MN NICE: Edina hockey player's sportsmanship shines in defeat

(KMSP) - Let's face it -- sometimes being a good loser isn't easy.

A kid who showed a little sportsmanship at a recent hockey state championship game didn't think it was a big deal, but the adults watching sure did.

It was Edina vs. Minnetonka.  The Junior Gold A Hockey state title was on the line and the game was down to the wire.

Andy Kromer and his Edina teammates was down a goal when it appeared their luck would change. But that wasn’t the case.

"With a minute left it was 3-2 Minnetonka and [Edina] got a goal waved off and I think a lot of people on our team thought it went in,” said Andy Kroemer, an Edina hockey player.

So close to tying up the game in the final moments, it was a tough defeat for Edina.

After the celebration, the hugs and the trophy pictures -- what happened next was bigger than the game.

"They took their pictures with the trophy and I decided to go over there and start shaking their hands," said Andy.

In Junior Gold A Hockey, teams only line up to shake hands before the game. During a medal ceremony one player from each team will shake a hand, but that's just one player. 

But something didn't feel right. Andy felt like he ought to go over there and say congratulations to everyone.

“It just seemed like the right thing to do,” he said.

So he did. With his team already in the locker room, Andy waited until after the trophy picture to skate over and offer a handshake to each Minnetonka player.

"For Andy what I felt was that he understands he worked hard for something that eluded him and these kids - they got it," said Kate Kromer, Andy’s mom.

As Andy skated across the ice, his gesture caught the attention of Minnetonka parent Rod Wagner, who also happens to be an author who writes for Forbes magazine. Andy’s act of sportsmanship in the face of defeat inspired Wagner to write an article, which soon gathered a lot of attention.

“Andy had every excuse to skate off the ice,” said Wagner. "It's the reason I wrote it for Forbes. It's a metaphor for how a lot of us should act."

As Wagner said in his article, "We could all do a little better doing the Andy Kromer thing."