Should things go according to plan, navigating the streets of downtown River Falls, Wis., on Friday will a bit of a challenge.

The locals wouldn’t have it any other way.

They will be out in force for the parade honoring the University of Wisconsin-River Falls women’s hockey team that won the NCAA Division III national championship on St. Patrick’s
Day, just as they were — 1,800 strong — at sold-out Hunt Arena as the Falcons put a cap on a 31-0 season with the first national title in program history.

Led by Fergus Falls native Joe Cranston, the only coach the program has had in its 25-year existence, the Falcons broke through in spectacular fashion after 12 trips to the NCAA Tournament in the past 13 years and four trips to the Frozen Four, including a runner-up finish in 2016.

“It’s one of those things where all the stars aligned,” the 59-year-old Cranston said. “You always think about winning a national championship, but you don’t think about winning it at home, with your family and all your friends. And your entire community.

“Now, it has happened, and it’s really hard to get our head around it.”

Things began to get very real for Cranston last Sunday night when the home crowd began counting down the final seconds of the 4-1 victory over Elmira, a three-time Division III national champion.

After celebrating at a downtown establishment after the game, the team scattered for spring break, leaving Cranston to plow his way through hundreds of emails and texts — and to reflect on a weekend that was a true whirlwind.

“What was really special was that 25 years of alums came back,” UW-River Falls athletics director Crystal Lanning said. “And every generation was represented. Some of them had T-shirts with (Cranston’s) face printed on them. It really shows the culture the program has.”

Cranston, who has a record of 492-157-41, said that he felt he had teams in each of the past five seasons that could win a national championship. He began this season unsure if this team had what it would take to get it done.

“It’s all about chemistry,” he said in retrospect. “It’s the hardest-working team I’ve ever coached.”

And now, the most accomplished.

“It’s nice to get the monkey off my back,” Cranston said. “We’ve been close so many times. I thought about it quite a bit. I don’t have to think about it anymore.”

The Falcons were led by Maddie McCollins, a fifth-year senior from Maple Grove, with 33 goals and 30 assists this season. But what helped make this team special, Cranston said, was that everyone on the roster contributed.

“I had a kid, Kenzie Dunn, who scored the game-winning goal in overtime against (Wisconsin-)Eau Claire (in the WIAC tournament championship game), and then scored the game-winning goal in the national championship. She was our seventh defenseman.

“I moved her up to forward the last (regular-season) game of the year. Here, she’s never played the position, and she had two game-winning goals in the last five games.”

Sophomore Madison Lavergne, a third-line forward, scored a goal in all three NCAA Tournament games.

To explain how such things can happen, Cranston points out that character matters.

“We don’t look for a certain type of hockey player,” he said, “but it’s gotta be a good kid. And they have to be highly competitive. Everything else from there is doable. At that point they come in, and you begin to teach them to respect everything around you and appreciate everything around you.”

Cranston has returned to his roots time and again to find those who fit the mold. There are 22 Minnesotans on the championship roster.

“Traditionally, we get a lot of northern Minnesota kids — the ‘218ers’,” he said. “I like those kind of hockey players, those kind of kids. A lot of blue-collar kids, lunch-bucket kids. We’re from all over — Hutchinson, Avon, Delano, Buffalo — all these little towns around the state.

“You’re not going to see a lot of Edina, Eden Prairie or Minnetonka kids here. It’s kind of a neat niche we have here.”

And, of course, the kids can play.

“Pretty much all of our recruits could play Division I,” Cranston said. “It’s the difference of wanting to go play Division I out east somewhere and not have your family see you play, and maybe win five games. Or, take Maddie McCollins, who has been here five years, and her record is 121-12-2.

“There’s so many places where you can’t do that. We put a lot of emphasis on the things they can accomplish by coming here.”

The chance to play for Cranston also plays a role in the decision-making process.

“What I appreciate about him is the consistency he brings to the program,” Lanning said. “He sets clear expectations; the players know it from Day 1, and he never wavers from that. They know they are going to work hard and he’s going to be firm, but in the end they see results from it.”

Cranston, a 1990 UW-River Falls graduate, played in the United States Hockey League for the North Iowa Huskies, where he was coached by Bob Motzko, the current men’s coach for the Gophers.

A broken leg put an end to Cranston’s playing career, and he immediately turned to coaching.

“I was a head high school coach while I was still student-teaching in college,” Cranston said. “So I’ve been coaching about 41 years. My dad was a 30-year hockey coach, and I was always helping him with teams growing up.”

Cranston coached boys high school hockey in Somerset, Wis., for 10 years before returning to his alma mater to help start the women’s program.

While he said he has received overtures from other schools over the years, Cranston, who spends his summers traveling to state fairs in the Midwest with his concession business (look for Cranston’s Famous Scotch Eggs On A Stick at the Minnesota State Fair), has settled into a life that suits him just fine.

He said he assured inquiring parents of current high school juniors being recruited that he will be around to see them graduate. That would be six more years behind the bench, which would take him to the traditional retirement age of 65.

He’s planning to blow right through that stop sign.

“People ask me all the time, ‘When are you going to be done?’ ” Cranston said. “I always say that as long as we’re winning and we’re still having fun, we’ll keep at ’er.”

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