and vice versa. It’s great to have someone bounce ideas off and get advice from each other.” They are both aware of their unique coaching situation, and it isn’t lost on either of them. A grateful Joe said, “Brothers that are coaching in the same town, ya, we don’t take it for granted. It’s pretty awesome.”

And Matt confirmed, “Yes, I do pressure on him to three-peat!”

In the storied lives of Mark Johnson and Joe Cranston, the apple did not fall far from the tree. Both men were guided at a young age by a father/coach that profoundly influenced each of them in a way that has led them to tremendous success. In addition to their growing victory and championship total Johnson has been the CCM/AHCA D1 Coach of the Year five times and WHCA COY ten times. Meanwhile, Cranston, a runner up on three different occasions, finally garnered the Coach of the Year in his twenty-fifth season in 2024. Cranston has been WIAC COY nine times.

Both the Johnson and Cranston hockey families have experienced great success in the arena, but it has never really been about winning. It was about relationships within the family and relationships within the team. It is about fathers and sons and brothers and the relationship that hockey fostered. In all, six coaches from the youth ranks to the NHL, all driven by their character and the family legacies that they have so proudly built and maintained.

They view their success not as mere wins and losses and championships, but in the enduring relationships they foster within their teams and most importantly the relationships they depend upon within their family core. Hockey is a part of the fabric that weaves them together, but not the one that defines them or holds them together. That bond is deeply rooted in their family tree.

And that indestructible connection is truly “All in the Family”. 

NEXT UP:  COACH-to-COACH: Talkin’ Hockey 

A column dedicated to coaches, who I will interview to gain their perspective on the state of hockey, their path through coaching, their methods and much more. First up will be Mark Johnson and Joe Cranston talking about the state of Wisconsin girl’s hockey, recruiting players, today’s parents, LaBahn Arena and how winning it all has changed them.

Photo credits: The Republican Eagle; Pat Deninger, UW-River Falls; Wisconsin Badgers, Bob Johnson Hockey School.