Recruiting Class
I am very excited to announce the 2017-18 recruiting class. I feel that we had a great year on the recruiting trail and that we have made our team better with this class. This class of freshmen was recently ranked by a national sports writer on Division III Hockey as the 3rd best recruiting class in the country. We understand that this can be debated, but we feel that the character and ability of this class can compete with any other class in DIII Hockey.
When we go out recruiting and ask about players, we ask about three important things. We call them our three C’s: Character, Coachability and Competitiveness. We want players that are good people that want to get better and have that innate sense of competitiveness that you can’t coach.
In this recruiting class, we have nine new players. Of those nine players, six played in the North American Hockey League (NAHL), two played in the North American 3 Hockey League (NA3HL), and one came right in from high school.
With all that said, here are the new players for the 2017-18 season:
Goaltenders:
30 - Mac Berglove
Hometown: Elk River, Minn.
Last Team: Granite City Lumberjacks (NA3HL)
Personal: A 2014 graduate of Elk River High School…spent two seasons with the NA3HL’s Granite City Lumberjacks…appeared in 67 games for the Lumberjacks and posted a 2.30 GAA and .921 save percentage… named the Most Valuable Player of the NA3HL’s Silver Cup…member of the 2017 NA3HL Silver Cup champions…finished the 2015-16 season with the Waterloo Black Hawks of the USHL…glove left…son of Pat McLean of Elk River, Minn. and Ross Berglove of Maple Lake, Minn…born 3/28/96 … Biochemistry major.
1 – Tyler Jensen
Hometown: Hugo, Minn.
Last Team: White Bear Lake (H.S.)
Personal: A 2017 graduate of White Bear Lake High School…glove right...son of Ken and Jaime Jensen of Hugo, Minn…Integrative Health Science major (pre-chiropractic emphasis).
Defensemen:
5 - Travis Brown
Hometown: Otsego, Minn.
Last Team: Minnesota Magicians (NAHL)
Personal: A 2014 graduate of Rogers High School…left high school at the end of his junior and senior years to play in the USHL with the Tri-City Storm and Sioux Falls Stampede, respectively…began his post-high school junior-hockey career in the NAHL with the Austin Bruins, where he registered three points (1g/2a) in 25 games…finished the 2014-15 season with the NAHL’s Minnesota Magicians and registered two assists in 20 games…collected 62 points (22g/40a) in 112 games from the blue line for the Magicians from 2015-17…named to the 2017 NAHL All-Midwest Team…shoots right…son of Tim and Jennifer Brown of Otsego, Minn…born 5/6/96…Communication major.
6 - Christian Canavati
Hometown: Alexandria, Minn.
Last Team: Brookings Blizzard (NAHL)
Personal: A 2015 graduate of Alexandria High School…upon completion of his junior and senior seasons at Alexandria High School, Canavati played 29 games with the NA3HL’s Alexandria Blizzard…totaled seven points (2g/5a) with the Blizzard…moved on to the NAHL’s Brookings Blizzard (2015-17) and recorded 14 points (2g/12a) in 98 games…shoots left...son of Chris and Lori Canavati of Alexandria, Minn...born 8/25/96…Accounting major.
26 - Jake Dittel
Hometown: St. Paul, Minn.
Last Team: Minot Minotauros ( NAHL)
Personal: A 2014 graduate of White Bear Lake High School…recorded 66 points (13g/53a) in 168 games over three seasons (2014-17) with the NAHL’s Minot Minotauros…was the Minotauros’ team captain in 2016-17…shoots right…son of Rob and Dawn Dittel of White Bear Lake, Minn…born 1/12/96…Accounting major.
22 - Troy Dobbs
Hometown: Lancaster, N.Y.
Last Team: Minnesota Wilderness (NAHL)
Personal: A 2014 graduate of the Nichols School in Buffalo, N.Y…spent two seasons (2014-16) with the Alberni Valley Bulldogs of the BCHL, registering 35 points (4g/31a) in his 123-game tenure…posted 10 points (2g/8a) in 63 games for the NAHL’s Minnesota Wilderness in 2016-17…shoots right…son of Stan and Susie Dobbs of Lancaster, N.Y…born 10/21/96…Global Business Leadership and Political Science double-major.
Forwards:
15 - Tanner Dufault
Hometown: Kasson, Minn.
Last Team: Austin Bruins (NAHL)
Personal: A 2015 graduate of Kasson-Mantorville High School…recorded 22 points (7g/15a) in 81 NAHL games over two seasons…played for the Kenai River Brown Bears in 2015-16 and opened the 2016-17 season with the team before moving on to the Austin Bruins…shoots right…son of Ken and Gina Dufault of Kasson, Minn…born 11/28/96…Nursing major.
