Alexander Ovechkin and Evgeni Malkin played at EGF Civic Center 21 years ago

Dec. 21—EAST GRAND FORKS — Alexander Ovechkin skated onto the ice at the East Grand Forks Civic Center with a tinted visor and golden skate laces.

The NHL's all-time leading goal-scorer had the flashy style to match his game way back in 2004.

Ten months before he scored his first NHL goal, Ovechkin and fellow future Hockey Hall of Famer Evgeni Malkin played a World Junior Championship pre-tournament exhibition in the Civic Center.

The Russians played Sweden on Dec. 23, 2004, two days before the under-20 tournament started.

As the tournament returns to this region for the first time in 21 years — Minneapolis and St. Paul are hosting — pre-tournament exhibitions are, once again, being held in smaller communities in Minnesota.

Duluth, Bemidji, Rochester and Mankato all will host exhibitions this week.

It brings back memories to what local communities experienced in 2004.

East Grand Forks, Grafton, Moorhead, Warroad and Thief River Falls all hosted exhibitions.

The most notable was the Russia-Sweden game in the Civic Center, which came six months after Ovechkin and Malkin went 1-2 in the NHL Draft.

If not for an NHL lockout, it's unlikely either would have been here. They'd have been with their NHL teams.

"That was pretty wild when we heard they were coming and playing a game," said Jim Scanlan, who was the athletic director and boys hockey coach at East Grand Forks Senior High at the time. "The Blue Line Club got really involved. They were really excited to host a game. They did everything they could to make everyone happy."

Ovechkin, Malkin and the Russians used the visitors' dressing room on the south end of the arena's east side.

"It was definitely unique," Scanlan said. "I remember standing down the hallway watching those guys walk onto the ice, thinking this is a pretty unique experience to have players of this caliber playing a game here."

Sweden had Loui Eriksson, who went on to play more than 1,000 NHL games.

The Russians, who won silver at the World Juniors that year, beat Sweden 6-1 in the East Grand Forks exhibition.

"I thought it was a real good crowd," Scanlan said. "It wasn't like a Warroad-East Grand Forks section championship game. But I think a lot of people were excited and curious to see it. There was an excitement about it."

Slovakia and Belarus played a wild exhibition in Grafton on Dec. 22, 2004.

Both teams brought only their white jerseys, so Belarus borrowed jerseys from the Grafton-Park River boys high school team.

"It was quite the color clash; our road jerseys didn't really go with their green and red gear," said Kody Stark, who attended the game with Chad Demers, a future Division-I player and assistant coach. "I remember being excited about the game. We didn't know much about Slovakia or Belarus. But it was a hockey game in Grafton, so we thought it was cool."

Belarus had a couple of future NHL players in brothers Sergei and Andrei Kostitsyn. Sergei played 353 NHL games with Montreal and Nashville. Andrei played 398 for Montreal and Nashville.

Slovakia's goalie was Jaroslav Halák, who played 17 NHL seasons.

"I have a very vivid memory of Halak taking a shot to the groin," Stark said. "I was a goalie and saw that. . . he had to get helped off the ice."

Belarus and Slovakia brawled throughout the game.

"They were vicious," Stark said. "There was blood all over the ice. The refs were scraping off the blood with their skates. There were a bunch of youth hockey players there watching the game and a bunch of pissed off parents."

The Czech Republic, which featured 1,000 NHL gamer David Krejci, played Germany in Warroad.

The Czechs also played Slovakia in the Moorhead Civic Center.