St Paul Pioneer Press -- When Bryan Opskar married his high school sweetheart last New Year's Eve after a storybook romantic reunion, everybody in the church knew that Leandra Dougherty was marrying a Marine.

"You knew this guy was in some kind of disciplined lifestyle," recalled Bret Triplett, who coaches high school hockey in Princeton, Minn., 50 miles north of the Twin Cities.

Opskar and his younger brother, Chris, had been hockey stars at Princeton High School, and their parents, Earl and Betty Opskar, spent their working lives there as a shop teacher and a school secretary.

"It was his mannerisms and his behavior that impressed you," Triplett said of watching the 32-year-old Marine at his wedding. "He had a lot of respect for himself and for others."

The Opskars took a short honeymoon before Bryan Opskar shipped out for Iraq to continue his second tour. The couple lived in Moorhead, Minn., and Leandra had a teaching job in Fargo, N.D., but was planning to move to North Carolina to be with her husband when he returned home, Triplett said.

Sgt. Bryan James Opskar was killed Saturday when an improvised explosive device struck his vehicle near Ar Rutbah in Iraq, the Defense Department reported. No other official details were provided about the roadside bomb, but Triplett said Earl Opskar told him that his son was hit in the head by a piece of shrapnel and likely died instantly.

Including Opskar, 22 Minnesota members of the military have died in Iraq since 2003.

Opskar, who was born in Princeton and graduated in 1991, ran into Leandra, a former high school girlfriend, when he got a short leave last fall to attend his brother's wedding.

"The story goes that they stayed up all night talking and then Bryan had to report back to duty," said Triplett, who is a close friend of the family. "He got another leave around Christmas, came home and proposed, and they were married within five days."

The two knew each other after working together at a grocery store. "He had me at paper or plastic," Leandra Opskar told the Associated Press.

"We only had seven months together," she said of their marriage. "I wouldn't trade those seven months for anything."

Family members spent Monday going through pictures and reliving memories. They brought out a display of family photos that was put together for the wedding.

On Saturday, the day Opskar was killed, he phoned home to talk to his wife. She missed the call, and he left a message.

"He said he couldn't wait to get home and he would talk to me later," Leandra Opskar said.

Opskar also played on the Princeton varsity football team. One of his football coaches, Doug Patnode, remembered Opskar as an intense competitor who was "a real friendly guy" — but only off the field and the ice.

"Bryan was always motivated, really committed, and focused on whatever he was doing," Patnode said. "I'm sure he brought that to the Marine Corps. I spoke to him last summer after his dad retired and he was helping him move out his things. To me, he just seemed Marine through and through."

After graduating from high school, Opskar played junior league hockey for several years before attending Concordia College in Moorhead, where he played as a defenseman on the Cobber hockey team during the 1993 and 1994 seasons.

"He was a disciplined, hard-working young man who had a great attitude and was well liked by his teammates," said Steve Baumgartner, hockey coach at Concordia.

"We knew that he was going to be a Marine, because he talked about it a lot," Baumgartner said. "He kept saying, 'This is what I want to do.' "

Opskar left Concordia after his sophomore year and enlisted in the Marines in 1998. He eventually re-enlisted and commanded a light armament vehicle with the 2nd Marine Division out of Camp Lejeune, N.C..

"He loved being a Marine," his mother, Betty, told the AP.

Triplett said the family has been told Opskar's body will be returned to the United States this week. A funeral is planned at Trinity Lutheran Church in Moorhead and a memorial service will be in Princeton.

"It's a hard thing," Triplett said. "He was a good guy, always looking to help out. He was just a good one."