Feature Story

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Blaine’s Nixon named Senior Goalie of the Year

By Dave McMahon

Let’s Play Hockey Editor

Anything but hockey.

A new TV? How ’bout a VCR to go with it?

“My parents thought it was too expensive to play hockey and just wanted to buy me stuff so I wouldn’t play, but my brother and sister played and I became interested,” is how Ashley Nixon remembers it.

Then Mary and Scott would drop their jaws when they arrived at practice to see their youngest nestled in the nets.

“They said, ‘You’re not doing that anymore.’ Then they would show up at the next practice and there I was in goal again. I loved it.”

Opposing shooters wish her parents would have won those battles. Instead, Nixon went on to become the top high school goaltender in Minnesota, and capped her final year at Blaine H.S. by being named the Let’s Play Hockey Senior Goalie of the Year.

It’s no surprise that Nixon says math is her favorite subject. All the easier to calculate the miniscule numbers that sit in her statistical log. This season, she posted a 1.74 goals-against average and .935 save percentage to go along with eight shutouts. Next season, she’ll play alongside her sister, Sammy, a sophomore on the St. Cloud State University team.

Nixon first laced up the skates as a 2-year-old (“Thanks Mom and Dad!”), and finally got the elders to sign her off to hockey in third grade. She skated as a forward her first year on the U-12 team.

“But then our goalie moved to Texas, so the next year I said I would try it. I got a shutout in my first game on the U-12 team, and I’ve loved it ever since,” Nixon said.

As a fifth-grader, Nixon moved up to the U-15 team. She was the boys’ Peewee A goalie for two years beginning in sixth grade, then spent her eighth-grade and freshman season tending for the Blaine Bantam A team.

After that, it was three years on the varsity. She split time as a sophomore with then-senior Kim Hanlon, who was a finalist for the Let’s Play Hockey Senior Goalie of the Year Award in 2005. Hanlon now plays for the University of Minnesota.

“We try to make each other better goaltenders,” Nixon said. “We try to one-up each other, and that pushes us even harder and sets the bar higher. There’s a lot of pride that comes with being a goaltender from Blaine. There’s been a legacy that’s been set before you, and you just want to try to keep it going.”

Nixon has had to overcome at least one hurdle to add to that legacy.

“The biggest thing she’s had to overcome is that she is her worst critic,” Blaine coach Steve Guider said. “She would be so hard on herself after giving up goals or not playing well. And it affected her play. She’d make 50 saves and lose 1-0 and thought she had a bad game. So dealing with adversity is what she’s really improved on.”

That approach has helped her rank in the top five nationally in her age group since her first USA Hockey camp as a 14-year-old. Over the summer at the 17-18 National Camp in Lake Placid, N.Y., she emerged as No. 1.

“They would split two 23-minute halves, and she didn’t give up a goal until the last day of the camp. That was after she took a shot high to the collarbone and went to the hospital after the game because of it,” Guider said. “She handles success really well. She’s a lot like (2001 LPH Senior Goalie of the Year) Jody Horak. She’s gotten an incredible amount of accolades, but you wouldn’t have any idea if you just stopped to talk to her. She’s happy, but her head doesn’t get big.”

Her heart, now that’s another story. Nixon also stars with the team’s annual community service event. The teddy bear toss benefits Fairview University Children’s Hospital and the Ronald McDonald House.

“We ask them to fundraise $100 worth of bears, and she goes out and gets about 120 bears donated. They’re anywhere from $5 to $25 each. She takes it to heart,” Guider said.

She gets support everywhere she turns in Blaine. Her brother Cory played throughout high school and now coaches a Junior Gold team in Blaine. Sammy provides her with plenty of opportunities to stop shots.

“Sammy and I push each other a lot. We have that kind of relationship where we can tell the other what they’re doing wrong. But if anyone else says something, I’ve got her back. It’s like, ‘Hey! Only I can say that!’ I did miss her a lot when she went to college. But I picked St. Cloud State for the school first and having her there is just a bonus,” Nixon said.

The two spend plenty of hours in their basement, home to a shooting net for years.

“In our old house, it was OK when the basement was unfinished,” Nixon said. “Then we got the basement finished and you’d hear the puck clank off something, and you could hear the feet coming down the steps with our parents asking what we’re doing.”

Not watching TV.

Or playing the VCR.

Let’s Play Hockey Senior Goalie of the Year Winners

2007

Renee Brasuhn, Irondale

Kristen Elliott, Eden Prairie

Savannah Osborn, Bemidji

Ashley Nixon, Blaine

Paige Thunder, Cloquet/Esko/Carlton

2006

Lauren Bradel, Bemidji

Mickey Jobman, Cretin-Derham Hall

Alannah McCready, Centennial

Breanna Scavo, North St. Paul

Sarah Windhorst, Benilde-St. Margaret’s

2005

Lauren Clement, Chaska

Johanna Ellison, Cloquet/Esko/Carlton

Kim Hanlon, Blaine

Lindsay Savat, Bloomington Jefferson

Beth Spurrier, Wayzata

2004

Jill Arendt, Wayzata

Emily Brookshaw, Hill-Murray

Casey Preston, Farmington

Christine Seiler, Lakeville

Millisa Smith, Elk River

2003

Laura Brennan, White Bear Lake

Robin Doepke, Chaska

Mandy Hanson, Brainerd

Amber Lindner, Moorhead

Kristin Setterstrom, Eden Prairie

2002

Ali Boe, Edina

Amber Hasbargen, Warroad

Becky Kilpatrick, Burnsville

Rachael Young, Wright County

Laura Zuelke, Chaska

2001

Jody Horak, Blaine

Amy Jones, Park Center

Annie Kautzer, Totino-Grace

Natalie Lamme, Hibbing

Kerry Rollwagen, South St. Paul

2000

Erin Bray, Cretin-Derham Hall

Ellen Brinkman, North St. Paul

Dana Hergert, Bloomington Jefferson

Ashley Parker, Bemidji

Shari Vogt, River Lakes

1999

Sarah Ahlquist, South St. Paul

Katie Beauduy, Blaine

Bre Dedrickson, Eagan

Sonya Sandahl, Duluth

Jodi Winters, Roseville

Winner in italics