Two years ago Edward "Major" Bowen was an honorable mention as an all-state hockey player, solidly manning the net as a sophomore goalie for the Blake Bears boys' hockey team. A year later, just before a routine team practice, Bowen's father called Coach Jeff Lindquist to tell him that his goalie had been diagnosed with a brain tumor, was in a coma, and would have surgery within the week. As the shock wore off, friends and teammates hoped and prayed that Bowen would survive to have a normal life. "Whether he plays goalie again is insignificant," Lindquist told the Star Tribune, "although I'd absolutely love to coach him again." After the benign tumor was removed, Bowen struggled to regain consciousness, memory, and motor skills; his weight dropped to 90 pounds. At the beginning of the season, he was still being tutored at home. But by February Bowen was skating with the team during pre-game warm-ups, in hopes of participating in senior day. Miraculously, Bowen played the last 50 seconds of that game against Minnehaha Academy. He didn't face a single shot in the contest, or all season, but it didn't matter. Bowen had won the biggest game of his life.