21 - Ryan Kero
Hometown: Hermantown, Minn.
Last Team: Fairbanks Ice Dogs (NAHL)
Personal: A 2015 graduate of Hermantown High School…member of three Minnesota state tournament runner-up teams…recorded 52 points (16g/36a) in 125 games over two seasons with the NAHL’s Fairbanks Ice Dogs…was the Ice Dogs’ team captain in 2016-17…shoots right…son of Bill and Jennifer Kero of Hermantown, Minn…born 9/13/96…father, Bill, played hockey at St. Scholastica…Accounting major.
16 - Tristyn Sabina
Hometown: Kansas City, Mo.
Last Team: Breezy Point North Stars (NA3HL)
Personal: A 2014 graduate of Staley High School in Kansas City, Mo…competed for three teams at the Tier-III level…started his junior career with the Steele County Blades of the MNJHL (2013-14) and posted 48 points (21g/27a) in 45 games...moved to the SIJHL’s Minnesota Iron Rangers of the SIJHL for two seasons (2014-16) and collected 47 points (16g/31a) in 102 games…finished his junior-hockey career at NA3HL Breezy Point in 2016-17, where he totaled 44 points (22g/22a)…was the team’s captain in 2016-17…shoots right…son of Thomas Sabina of Kansas City, Mo…father, Thomas, was a gymnast at Kansas and Kent State…Physics major.
This rounds out the recruiting class for 2017-18, and once again we can’t say how excited we are to add them to this program. I look forward to watching this team come together as a group. I feel we have the players to have a great year and I feel that we are all up to the challenge.
2017-18 Schedule
I would like to take this chance to take a little closer look into our 2017-18 Johnnie Hockey schedule. I have attached a link below that will bring you to our online schedule. Through this link you can also click on the “details” link at the right of each game to be able to find links to: Listen to (WBHR The Bear), Watch (web cast), Live Stats. We have partnered with Stretch Internet the past couple years to make all home games viewable on the internet. We also have a long-lasting relationship with 660 WBHR “The Bear,” which broadcasts all of our games on the radio. If you haven’t listened before, Jeff Brown is our radio announcer and he does a great job!
The 2017-18 season starts this week with our MIAC Showcase in Blaine. This is a great opportunity to see all of the MIAC teams in action. The MIAC has really become a deep league and all of the games are very entertaining. The past two years, 10 of the 18 games were decided by one goal and six of those games went into overtime. This year, we play Bethel on at 6:30 p.m. Friday and St. Mary’s at 7:30 p.m. Saturday. It will be fun to see all the guys play a game against a MIAC opponent. The guys are getting tired of playing against each other this time of year.
Following the showcase, we hit the road for two games against WIAC opponents in UW-River Falls (Friday, Nov. 3) and UW-Stout (Saturday, Nov. 4). It is nice that we have these two non-conference games early in the season so that we can continue to figure out our team and the nine new players before we get into our MIAC regular-season schedule.
We follow that weekend up with a weekday game against Bethel on Tuesday, November 7, followed by a weekend series against Hamline. It is always important to stress that there are only 16 MIAC regular-season games and we have to treat every on of them as a playoff game.
We do have a couple other interesting games this season that are worth mentioning. Over Thanksgiving, we are headed to play a couple non-conference games against Marian and Concordia-Wisconsin. Both teams are located near the Milwaukee area and this trip is going to be a great team-bonding experience for our guys.
Over our bye week this year we have scheduled an exhibition game against the USA Under-18 Development team. This game will be held on Friday, January 26th at the National Hockey Center. The Development team plays us on Friday and then heads to play Division I MSU-Mankato. The Development team consists of the top players in the country under 18 years old. Every player on that team will be committed to play at a Division I school or for a major junior team in Canada.
We will be playing a game on Hockey Day in Minnesota at 1 p.m. Saturday, Jan. 20, at the National Hockey Center. Fox Sports has committed to getting some footage of our game to show on their television broadcast. This could be a great chance to come up and enjoy Hockey Day and to see a Johnnie Hockey game.
Anoka Youth Hockey will put on another neutral-site game on this year. We will be playing UW-Stevens point at Anoka Ice Arena at 7 p.m. Saturday, January 13. This will be a great chance to have a good crowd and to bring alumni and friends of Johnnie Hockey to Anoka.
Finally, our regular season will end on Saturday, February 17 when we face off against Gustavus at 7 p.m. at the National Hockey Center. This game will be preceded with an alumni game that will start at 2 p.m. This is going to be a great opportunity for the Johnnie Hockey Alumni to come together for a fun, but I am sure competitive, game before coming back to support the team against Gustavus.
We have a great schedule this year and I am really looking forward to the challenge.
