Two Iron Range hockey legends who have died in recent months will be honored before the hockey game Tuesday night between Rock Ridge and Hibbing.

Willard Ikola, who played goalie for the silver-medal U.S. team in the 1956 Winter Olympics and coached Minnesota high school hockey for more than three decades, died this week at 92. As head coach of Edina and Edina East high schools, Ikola won 616 games — third-best in U.S. high school hockey history — and eight state titles. "Ike" graduated from Eveleth High School in 1950.

Mike Sertich, the longtime head coach of the University of Minnesota Duluth hockey team, died in August at 77. He was named Western Collegiate Hockey Association coach of the year four times and national coach of the year once. "Sertie" graduated from Virginia High School in 1965.

The lives of Ikola and Sertich will be honored before the Rock Ridge-Hibbing game at 7 p.m. Tuesday.

Rock Ridge High School opened in fall 2023, marrying two neighboring communities who'd historically been bitter rivals — Eveleth, whose school district had previously consolidated with nearby Gilbert, and Virginia — into one Iron Range school district, Rock Ridge Public Schools. The schools' hockey teams combined a couple of years before the new school opened and helped ease the transition.