Feature Story
Ice Hawks crowned regular season champs
The Minnesota Ice Hawks won the Minnesota
Junior Hockey League’s regular-season championship after their 10-0 shutout of
the St. Louis Lightning on Friday.
The victory, coupled with the Hudson
Crusaders’ 5-4 overtime victory over the second-place Wisconsin Mustangs on
Friday, left the Ice Hawks celebrating their fourth straight title.
“Winning another championship is
certainly a nice thing to be able to smile about, but in the end player
development is always No.1 for us,” said Ice Hawks coach Nick Fatis. “It’s nice to be able to lift trophies, but lifting
kids to the next level is most important.”
With the regular-season crown, the Ice
Hawks have guaranteed themselves one of the league’s two berths to the USA
Hockey Tier
This marks the fifth straight year the
Ice Hawks will head to Nationals.
“This team is just another one in a line
of great teams that a have come out of this program the past 5-6 seasons,” said
Fatis. “They’ve got a lot of heart, a lot of grit.
They’re more than willing to go through a wall for each other and that’s what
it takes to get a championship.
“And that’s great, and hopefully they’ll
be able to translate this onto college programs or other level junior programs
and continue to bring championships wherever they go.”
The MJHL playoff champion will receive
the league’s second bid to Nationals. If the Ice Hawks also win the playoff
championship, the playoff runner-up will earn the league’s second berth to
Nationals.
Fatis credits his players’ character for much of the program’s
recent success.
“These young men are more than just good
hockey players, and sometimes you have to sacrifice talent for character,” said
Fatis. “They’re the kind of young men you want to be
around and you want around the program representing you.
“They work hard enough to get their
talents to where they can succeed at a very high level. These are the type of
young men that all young men should strive to be. These are good kids.”
Even with their tickets to the national
tournament already in hand, don’t expect the driven Ice Hawks to take the
postseason lightly.
“Every goal that we’ve put in front of
these kids to hit, they’ve hit, and getting to compete against themselves in
the playoffs to is another goal,” said Fatis.
“Some people say it’s got to be tough to
keep these kids motivated when they already have their berth to nationals, but
I think this group is in it for more than one thing; they’re here to climb
every mountain they can and slay every dragon they can and win every
championship they can.”
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